Mitigation of Fast Voltage Variations During Cloud Transients in Distribution Systems With PV Solar Farms

Abstract

Since photovoltaic (PV) generators have no mechanical inertia, fast solar irradiance changes associated with cloud transients cause instantaneous variations in PV power output, resulting in rapid and possibly significant voltage changes in systems with high penetration of PV generators. In addition to characterizing this emerging power-quality issue, this paper proposes and investigates techniques to mitigate these fast voltage variations caused by cloud transients in distribution system with PV solar farms. The investigated approaches are based on the PV inverter capacity for fast reactive power compensation without the need to oversize the inverter or curtail the active power by using only the available reserve. Real measurement data characterize the issue and time-series power-flow simulations evaluate the mitigation techniques.