Integration of Behind-the-Meter Solar into Distribution Feeders: The Importance of Time Resolution on Model Results

We investigate the impact of time resolution of solar data in modeling distribution grids with significant shares of distributed solar resources. As behind-the-meter solar grows in the United States, power system modelers are charged with understanding power quality implications in distribution systems. While analyses using high temporal resolution data are more realistic, data at this granularity is often not available and this high temporal resolution increases the computational burden significantly. On the other hand, while a low time resolution might be more feasible for these reasons, it might also lead to inaccurate results because of its inability to detect second-to-second dynamics in the solar profile. We model solar growth at different time granularities (from 4 seconds to 10 minutes) in a real-world distribution feeder. Results show that the model's ability to detect voltage flicker is highly affected by the changes in the temporal resolution of data considered. This highlights the importance of low-time resolution solar data in modeling power systems with significant solar penetration.