Smart allocation of photovoltaic in a distribution network for load balance

The energy consumption profile continues to grow in the world. On the other hand, concern about greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental factors has made renewable energy sources more attractive to meet this new power demand. Another aggravating factor generated by the demand increase is the distribution transformer load unbalance, causing high neutral current and efficiency loss in the system. The authors propose a simple method when compared to other methods such as automatic balancing transformers and passive filters to increase system's power quality. The proposed method takes advantage of the growing insertion of solar panels in the system and consists of a smart allocation of single-phase photovoltaic panels to reduce unbalance between phases. The method is tested in a real case system within 24 h on a typical summer day and the results show that the proposed method can bring a qualitative reduction in comparison to the conventional solar panel random allocation.