Advanced Grid Integration Test Platform for Increased Distributed Renewable Energy Penetration in Smart Grids

Renewable energy-based generators are constantly being deployed to future grids. It is expected that their share in overall generation will increase in the future. These novel devices have unknown characteristics and cause novel issues in power system operation. Traditional distribution networks have been operated as passive networks. These devices, such as smart inverters, change this paradigm completely. Due to these considerations, grid operators insist on enforcing strict grid-integration requirements. These rules are developed to ensure the impact of the connected devices is minimized and their behavior can be accounted for, at least to some extent. Testing different devices for different grid codes is a daunting task. Since such tests are undertaken in lab environment with manual control and data collection, they are prone to errors, time-consuming and inefficient. A solution is required to standardize and automate such tests. This will provide consistent testing ability and minimize testing times and errors due to human-intervention. This article presents the design and implementation of an integrated testing platform. Steps of lab equipment integration and associated challenges are presented along with their solutions. Several smart inverter behavior tests are executed, and results are presented. The test durations are compared with traditional test durations and the benefits are reported. It is discovered that use of such platform can increase the system testing efficiency by 85 % while minimizing human-errors, inconsistencies and man-hours required to run the tests.