Determination of Maximum Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Penetration Level Based on Unit Commitment Solution

This paper presents a study of the permissible photovoltaic (PV) power penetration related to generation scheduling by considering system and generator units constraints. The unit commitment problem is solved using Mixed Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP). High PV penetration lowered net-load profile during the daytime. More PV penetration on the grid, the smaller the net-load profile occurs. When PV penetration is too large, the algorithm fail to find a unit commitment solution due to the net-load ramping at certain hours is higher than the maximum ramping capability of the generator unit. The infeasible solution of unit commitment problem occurred at PV penetration 69 due to the lack of ramp-up of generators. © 2019 IEEE.