Integration of Photovoltaic

Solar Power – The Quest

towards Dispatchability
Johan H. R. Enslin

E
xisting photovoltaic (PV) power plants impact the Mitigation solutions to some of the expected problems in-
power grid in a negative way due to a lack of voltage clude distributed energy storage, intelligent inverter control,
regulation, energy storage, forecasting and wide-area dynamic reactive power support, and coordinated control of
communications, measurement, and control. Currently util- fast acting natural gas peaker generating plants. A well-engi-
ity-scale distributed solar PV plants on distribution networks neered energy storage plant can help alleviate the problems
have nominal capacities that are compatible with distribution encountered with the integration of intermittent PV power
substation MVA ratings e.g., between 5 and 30 MW. Further- plants. At the same time, it can make PV power plants more
more, PV plants in the 30 to 100 MW power range are currently cost effective and dispatchable so that they can participate in
integrated in transmission networks. The system impacts are the energy markets as regular dispatched power plants, in-
discussed, and mitigation solutions are proposed using ad- cluding providing ancillary services like frequency regulation
vanced power converters, energy storage systems, as well as and spinning reserves.
local and remote measurements and forecasting options. Case Large penetration levels of distributed solar PV genera-
studies are provided. tion can be used to alleviate overloads and release capacity of
feeders and substation transformers. In a well-designed and
Introduction operated microgrid that includes distributed PV, system reli-
USA electric utilities embraced the Renewable Portfolio Stan- ability, power quality and grid resiliency can be improved [2].
dards (RPS) proposed by different states a few years ago. RPS
penetration levels of 10 to 33% are required in most US states Characteristics of PV Solar Farm
by 2020. Due to the fast developing penetration expansions Production
and associated time lags to build new transmission, most of Taking the low capacity factors of solar generation in the ex-
the existing projects are connected as distributed renewable isting generation pools into account, the installed capacity of
energy resources (DRER). Large penetration levels of solar these renewable resources and transmission and distribution
photovoltaic (PV) systems will be located on customers’ prem- (T&D) infrastructure need to increase by 50-100% for the same
ises across the United States within the next two to three years energy delivery, if no mitigation is included. Furthermore, ex-
in the race for receiving federal and state tax incentives before isting transmission capacity has to be increased by 100% to
they expire. In the coming years, we could see major changes to transport the renewable generation to the load centers without
the current energy business model due to the rise of large-scale mitigation measures.
DRER. Electric utilities need to evaluate both the technical and Southern California Edison (SCE) and other U.S. west-coast
business models to mitigate these impacts. electric utilities now have several years of operational data on
Potential PV power generation stress to the grid coincides large distributed PV generating arrays. For example, SCE in-
with pressures from other rapidly developing technologies stalled large 2 MW electric utility scale rooftop PV plants on
such as electric vehicles, which may call for grid upgrades. distribution feeders [4]. The power output from a 2 MW roof-
At high penetration levels of PV power production, feeders top PV power plant is presented in Fig. 1. The solar power
are becoming active circuits and can inject power back to the generation profiles are based on actual measurements, one
transmission system. Under this condition, voltage profiles, sample per five minutes.
overcurrent protection, frequency variations, and capaci- The measurements are performed using local high band-
tor bank and voltage regulator operation may evidently be width voltage and current transformers, triggered and collected
affected. These problems have been reported over the last through the Digital Fault Recorder (DFR) and integrated into the
decade or more in [1], [4], [7], [9], [10], and [12]. electric utility’s SCADA network and fed into the PI historian

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 ◗◗ Power Quality, especially voltage fluctuations, flicker and
harmonics may be outside of the requirements of IEEE
Std 519 – 1992 and other standards;
◗◗ Increased frequency variations due to the intermittency
in weak systems and microgrids;
◗◗ Islanding and protection coordination. In feeders where
load power consumption is closely matched with PV
solar production, islanding is difficult to detect and
protection devices do not operate correctly;
◗◗ Lack of coordination control of existing reactive power
and voltage regulating devices on feeders. Especially
capacitor bank controllers and voltage regulator opera-
tions are affected; and
◗◗ Loss of spinning reserves and system inertia. With
increased levels of PV power penetration and retirement
Fig. 1. Two MW PV Solar generation profiles during 3 days in Southern of traditional generation, electric utilities are losing spin-
California. ning reserves and system inertia.

