Photovoltaic Maximum Penetration Limits on Medium Voltage Overhead and Underground Cable Distribution Feeders: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This paper investigates the maximum photovoltaic (PV) penetration limits on both overhead lines and underground cables medium voltage radial distribution system. The maximum PV penetration limit is estimated considering both bus voltage limit (1.05 p.u.) and feeder current ampacity (1 p.u.). All factors affect the max PV penetration limit are investigated in detail. Substation voltage, load percentage, load power factor, and power system frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz) are analyzed. The maximum PV penetration limit associated with overhead lines is usually higher than the value associated with the underground cables for high substation voltage (substation voltage = 1.05 and 1.04 p.u.). The maximum PV penetration limit decreases dramatically with low load percentage for both feeder types but still the overhead lines accept PV plant higher than the underground cables. Conversely, the maximum PV penetration increases with load power factor decreasing and the overhead lines capability for hosting PV plant remains higher than the capability of the underground cables. This paper proved that the capability of the 60-Hz power system for hosting the PV plant is higher than the capability of 50 Hz power system. MATLAB software has been employed to obtain all results in this paper. The Newton-Raphson iterative method was the used method to solve the power flow of the investigated systems.

Keywords

• PV
• maximum penetration limit
• OHL
• UGC
• feeder current ampacity
• load power factor