Evaluation of Reactive Power Control for High PV Penetration on Low-Voltage Distribution Network

Because of the limitation on the number of photovoltaic (PV) systems hosted by the distribution network, the improvement of hosting capacity needs to be studied. This objective is usually achieved by restricting the PV penetration level. However, as it only limits the number of PV penetration, the solution does not address the problem with excellence. As another option, a reactive power control (RPC) is employed by several studies. By controlling the absorption and injection of reactive power, the hosting capacity is able to be increased. Nevertheless, the simplified models provided previously cause difficulties in interpreting the results. Consequently, it is questioning the practical implementation of the RPC, especially for high PV penetration. Therefore, this article provides an evaluation of customer-scale RPC performance for hosting capacity improvement. A stochastic framework is applied to deal with the uncertainty and variability of the solar irradiance and penetration process. An algorithm for hosting capacity determination with the implementation of RPC on the basis of overvoltage is developed. Moreover, two discussions are provided, the sensitivity analysis of the RPC impact of customer-scale PV inverter on hosting capacity and the impact assessment of the proposed stochastic model on hosting capacity. The results show that the implementation of an appropriate RPC leads the distribution network to host additional PV systems. © 2021 IEEE.