A Study on Grid Connected PV system

J Sreedevi Ashwin N M Naini Raju

Joint Director Senior Research Fellow Senior Research Fellow
Power System Division Power Systems Division Power Systems Division
Central Power Research Institute Central Power Research Institute Central Power Research Institute
Bengaluru, India. Bengaluru, India. Bengaluru, India.
sreedevi@cpri.in ashwin-srf@cpri.in naini-srf@cpri.in

Abstract—Photovoltaic (PV) energy has a fast growing
annual rate and is quickly becoming an important part of the
energy balance in most regions and power systems. This
paper aims to study the effects of connecting a PV system to
the grid through simulation of the system in RSCSD software
in real time on the Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS).
Effect of variation of power factor of loads, variation of PV
penetration, introduction of harmonics into the system by the
PV inverter and anti-islanding effect of the PV system are
studied. Finally, the Performance Ratio (PR) of a typical grid
connected PV system is evaluated to determine the reliability
and grid connectivity of the PV system.
Keywords—Grid connected PV, Harmonics, Anti-islanding,
Performance Ratio (PR), RSCAD, RTDS.
I. INTRODUCTION
An important source of renewable energy is solar energy. In
India, the average annual solar energy incident on land area alone,
is about 5000 trillion kilowatt-hours, because India gets about 300
clear sunny days in a year. The solar energy output received in a
year exceeds the possible energy output of all the fossil fuel
reserves in India. From 10 MW of installed capacity in 2010 and
468.3 MW in 2011, the installed grid connected solar power
capacity, as of 31st March 2016 in India is 6762.85MW and an
additional 10,000 MW by 2017 and total of 100,000 MW by
2022, is expected to be installed [1,2]. Some renewable energy
projects are large scale, but renewable technologies are also suited
to rural and remote areas in developing countries, where energy
is crucial to human development
II. IMPACTS OF CONNECTING PV SYSTEM TO THE GRID
If the PV penetration is really high Photovoltaic systems can
subject the grid to several negative impacts. They are i) Reverse
power flow, ii) Overvoltage along Distribution feeders, iii)
Voltage control difficulty, iv) Phase unbalance, v) Power Quality
problems, vi) Increased Reactive power and vii) Islanding
detection difficulty. This paper considers the following three
impacts.
A. Power quality problems/Harmonics
The inverter forms the core of the grid connected PV system
and is responsible for the quality of power injected into the grid.
Inverters also introduce harmonics into the system in the presence
of non-linear loads, during DC to AC conversion. Harmonic
currents introduce voltage drop and result in distortion of supply
voltage. Harmonics can also cause resonance in the supply
system, resulting in malfunction, reduction in lifetime or
permanent damage of electrical equipment [3].
B. Increased Reactive Power
Photovoltaic inverters usually operate at unity power factor.
The owners of small residential PV systems in an incentive based
program are levied based on their kilowatt-hour yield and not on
their kilovolt-ampere hour yield. Hence they prefer to operate PV
inverters at unity power factor, maximizing the active power
generation, and accordingly their returns. As a result the reactive
power demand met by the PV system is minimal. Hence, the grid
is responsible for supplying majority of reactive power, and it
makes the distribution transformer operate at a low power factor
[3].

Grid connected PV systems in the world account for about 99%
of the installed capacity compared to stand alone systems, which
use batteries. Battery-less grid connected PV are cost effective
and require less maintenance. Batteries are not needed for grid
connected PV, as the power generated is uploaded to the grid for
direct transmission, distribution and consumption. This eases the
burden on other sources supplying power to the grid.
In this paper, the impacts of connecting PV system to grid are
studied. Further, the Performance Ratio of a typical grid
connected PV system in India is evaluated.
C. Islanding Detection
The condition when the solar system continues to supply to
the load even though grid power from the utility is not present is
called islanding. Islanding can be dangerous to utility workers,
who may not realize that a circuit is still energized while working
on repairs or maintenance. Hence, the solar inverter must detect
islanding and disconnect the PV system when the grid is down.
This function of the PV system is known as ‘anti-islanding’ [4].
These impacts are dependent on the size and location of the
PV system. According to the Solar America Board for Codes and
Standards (Solar ABCs) PV systems are classified into three
categories, based on the ratings of the system. Small-scale
systems are rated at 10kW or less; Medium-scale systems are

978-1-4799-5141-3/14/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

rated between 10kW and 500kW; and large-scale systems are conditions considered for the simulation is 80% of the transformer
rated above 500 kW. This paper considers large-scale PV system ratings.
of 4MW for simulation

III. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION TABLE I. PV MODULE DETAILS AT STC

A typical grid-connected PV system is considered for Cells per module 72

simulation, to study the impacts of connecting PV to the grid. The Number of modules in series (NS) 1500
single line diagram of the system simulated in RSCAD software Number of modules in parallel (NP) 30
for study purpose is shown in Fig.1.
Open Circuit Voltage (VOC) 35.5 V
The network consists of a PV array, which generates peak of
Short circuit Current (ISC) 8.52 A
4MW in a day. A DC/DC converter, which is also used as a power
optimizer, is equipped with control functions such as Maximum Maximum Power (Pmax) 235 W
Power Point Tracking (MPPT). The PV system is integrated to the Voltage at Pmax 28.63 V
grid by means of a DC/AC inverter, a step up transformer and an Current at Pmax 7.93 A
evacuating line of 33 kV. The point of common coupling is Bus1.
The power is fed from PV system and the utility to the distribution Ideality factor of PV diode 1.5
network consisting of eight transformers. Temperature dependency factor 3

The PV array consists of modules. To arrive at a power output Temperature co-efficient of ISC 0.065% / 0C
of 4 MW, the number of modules considered in series and parallel Reference Temperature (Tref) 250C
are 1500 and 30. The detailed data considered for PV array in Reference solar intensity (Insref) 1000 W/m2
simulation is given in Table I.

TR1 TABLE II. 33KV AND 11kV CABLE DATA

BUSPV Parameters 33kV 11kV

Utility (33 kV) 2
DC/AC Name 3C x 25 mm 3C x 25 mm2
PV DC/DC PI
inverter
array converter Section R1 1.1 Ω/km/ph 0.932 Ω/km/ph

BUS1 X1 0.0974 Ω/km/ph 0.124 Ω/km/ph

B1 4.475e-05 Ʊ/km/ph 3.189e-05 Ʊ/km/ph
TR2 PI Where R1, X1, B1– positive sequence resistance, positive
TR3 Section
sequence reactance and positive sequence susceptance (B/2)
respectively
Load1 Load2 TABLE III. TRANSFORMER DETAILS
TR4 TR5
Transformer name Rating (MVA) Voltage rating (kV)
TR1 3 4/33

PI
TR2 5 33/11
Section TR3, TR4, TR5 12.5 33/11
TR6, TR7, TR8 1.25 11/0.433

TR6 TR7 TR8

IV. SIMULATION
The system described in section III is simulated in RSCAD
Load3
software of RTDS simulator. Steady state simulation of the
Fig 1: SLD of Test System system is checked for bus voltages and power flow convergence.
The two impacts of grid connectivity discussed in section II are
studied.

The data of 33 kV and 11kV cables is given in Table II. The

distribution transformers data is given in Table III. The percentage
impedance considered for all transformers is 7.15%. The loading
A. Harmonics
The amount of harmonics generated by the PV system I1 I
Eg1
R1 R2
depends on the type of solar inverter used.
I2 Eg2
A multi-level inverter is capable of providing desired X1
VT VT
X2
alternating output voltage using multiple lower level DC voltages I1

as input. Increasing the number of levels, increases the voltage I2

steps of the output waveform, making the waveform more Eg1
Eg2 I
sinusoidal. Hence, as the number of levels increases, the harmonic
distortion of the output waveform decreases. There are three types
of multi-level inverters: i) Diode-clamped, ii) Flying Capacitor (a) (b)
and iii) cascaded H-bridge inverter. A cascaded multilevel H-
bridge inverter is the most commonly and practically used
inverter, especially for integration of renewables into the grid.
I Eg
In this paper, a standard 3-phase 2-level DC/AC inverter is IPV
R1
Rcable
used which produces two voltage levels in the output wave form. EPV
I1
This represents a simulation of worst case scenario of the system VT
VT
in terms of harmonics. For the operating condition considered of Xcable X1
I1
IPV

4MW peak output from the PV array and 80% loading of the I
distribution system at 0.8 pf, the harmonic current at the output of EPV
Eg

the inverter is tabulated in Table IV.

