Standardized Procedure to Assess Actual Harmonic Emissions of Distributed Photovoltaic Plants

Integration of Distributed Photovoltaic (DPV) plants with the Distribution Network of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has been adding non-linear installations to the grid in addition to the existing conventional ones. As such, it adds new power quality challenges to planners and operators. This work tackles the assessment of harmonic emissions from the inverters of DPV plants into DEWA network. It presents a standardized method to measure the harmonic emissions of DPV plants at the commissioning stage, and then to assess their compliance with permissible levels. The procedure has been applied successfully on hundreds of DPV projects so far in Dubai. Hence, it has been resulting in several findings on how to assess the level of harmonic emissions at the points of DPV connection, and how that is affected by the impact of existing non-linear loads.