Photovoltaic penetration issues and impacts in distribution network - A review

The solar energy generation has grown significantly in the past years. The importance of PV penetration in power system as a major element of renewable energy source has seen it being widely used on a global scale. Despite its promising success, PV penetration presents various issues and its impact on the distribution system has to address for seamless integration in the power system. In this paper, a comprehensive overview on important issues affecting the distribution system as a result of PV penetration is presented. Pertinent issues such as voltage fluctuation, voltage rise, voltage balance, and harmonics and their effect on the system are discussed in details. The islanding issues, which are of critical importance to the stability and integrity of the system, are also thoroughly reviewed. Details on different islanding techniques - remote and local techniques and their advantage and disadvantages are shown. Therefore, this paper can provide useful information and serve as a reference for researchers and utility engineers on issues to be considered with regards to PV penetration. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.