Grid hosting capacity evaluation for PV

Hosting capacity example with performance, which deteriorates with small PV generation.

Nowadays in Europe, the production from variable renewable energy sources (vRES) has seen a significant growth and the photovoltaic (PV) generation plays a central role. The unplanned proliferation of PV generators in different points of the distribution grid has caused different kind of disturbances that might compromise the correct operation and reliability of the grid. In particular, possible overvoltages caused by PV generation limit the amount of PV that can be installed in a certain node of a distribution system

In this sense, Eurac has developed a tool to evaluate the PV hosting capacity of the local grid. The tool allows private and public electricity grid managers to evaluate the PV potential of a given area taking into account grid constraints and provide solutions to increase the hosting capacity. Therefore, the tool gives an assessment of the current situation of the smart grid in terms of PV hosting capacity and calculates the electrical quantities which allows the definition of limits for PV penetration in the grid.

Results has been generated using an existing open-source software for power flow analysis (i.e. OpenDSS developed by EPRI).