PV Hosting Capacity Estimation: Experiences with Scalable Framework

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

6 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Hosting capacity is an indication of the amount of solar photovoltaics (PV) that can be hosted in a distribution system without additional changes to infrastructure or oper-ations. This paper presents a framework for estimating the PV hosting capacity at scale. First, we analyze computational, modeling and other key challenges of performing relevant, large-scale simulations, provided along with the experiences and lessons learned. Then, we develop two open-source Python-based software tools to conduct repeatable distribution analyses: the Distribution Integration Solution Cost Options (DISCO) for configuring and analyzing simulations and the Job Automation and Deployment Engine (JADE) for parallelizing jobs on high-performance computing clusters. A case study of hosting capacity estimation for the SMART-DS San Francisco (SFO) 2000+ synthetic feeders, is used to demonstrate the capability of the developed DISCO+JADE framework and tools. The framework and tools can help utilities assess the overall hosting capacity of their service territory, which can help them better plan for the overall upgrade costs to integrate more PV in the future. The experiences are shared to aid the tool users and researchers to conduct relevant studies and research.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages967-971
Number of pages5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Event49th IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference, PVSC 2022 - Philadelphia, United States
Duration: 5 Jun 202210 Jun 2022

Conference

Conference49th IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference, PVSC 2022
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPhiladelphia
Period5/06/2210/06/22

Bibliographical note

See NREL/CP-6A40-81851 for preprint

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-6A40-85072

Keywords

  • Distributed energy resources
  • Hosting capacity
  • Large-scale simulation

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