PV Reactive Power Injection Effect on Voltage Profile

With the growing number of Distributed Generators (DGs) in power systems, demand to utilize Photovoltaic (PV) systems has also shown increase. PV systems are equipped with PV inverters in order to convert DC power to AC power. PV inverters are great sources to improve voltage profile in the utility grid using their reactive power injection feature. On the other hand, the current standards do not allow inverters to inject reactive power, which would be the case in the future and it needs to be investigated. This paper analyzes voltage profiles of IEEE 13 nodes distribution network when PV inverters provide reactive power. Power flow analyses are conducted for various combinations of PV grid interconnections; for fixed PV generation and load profiles and fluctuating PV generation and load profiles. PowerWorld simulations reveal the effect of reactive power injections to the grid as a case study for the distribution network. Results show that reactive power injection improves the voltage profile of the IEEE 13 node system but the size of PV systems should be kept within certain limits to prevent overvoltages in the network.