Impact of Long Distribution Cable to the Harmonic Distortion in Indonesia Remote Microgrids

Providing electricity access to the farthest consumer in remote areas with limited infrastructure may require long low voltage cables. This could result in a high network impedance, hence high losses and high voltage drop. Moreover, the increasing adoption of power electronics in household appliances introduces nonlinear currents, which could also increase the losses. In terms of power quality, both high network impedance and nonlinear current will result in voltage distortion that could undermine the system's efficiency and reliability. Focusing on the effect of the network impedance at the frequency range of 1–150 kHz, this paper aims to investigate the electromagnetic compatibility issues that might be imposed by a long-span low voltage cable up to 2 km. The results show a nonlinear correlation between the voltage distortion, cable length and current amplitude. Furthermore, a noticeable increase in voltage distortion at the load side should be expected in a system with a higher source impedance as in remote microgrids. It can be reduced by implementing a capacitor bank at the source or a passive filter at the load side.