TABLE IV. CURRENT HARMONICS AT POINT OF COMMON
COUPLING (c) (d)

Order RMS Value (kA) % of Fundamental

Fig 2: Equivalent circuit and vector diagram, (a) and (b) Two generators
1 0.10750 100 sharing the load; (c) and (d) PV system and utility source sharing the load
2 0.00016 0.152 .
3 0.00014 0.128
4 0.00008 0.077 EPV is the voltage at BUSPV and Eg is the voltage at BUS1.
5 0.00108 1.005
The parallel operation of two conventional synchronous
7 0.00087 0.806
generators supplying a common load is illustrated in Fig. 2a. The
9 0.00043 0.400 corresponding vector diagram is shown in Fig. 2b. The conditions
11 0.00021 0.199 to be met for connecting generators in parallel are: (i) the
15 0.00048 0.449 generated voltage of the incoming generator connected in parallel
THD 2.632 to a bus-bar should be equal to the bus-bar voltage; (ii) phase
sequence of the voltage of the incoming generator must be same
From Table IV, it is seen that the content of 5th order harmonic as that of the bus-bar; (iii) frequency of generated voltage of
is maximum in the output waveform. incoming generator should be same as the bus-bar frequency [6].
The maximum current distortion limits in % of IL and ISc/IL are The system chosen is the parallel operation of one renewable
given in IEEE standard 519 – 1992 [5]. For the system considered energy source & conventional grid represented as constant
the ISc/IL ratio at the point of common coupling is 3.65. For this voltage source behind short circuit impedance. The equivalent
particular ratio, the odd and even harmonic current distortion in circuit of the system is shown in Fig. 2c, with PV generation, grid
the Table IV are within the limits of <4% and <1% respectively. supply and rest of the network as lumped load. The corresponding
The Total Demand Distortion (TDD) obtained is 1.170%, which vector diagram is shown in Fig. 2d. The only difference between
is also within the limits 5%. Voltage distortion at PCC is 2.495%. the two systems is the PV system does not supply the reactive part
of the load, as it generates mostly real power. Hence, EPV is almost
in phase with VT, and most of the reactive power is supplied by
B. Reactive power support the utility. Hence, the utility operating power factor decreases.
The reactive power support required for the electrical system 1) Varying load power factor: Simulations are carried out
when renewable PV system is integrated with the grid is studied by varying the power factor of the load from 0.7 pf to 0.9 pf. The
in this section with variation in load power factor and varying PV power supply from PV system and grid is tabulated in Table V.
penetration levels.
 TABLE V. POWER SUPPLY FROM PV AND GRID WITH VARYING have to be oversized in relation to magnitude of required phase
LOAD POWER FACTOR shift [4].
PF Source (MVA) PV (MVA) Load (MVA) C. Anti-Islanding:
0.7 2.60+j5.74 3.82-j0.05 6.66+j6.80
0.8 3.61+j5.49 3.83-j0.06 8.00+j6.00 Currently, the regulations issued by the Central Electric
0.9 5.33+j4.12 3.91-j0.32 9.75+j4.72 Authority (CEA) for distributed PV systems in India do not allow
it to operate independently of the grid [4]. The CEA mandates
Assuming the nominal power factor of the load to be 0.8 pf, the anti-islanding which means that the solar inverter must
PV system is supplying 3.83 MW and absorbing 0.06 MVAR. automatically switch-off when the grid goes down.
With decrease in load power factor, the reactive power required
from the grid is increasing and there is no contribution from the
PV system. When the power factor of the load is improving, the
PV system starts absorbing more reactive power
The active power injected into the grid is limited by the PV
module parameters and DC/DC converter. The PV inverter
merely injects the active power into the grid. However, reactive
power can be controlled by the PV inverter by controlling q-axis
current. Controlling the reactive power will help in controlling the
voltage at PCC and avoid injecting reactive power into PV system
from the grid[7].
2) Varying PV penetration levels: Simulations are also
carried out by varying PV penetration levels. As the PV
penetration increases, the real power supplied by the grid
decreases, but the reactive power burden still remains wholly with Fig 3: Current fed by the PV for fault in the grid cleared before 125ms
the grid. The power supply from the grid is tabulated in Table VI.
TABLE VI. POWER SUPPLY FROM GRID WITH VARYING LEVEL
OF PV PENETRATION

PV Penetration Grid Supply PV system

(%) (MVA) supply (MVA)
0 7.23+j5.12 0
20 6.45+j5.32 0.79-j0.48
30 6.02+j5.37 1.21-j0.50
40 5.68+j5.39 1.61-j0.49
50 5.31+j5.42 2.00-j0.49
100 3.69+j5.54 3.88-j0.30

