Influence of Bulk PV Penetration on Power System Transient Stability

The rapid growth of PV power penetration into power system grids has raised several technical issues about their influence on the steady-state as well as transient performance of the power systems. The influence of PV generation on power system grid depends on the size of PV penetration, and whether it is centralized or distributed (clusters). Additional technical challenges are due to the weather-dependent nature of the PV generation. Cloud-induced fluctuations of bulk PV generation have considerable impact on power system transient. This research concerns with the impact of large PV penetration on the power system transient stability. The rapidly increasing integration of PV energy sources into the grid can change the way power systems operate and respond to system disturbances. This is because the available inertia from synchronous machines, which helps in damping system oscillations, is reduced as an increase in PV is accompanied by a decrease in conventional generators. This aspect of high penetration of PV has the potential to affect the rotor angle. The system with increased PV generation is mathematically modeled to represent PV generation connected to the power system grid at the transmission voltage levels. Transient stability studies are performed under various operating conditions, for different penetration levels, using MAT-LAB/SIMULINK programs