Power quality analysis for building integrated PV and micro wind turbine in New Zealand

Abstract

World over, sustainability and carbon emissions are two major growing concerns. Energy efficiency and larger proportion of renewable energy integration are treated as two of the solutions for electricity sector by governments, utilities as well as large end users. Many different small-scale renewable generation technologies are being developed and tested for grid performance motivated by reducing transmission and distribution loss, reducing peak demand, maintaining security of supply, and a possible reduction in electricity charges [1]. It is foreseen that once small scale renewable generation cells become economically competitive, the growth of them in existing electricity networks could be dramatic. Many of the existing small scale renewable generation technologies rely on electronic inverter switching [2–4] at the integration point. Currently, due to the switching characteristics of inverters power quality could become a problem for end users and also impact on regulatory limits for distribution line utilities. The existing inverter technology application of micro wind turbine and solar photovoltaic cells is being currently deployed and assessed several distribution network utilities like Vector in New Zealand. In this paper the outcome of these trials are analysed in addition to proposing the modelling framework to quantify the power quality effect of small scale renewable generation cells. A practical and comprehensive way to assess the power quality impacts due to large scale integration of these new renewable generation devices is also presented. Software such as ATP-EMTP and DIgSILENT PowerFactory is used in this work to provide the platforms for assessment of an individual device and overall network effect, respectively.