Power Quality Assessment of Karabuk University'S Grid-Connected Microgrid Under High Penetration of PV Generation

As the cost of photovoltaic (PV) systems has sharply fallen over the recent years, they have been enormously installed, whether in open racks, rooftop or even floating on water. Today, the integration of PV systems into the power system is mostly seen on the low voltage distribution network. This adoption is envisaged to bring both technical and environmental benefits to the traditional distribution network such as reliability, minimization of line loss, line capacity improvement, and investment deferement associated with network upgrade. However, extensive integration may also bring some detrimental impacts such as voltage rise, reverse power flow, harmonics, etc. Therefore, the limit of penetration needs to be determined so as all the desired benefits are acquired. Lately, Karabuk University has begun installing PV generators on some of its buildings, aiming ultimately for autonomus supply; yet, the effect of increasing the capacity of such systems is not yet investigated. In this paper, Electrical Transient and Analysis Program (ETAP) software is used to simulate and analyze the low voltage distribution grid of Karabuk University under multiple PV penetration levels. It is concluded that, considering different power quality metrics, the penetration level of PV as distributed generations should not exceed 75% of the maximum demand of Karabuk University.