E-mobility and PV Solar challenge in Peruvian
radial distribution feeders
Ricardo Arias Velásquez, IEEE Senior Member
Researcher
Universidad Nacional de San Agustı́n de Arequipa
Arequipa, Perú
Abstract—Smart grids have big challenges for incorpo-
ration of new technologies, in the last years, many faults
have been detected in inverters, station chargers, photovoltaic
(PV) generation and distribution transformers; because, the
medium voltage grids have been designed for radial in-
stallation. Nevertheless, for smart grids, it requires connec-
tions between high voltage substations with medium voltage
grids, high penetration of photovoltaic generation and station
chargers, required for new emerging countries. One of the
most important aspects are electrical mobility (E-mobility) in
urban cities, ultra-grid penetration, the medium voltage grids
have to consider new improvements.In this research, a new
methodology is proposed with seven steps. For electrical mo-
bility in Perú, the electrical networks with photovoltaic Solar
panels and fast charging stations for emerging countries have
new effects as overload in transformers, inverter control and
modelling for station chargers and distribution transformers
should be review, due to loads transfer, voltage sag and losses,
the impact is high in a short term. These results provide
challenges for government, industry and prosumers. Results
have demonstrated voltage sag are from 5.68% to 3.81%, losses
from 1,120kW to 860kW, voltage transformer from 1.21% to
1.09% and transformers rotations with a detailed load density
analysis with 20% penetration with fast charging stations and
40% of ultra grid penetration with photovoltaic generators.
Index Terms—Distribution feeders, photovoltaic, charging
stations, power flow.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In the last years, smart grids have increased around the
world, however it has challenges for the optimal operation
with photovoltaic penetration, fast chargers, in the grid,
because the medium voltage grid has failured in power
transformers and some problems with overvoltages, this
phenomenon has been demonstrated specially in Germany,
due to inverter failure or design [1]. Failure in inverter con-
trol has presented in the transition from stand-by operation
into working mode regime, each inverter in the middle of
the city, will affect the transformers and medium voltage
grid [2]. The forthcoming energy transition could generate
complex technological systems, they has been developed
interdependently: Photovoltaic penetration in cities and fast
chargers for electrical mobility.
In 2018, a research demonstrated problems with a general
effect of “EV/PV synergy on both technologies’ lifetime
costs due to the many and diverse influencing parameters”.
The power flows different with ultra grids, transition at
Thanks to Universidad Nacional de San Agustı́n de Arequipa
978-1-7281-8367-1/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE
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Jennifer Mejı́a Lara, IEEE Senior Member
Researcher
Universidad Nacional de San Agustı́n de Arequipa
Arequipa, Perú
5:00pm and the detection of failures in cloudy condition
affect the medium voltage, so, it requires a grid manager
to control and supervise all that is happening along the
electric power grid [3]. In Germany is a good example
for fast-charging facility, it has 210 kWh battery storage
system “to keep it from overtaxing the local grid when
vehicles are plugged into its four DC charging stations”
[7]. In this case, 150kW is required for each station, for
80% state of charge per 10 min.
This research demonstrates local photovoltaic generation
impacts, in a urban city, associated from 10 %, to 100 %
penetration, besides, loads associated to charging stations
from 1 to 15 points. It is validated in a case study, with 2
substations and 8 medium voltage circuits, in a Peruvian
city. Some important contribution are obtained as follows:
Correct inverter design with a control strategy, to avoid
transformers fault and medium voltage grid improvement
for smart grid projects in emerging countries as Peru. This
paper complements the associated research in medium volt-
age grids, with ultra grid, prosumers and station chargers
[6].
This paper is organized as follows, section II has grid
description for smart grid implementation with photovoltaic
penetration and car chargers, with a traffic description in
Peru, a methodology for analysis and validation, besides,
a case study is developed with 130 km of medium volt-
age, 2 substations with 4 power transformers and 450
distribution transformers, furthermore, local photovoltaic
generation from 10% to 100% penetration and 1 to 15 car
chargers. In section III has a discussion about results in
the case study. Finally, IV concludes this papers and future
recommendations.
II. G RIDS AFTER AND BEFORE SMART GRID
IMPLEMENTATION
In urban cities, the traffic is a big problem associated to
pollution in Peru, mainly in Lima. The urban zone in lima
has a population of 8,785 millions, and 1,752 million motor
vehicles, in 2018 (the old units are working across Lima),
where the projection of total vehicle growth is 7 % per
year. The traffic and air quality have negative effects: For
example, between 6:00 to 9:00, nearly 2.7 million trips are
made to work or study centers, and between 9:00 to 11:00
another 2.3 million trips. In the afternoon, vehicles traffic
come back from 15:00 to 21:00 with more than 5 millions
of trips. It has to be noticed that the quantity of vehicles has
incremented from 2,3 millions in 2000 to 5,7 millions in
2018, a 147.8% increase in vehicles through the highways
and main streets of Lima [12], this research has focus in
Tacna with an interesting location of two main substations
and a possibility of ultra grid location, an implementation
of PV solar projects and station chargers. In the Fig. 2,
describes two high voltage substations: Tacna with seven
distribution lines and Parque Industrial with 6 distribution
lines, The implementation of new smarts grid will require
an special analysis,
The methodology implemented in this research is ac-
cording to the Fig. 1, as follows:
• Load flow and short circuit analysis; besides, protec-
tion coordination study for medium voltage grids, and
evaluation of , in all the city, Fig. 2. Low flow should
be used for the modelling grid for high and medium
voltage,with transformers as nodes. It recommended
to used Thevening equivalent for low voltage grid.
• Density load for the city, It allows to detect the
chargers points around the city, and inverters impacts
Fig. 1. Methodology
in the ultra grid for voltage strategy [8] or harmonic
leves [9], Fig. 4. Load density is built with square, as
follow: Low density as: 250 kW/km2 , medium density
as 250 kW/km2 to 1000 kW/km2 , high density 1000
kW/km2̂ and future loads. At the same time, loads
from car chargers and new mobility stations. In the
case study, for example, Tacna substation is located
in square T76 and Parque industrial substation located
on T43 square.
• To identify impacts in load distribution transformers,
with rotation and overloading analysis [10].
• To identify business-as-usual with 20%, 40%, 60%,
80% and 100% photovoltaic penetration; with and Fig. 2. Case study location
without reduction of taps +50% and -50%. To identify
business-as-usual with inverter contribution for Volt-
Watt or Volt-var technique for the voltage control [4].