At high levels of PV penetration (in order of MW), the voltage

rises at PCC when power is injected into the distribution system.
PV inverters are capable of absorbing reactive power (as shown
in Tables V and VI) to mitigate voltage rise, just as they are
capable of injecting reactive power in case of voltage sags. [8]
India does not have a reactive power support regulation for
distributed generation at present. Hence, most PV inverters
connected at the distribution operate at unity power factor due to
regulatory requirements. But further enhancements in PV systems
will pave the way for increased PV penetration and utility
operators will have to mandate the operating power factor of PV
inverters (between 0.95 lagging and leading).
In principle, all electrical components are usually designed for
apparent power (kVA) requirements. In order to provide reactive
power without reducing active power, the PV inverters would
Fig 4: Current fed by the PV for fault in the grid cleared after 125ms
Simulations are carried out to see when the PV system has to
get disconnected for a grid failure. In this study, a 3-phase-to-
ground fault is simulated on the utility side for a fault duration of
500msec. Stability of the system is observed for varying
instances of Islanding of PV system at BUS1. It is found that the
PV system has to get disconnected form the grid after 126ms of
the grid fault for its safe islanding. Current fed by the PV system
when fault is cleared at 125ms is depicted in Fig. 3 which
represents the stable PV system operation. Similarly the current
fed by the PV system when fault is cleared at 126ms is depicted
in Fig. 4 which represents the unstable PV system operation. So
the critical islanding time of the PV system for the system
considered is 125ms. Monthly PR%
100

Performance Ratio (%)

V. PERFORMANCE RATIO 80
60
Performance ratio (PR) is one of the most important variables
40
for evaluating the efficiency of a PV plant connected to the grid.
The performance ratio is the ratio of the actual and theoretically 20
possible energy outputs. It is largely independent of the 0

July

October
January

May

August

November
June

September

December
February
March
April
orientation of a PV plant and the incident solar irradiation on the
PV plant. Hence, the performance ratio can be used to compare
PV plants at different locations all over the world [9].
The closer the PR value determined for a PV plant approaches
100 %, the more efficiently the respective PV plant is operating. Months
In real life, a value of 100 % cannot be achieved, as unavoidable
Fig. 5 Monthly Performance Ratio (PR)
losses always arise with the operation of the PV plant. High-
performance PV plants can however reach a performance ratio of
up to 80 %. PR is defined for a period of time (usually a month or The annual average PR% from Fig 5 is found to be 71.2%.
a year). Performance Ratio is also affected by ambient temperature.
Higher the temperature, lower is the PV output, and hence lowers
kWh
PR. As seen from Table VII and Fig.5, the month of December
Measured enrgy at PCC (
month
) has the highest PR%. This result tallies with the PR% of most PV
Monthly PR% =
kWh
Insolation ( 2 ) × Array area(m2 ) × 30 × ηmodule
systems across the world. The month of December receives a
m . day large number of sunshine hours and has relatively low ambient
(1) temperature.
Where PCC is Point of common coupling. To calculate the annual
PR%, replace month by year and 30 by 365 in (1). VI. CONCLUSION
Photovoltaic Systems have developed into a mature technology
TABLE VII. MONTHLY PR% AT STC used for mainstream electricity generation. However, they
introduce numerous negative impacts into the electrical networks.
Month Performance Ratio at STC (%)
Studies on three such impacts has been provided. A grid-
January 80.687
connected PV test system was considered and simulated in
February 73.669
RSCAD software. Harmonic content introduced by 4MW PV
March 66.789
system with a 3-phase, 2-level DC/AC inverter, at PCC was found
April 63.980
May 65.019
to be within the limits. Reactive power support with regards to
June 65.611 varying load power factor and varying PV penetration levels was
July 68.043 studied. Anti-islanding function of the PV system was studied and
August 69.560 found that the critical islanding time of the PV system for the
September 70.539 system considered is 125ms. Further, the Performance Ratio of a
October 74.381 typical grid connected system in India was calculated in order to
November 82.052 compare the performance of the PV system with other systems
December 83.628 throughout the world. The studies carried out will help PV power
generators and utilities the issues to be studied for a grid
The Monthly Performance Ratio was evaluated for a PV system connected PV system.
connected to grid at a typical location in India. The values are
tabulated in Table VII.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Additional data of PV array considered for calculating the PR%
is: Module efficiency (ηmodule) = 14.44%; Array area = 0.156 m x The authors would like to acknowledge the support of K.S.Meera
0.156m; Insolation data [10]; Number of sunshine hours per day and R.A Deshpande and wish to thank the authorities of CPRI for
data [10]. permitting to publish this paper.
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