A PV Hosting Capacity Assessment Method with Spatial Correlation

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel photovoltaic (PV) hosting capacity assessment method considering the spatial correlation of PV outputs. Based on the empirical PV output distribution for one location and the cross-correlation between PV output data at all location pairs, a copula is used to represent the dependence between locations. We show that the model realistically reproduces the spatially distributed PV output over a set of sites, based on comparisons with measured data. Combining the sampling data with a linear hosting capacity assessment model, we also demonstrate that the hosting capacity with the spatial correlation, differ substantially from those of a nonspatial approach. The results show that spatial correlation needs to be incorporated in the hosting capacity assessment scheme in order not to overestimate the grid impacts of PV systems.