NREL/SCE High-Penetration PV Integration Project: Report on Field Demonstration of Advanced Inverter Functionality in Fontana, CA

Research output: NRELTechnical Report

Abstract

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory/Southern California Edison High-Penetration PV Integration Project is (1) researching the distribution system level impacts of high-penetration photovoltaic (PV) integration, (2) determining mitigation methods to reduce or eliminate those impacts, and (3) seeking to demonstrate these mitigation methods on actual high-penetration PV distribution circuits.This report describes a field demonstration completed during the fall of 2013 on the Fontana, California, study circuit, which includes a total of 4.5 MW of interconnected utility-scale rooftop PV systems. The demonstration included operating a 2-MW PV system at an off-unity power factor that had been determined during previously completed distribution system modeling and PV impact assessmentanalyses. Data on the distribution circuit and PV system operations were collected during the 2-week demonstration period. This demonstration reinforces the findings of previous laboratory testing that showed that utility-scale PV inverters are capable of operating at off-unity power factor to mitigate PV impacts; however, because of difficulties setting and retaining PV inverter power factorset points during the field demonstration, it was not possible to demonstrate the effectiveness of off-unity power factor operation to mitigate the voltage impacts of high-penetration PV integration. Lessons learned from this field demonstration are presented to inform future field demonstration efforts.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages22
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/TP-5D00-62483

Keywords

  • advanced PV inverter functionality
  • high-penetration PV mitigation
  • NREL
  • off-unity power factor operation
  • SCE high-penetration PV integration project

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