A. Case study location

It is located in south Peru (Fig. 2), with 2 main substa-
tions, they have 8 radial circuits. Load density is a key for
new assessment, as Fig. 4. For the case study, Tacna has
two power substations, as follows: Tacna substation has 5
medium voltage circuits (from A to E) and Parque Indus-
trial substation has 3 medium voltage circuits. In the down
town, car charger is 1.11M, besides, in all the city charger
are located in 15 points, as Fig. 10. Evaluation of the
centroid associated to loads and distribution transformers Fig. 3. High voltage substations and medium-voltage grid
location. To establish the interconnection points between
substations is required for photovoltaic implementations in
Fig. 3.
About main loads in maximum capacity, they are as
follows: T27 (616kW), T28 (296kW), T85 (594kW), T109
(328kW). Likewise, the main load in average performance
is 26.283MW. Tacna substation has load of 95% and Parque
industrial substation has load of 99%.

B. Inverter influence
Photovoltaic plants have a reagent delivery capacity that
is mainly limited by the limits imposed on the current, it
can circulate through the inverters. The limitation also de-
pends on the availability of the primary resource (depend-
ing on the type of inverter) and the maximum DC voltage at Fig. 4. high voltage substations and medium-voltage grid
the input of the inverter [15]. At the same time, it installed

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capacity and in terms purely based on its capacity curve,
a photovoltaic plant is expected to have equal or greater
flexibility for the delivery of reactive power than a conven-
tional plant, which exhibit different operational limits (for
example, stability or maximum excitation current, among
others). Fig. 5 shows a comparison between the reactive
power delivery capacity curves between a synchronous Fig. 5. Comparison of the capacity curves of a synchronous generator
generator and an inverter-based plant [10]. The voltage and an inverter based plant.
control under test corresponds to the control within the
normal operating band of the inverter, and not to the control
once the LVRT logic has been activated or to the dynamic
voltage support. The behavior of inverter-based systems can
be represented by Active Power-Reactive Power diagrams
(also called PQ diagrams, as Fig. 5.
The diagrams are constructed considering the steady
state limits of the maximum current and the minimum Fig. 6. Volt-VAR and Volt-Watt profile for case study
and maximum voltage. For a synchronous generator, on
the other hand, the curve is limited by factors such as
the excitation system, the stability and the thermal ca-
pacity of the rotor and stator, which are characteristic of
their construction characteristics. In unit terms, the PQ
diagram of an inverter offers greater flexibility than the
PQ diagram of a synchronous generator [8]. The tested
voltage control corresponds to rapid oscillations, within
the + -10% band, but which cannot activate the LVRT
logic of the inverters. The voltage record used as a witness
corresponds to a simulation carried out in DigSILENT.
An important design criterian is the dimension of the
inverter, it considered 110% of generation associated to Fig. 7. Low Voltage model and Thevening equivalent
panels capacity, for an optimal Volt-VAR profile [9], Fig. 6.
The capacitors associated to voltage control has to consider
the industrial facilities, because the transient associated to
overload transformer is important for inverter design [12].

