Impacts of residential solar photovoltaic systems on voltage unbalance and network losses

The installation of residential grid-connected PV systems has been increasing considerably over the past few years. However, these PV installations at the low voltage (LV) distribution networks might have negative impacts on the networks operation. In light of this, the main purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of residential grid-connected PV systems on the typical LV network at Malaysia. Three different PV system installations scenarios have been considered, namely, randomly allocated PV system, concentrated PV system installation and unbalanced allocation of PV system. The scenarios are tested with different level of PV penetrations. The impacts of different PV system installation scenarios are evaluated in terms of voltage unbalance and network losses. Results from these studies suggest that randomly allocation of PV systems at the LV feeder has lower network losses and voltage unbalance.