Photovoltaic Hosting Capacity of Distribution Networks
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School of Electrical Engineering |
Doctoral thesis (article-based)
| Defence date: 2024-07-01
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Authors
Date
2024
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
103 + app. 145
Series
Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL THESES, 129/2024
Abstract
Due to an increasing share of renewable energy sources and widespread adoption of distributed photovoltaics (PV), the ability of the distribution networks to reliably interconnect new PV installations without hindering the power system's operation gained a lot of interest in the recent decade. Political support and falling prices of the photovoltaics make the panels available for as small as single household installations and some of the network operators have already reported the power quality issues caused by the PVs. To address this issue, this thesis investigates the PV hosting capacity (HC) of low-voltage distribution networks. The thesis is split into two main contributions centered around the power quality limitations of the HC and network structure influence on the HC. The thesis starts with a review of the HC definitions, its most common limiting factors, and reports on the results of a measurement campaign of low-voltage substations. In the first part, a Monte Carlo-based HC evaluation methodology is presented, which is used for the PV-only and energy storage-augmented scenarios. Alongside the single-phase PV installations, a voltage unbalance (VU) mitigation methodology is presented. Despite the VU being a very strict limit, it can be mitigated by relatively low power injections. Moreover, a comparison of PV curtailment and network reinforcement is presented to find the break-even points of the costs of the two. The second part of the thesis presents the distribution network's structure impact on the hosting capacity. A fixed set of customers is simulated with multiple feeding substations and a varying number of PV plants. The slime mold algorithm was proposed to be employed for generating numerous network topologies and its advantages over other algorithms were shown. The results revealed that around one-third of the customers can have PV installations until the HC is depleted. Voltage control can increase the HC, however remains the risk of possible need to change residential PV policies to sustain the current pace of PV installations. Finally, the thesis explores the practical side of the HC and analyzes the accuracy of distribution network state estimation. A PV safety margin is proposed, that represents an equivalent PV power that has to be curtailed in order to keep the estimated values below the actual values of the states.Description
Supervising professor
Lehtonen, Matti, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, FinlandThesis advisor
Lehtonen, Matti, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, FinlandKeywords
distribution networks, hosting capacity, network structure, optimization, photovoltaics, power quality, state estimation
Other note
Parts
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[Publication 1]: Fatima, S., Püvi, V., & Lehtonen, M. Review on the PV Hosting Capacity in Distribution Networks. Energies, Volume 13, issue 18, article number 19, September 2020.
Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202010306204DOI: 10.3390/en13184756 View at publisher
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[Publication 2]: Püvi, V., Tukia, T., Lehtonen, M., & Kutt, L. Survey of a Power Quality Measurement Campaign in Low-Voltage Grids. In 2019 Electric Power Quality and Supply Reliability Conference (PQ) & 2019 Symposium on Electrical Engineering and Mechatronics (SEEM), Kardla, Estonia, 1-7, August 2019.
Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201911076113DOI: 10.1109/PQ.2019.8818232 View at publisher
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[Publication 3]: Arshad, A., Püvi, V., & Lehtonen, M. Monte Carlo-Based Comprehensive Assessment of PV Hosting Capacity and Energy Storage Impact in Realistic Finnish Low-Voltage Networks. Energies, Volume 11, issue 6, article number 1467, June 2018.
Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201809044947DOI: 10.3390/en11061467 View at publisher
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[Publication 4]: Fatima, S., Püvi, V., Pourakbari-Kasmaei, M., & Lehtonen, M. Photovoltaic Hosting Capacity Improvement Based on the Economic Comparison Between Curtailment and Network Upgrade. IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution, Volume 17, issue 17, pages 3848–3860, July 2023.
Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202308114741DOI: 10.1049/gtd2.12936 View at publisher
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[Publication 5]: Püvi, V., & Lehtonen, M. Convex Model for Estimation of Single- Phase Photovoltaic Impact on Existing Voltage Unbalance in Distribution Networks. Applied Sciences, Volume 10, issue 24, article number 8884, December 2020.
Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-2020123160268DOI: 10.3390/app10248884 View at publisher
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[Publication 6]: Püvi, V., Millar, R. J., Saarijarvi, E., Hayami, K., Arbelot, T., & Lehtonen, M. Slime Mold Inspired Distribution Network Initial Solution. Energies, Volume 13, issue 23, article number 6278, November 2020.
Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-2020123160308DOI: 10.3390/en13236278 View at publisher
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[Publication 7]: Püvi, V., & Lehtonen, M. Evaluating Distribution Network Optimal Structure with respect to Solar Hosting Capacity. Electric Power Systems Research, Volume 216, article number 109019, March 2022.
Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202212227240DOI: 10.1016/j.epsr.2022.109019 View at publisher
- [Publication 8]: Püvi, V., & Lehtonen, M. Photovoltaic Hosting Capacity Margin due to State Estimation Error. Submitted to International Review of Electrical Engineering, January 2024.