Photovoltaic distributed generation, distribution systems, operation under cloud conditions, voltage regulation
Abstract
The integration of photovoltaic generation into electric distribution systems can deteriorate the dynamic behavior of the system voltage and the conventional voltage regulation process based on series voltage regulators. In the context of ancillary services for photovoltaic generation, this work proposes a voltage control approach for photovoltaic distributed generation units operating under shading conditions caused by clouds, which is a typical operating condition. The variable reactive power margin of the photovoltaic unit is used to determine an adaptive voltage reference for the voltage regulator. The proposed control performed better than a conventional control with a fixed voltage reference, mitigating voltage fluctuations caused by stochastic variations in load and photovoltaic generation. In addition to the superior performance, the proposed control reduced the number of tap changes by 90% compared to the base case.