C. Low voltage grid equivalent

About the low voltage grid, it modelled according to
the real condition and considered photovoltaic generation
as prosumer, the penetration is considered for all the 8 Fig. 8. Centroid according to prosumer penetration
medium voltage circuit, with 10% to 100% with 150
models, for each case, from 1 to 15 points of car chargers
from downtown to external location.
According to each stage, the centroid load has changed
according to the Fig. 8.

III. D ISCUSSION
The first step is to connect this two high voltage substa-
tions, with medium voltage grids, besides, the protection Fig. 9. 40% penetration of ultra grid with photovoltaic generators with
control should be change with 67 and 67N protection taps on 0 position
schemes [14], the impact of the electrical chargers have
increased the load in the distribution system [5], especially
with fast charger stations [6], for the load variations.
On the other hand, The problems grew with 40% photo-
voltaic penetration, due to overload in the transformer for
the effect of the voltage and the inverter action [11], as
Fig. 9, in this stage, the system required to change 2 taps
position, besides, the inverters, should adequate an extra
oversized of 10%, with an Volt-var instead of Volt-Watt for
control voltage in the inverter [13], the control and load is
controlled with Volt-var control, as Fig. 10. In Fig. 10, volt- Fig. 10. 40% penetration of ultra grid with photovoltaic generators with
age limits in transformer reduced from 1.21% to 1.09% and off load taps position two and Volt-var control

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transformers rotations with a detailed load density analysis
with 20% penetration with fast charging stations and 40%
of ultra grid penetration. The simulation has considered
15 fast charging stations for a 7,500 vehicles. Associated
to 10% of the vehicle available, The investment required
is USD 0.78 millions. From 150 stages, penetration upper
than 40% is not appropiated for high voltage in the power
transformer. The main stages are 16 from 150, with a
maximum demand of 24,482MW with 40% penetration in
alternative 6 and lower demand of 24,469MW with 40%
penetration in alternative 1.
IV. C ONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a novel methodology for incorporation
technologies to urban cities as: local photovoltaic gener-
ators, fast chargers for cars, in emerging countries. The
methodology composed by 7 steps has been validated with
a real case study in a Peruvian city. It determined an
upgraded of the middle voltage trunk, for capacity, voltage
limits and losses. At the same time, the interconnection
between high voltage substations is an important factor for
this scheme, due to translation load and better performance.
Besides, inverter strategy with better performance is the
Volts-VAR strategy with a design of 110% according its
solar panels capacity; it should be used with a change
of taps in all transformers on position 2. This challanges
demostrated voltage sag arc from 5.68% to 3.81%, and
losses from 1,120kW to 860kW, voltage in transformers
from 1.21% to 1.09% and transformers rotations with a de-
tailed load density analysis with 20% penetration with fast
charging stations and 40% of ultra grid penetration. Finally,
this research helps to establish the necessary procedure to
determine the fast charging infrastructure in urban center
and ultra grid influences with photovoltaic generation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Thanks to Universidad Nacional de San Agustı́n de
Arequipa.
[9] Mahsa Ghapandar Kashani ; Maziar Mobarrez ; Subhashish Bhat-
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R.M.A. Velásquez IEEE Senior member and
IEEE PES Peru Vice chairman; he studied his
PhD in Engineering by PUCP, MSC concen-
tration Project Management, project engineer
degree and electrical engineer degree. Scientific
research certificated by CONCYTEC - Renacyt.
Currently, he works as Operational Efficiency
Specialist in ENEL Latin America. Besides, he
worked in USA, Chile, Colombia, Brazil and
Peru. More than 37 papers in SCOPUS, h index
12.

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