Evaluate the hosting capacity of PV in distribution network: considering PV curtailment constraints

Abstract

In view of the inconsistency between the maximization of revenue pursued by photovoltaic (PV) investors and the minimization of network losses pursued by distribution network operators, a PV hosting capacity (HC) evaluation method with PV curtailment constraints is proposed to determine the PV access capacity. Firstly, PV curtailment constraints are integrated into the HC evaluating model based on DistFlow to minimize the network losses. The hosting problem is transformed to a second-order cone programming (SOCP) problem under different PV curtailment rate limits. Then, under the framework of this model, the total access capacity and PV curtailment rate at the time of maximum revenue are estimated by interpolation of the difference relationship between revenue and total access capacity. Finally, the estimated total access capacity and PV curtailment rate are brought into the model as new constraints by the back substitution strategy, and the access capacity of each candidate node can be calculated. The verification results of the improved IEEE 33-bus system show that the access capacity determined by the proposed method balances the revenue and the network losses.

Keywords

• hosting capacity
• photovoltaic
• distribution network
• network losses
• pv curtailment rate
• pv curtailment constraints