for remote retrieval. Voltage, active and reactive power profiles Characterization of Expected Benefits
are collected. Current technologies are able to provide five- from PV Solar Energy Production
second historical data on these PV power plant output profiles. There are also several technical benefits in having PV gen-
As Fig. 1 shows, cloud cover and morning fog require fast eration, especially on the distribution feeders as distributed
ramping and fast power balancing. Furthermore, several other generation resources. When designed correctly, large penetra-
solar production facilities are normally planned in close prox- tion of distributed PV solar generation can be used to alleviate
imity on the same electrical distribution feeder that can result overloads on highly loaded distribution feeders and release
in high levels of voltage fluctuations and even flicker on the capacity on these feeders and substation transformers. This
feeder. Reactive power and voltage profile management on allows distribution planners to defer capital investments to
these feeders are common problems in areas where high pene- other areas.
tration levels are experienced. Total distribution losses and reactive power requirements
can also be optimized through the feeder. An example of such a
Characterization of PV Solar Energy case is shown in [7], where a total of eight distributed PV plants
Integration Issues are installed on a feeder with a combined load of 10 MW dis-
A general description of the integration issues that need to be tributed throughout the feeder. From the results, at levels of 2
addressed in regions with high levels of PV solar production to 3 MW of PV generators, the plants will provide optimized
is provided in references [1], [7], [9], and [10] and are summa- losses and minimize reactive power requirements. Losses are
rized. Typical transmission and distribution system related measured across the complete feeder.
problems include: The real limit in this case is actually during low loading
◗◗ Capacity factors in the range of 10 to 20 %; and high PV production conditions. The PV plants do pro-
◗◗ Limited firm dispatch capacity of PV solar farms with- vide voltage support for the feeder and less capacitor banks
out storage; are required. In summary, the PV power plants release feeder
◗◗ Ultra-fast ramping requirements (400 to 1000 MW/min); capacity.
◗◗ Most existing PV inverters are not allowed to provide
reactive power and voltage support capability; Advanced PV Inverter Controls
◗◗ Limited PV inverters provide Voltage-Ride-Through To facilitate large-scale integration of distributed renewable
(VRT) capability; energy sources into the grid, it is critical for such generation to
◗◗ Most PV plants are non-compliant with US Federal perform load-following functions and be more dispatchable.
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Large Genera- Some load-following functions such as voltage support and
tor Interconnection Procedure (LGIP) and do not provide reactive power supply can be achieved by appropriate control
any ancillary services; of PV inverters. Other functions, such as frequency regulation
◗◗ IEEE-1547 provides incomplete or contradicting guid- support and spinning reserve can be addressed by coupling
ance in terms of voltage regulation and reactive power PV with other distributed resources like energy storage.
support. No VRT and islanding requirements are Generator Emulation Controls (GEC) [2], [8], is a control
provided [3]; scheme under which the grid-tied PV inverter is controlled to
◗◗ Reactive power management and coordination along mimic the behavior and dynamics of synchronous machine-
feeders are not taking high PV production into account/ based generation. The objective of GEC is to allow the PV
consideration [9], inverters to: supply reactive power and harmonic currents to

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 Fig. 2. Emulated characteristics of a GEC PV inverter.

local loads, support local voltage stability through Volt/VAr

control, and perform frequency regulation with Hertz/Watt
control.
The GEC concept presents a paradigm shift for PV invert-
ers as it allows:
◗◗ Capacity firming: The coordination of renewable energy
resources, energy storage, and demand response to create
truly dispatchable generation.
◗◗ Distributed intelligence: Decision-making, V-VAR, and
frequency regulation are done at the interconnection
point. This approach minimizes the need for fast and
wide-area communication networks and control centers.
It also promotes reconfiguration and self-healing func-
tions with localized measurements.
GEC features support and improve voltage stability
within systems of different sizes, both in microgrid and inte-
grated distributed generation. The per-phase characteristics
of GEC are shown in Fig. 2. The voltage source Vs and syn-
chronous inductor Ls are the fundamental components of
the model, and govern the basic power relationships of the
model. The series resistance R s is used to limit dc-current
buildup, while the capacitor Cs helps absorb load current har-
Fig. 3. Impact of using Smart Inverters.
monics [8].
In both steady-state and dynamic conditions, a GEC-con-
trolled PV inverter exhibits Volt-VAr, Volt-Watt or Hz-Watt Application of D-STATCOM with
droop characteristics outlined for example in references Energy Storage
[8], [12]. GEC controls directly the inverter to source an in- Recently, California passed the United States’ first energy stor-
creasing amount of reactive power as the line voltage drops. age mandate [5]. This mandate commits all investor-owned
Similarly, GEC directs the inverter to reduce real power out- electric utilities in the state to collectively buy what the man-
put as the line frequency increases due to over-generation or date refers to as “1325 megawatts of energy storage” by 2020.
loss of load. Similarly, the real power can be increased with This is surprisingly only a power mandate and not an en-
the drop of frequency due to loss of generation and increased ergy mandate. The required power rating provides short-term
load [8]. power balance and grid support, but energy is required to do
Dynamic reactive power can also be provided outside the peak shaving and energy related ancillary services. Owner-
PV inverter in a dedicated distributed, dynamic VAR con- ship, operation, and cost allocation of these energy storage
trolled device on the low-voltage distribution networks. devices are still unclear and should be addressed and supports
This approach provides increased performance with GEC- the need for accurate measurements.
like control modes, as described in the referenced solution One of the most promising solutions to mitigate these inte-
[17]. gration issues is by implementing a hybrid fast-acting energy
The analysis results to show the impacts of using a Smart storage and dynamic reactive power device (i.e., Distribution-
GEC type Inverter is illustrated below in Fig. 3 [12]. It is clear level Static COMpensator (STATCOM) solution [6]). Several
that much higher penetration levels are possible on feeders fast energy storage solutions are currently available and the
with Volt-VAr regulation before voltage violations become un- price-points are continuously falling. These include NaS, Li-
acceptable as depicted in Fig. 3 (b) compared to (a). Ion, Sodium-Ni, VRB, and other battery technologies as well

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 Fig. 5. Integrated BESS and PV Array on Rural Distribution.

It is important to use the BESS system to provide several

value streams, like frequency regulation, delayed capital in-
vestments, minimizing resource curtailment and reactive
power support, to make the PV power plant more cost effec-
tive. This includes the net present value (NPV) of the avoided
cost in the delay of upgrading the transmission line. Having
totaled the yearly-avoided cost for the investment of the differ-
ent value streams with respect to a possible $25 M investment
in a hybrid BESS / STATCOM application can provide a return
on investment (ROI) of about 13%. Other additional valuable
features not included in the ROI, include voltage support, im-
proved voltage ride through (VRT) and reduction of peaker
generator plant maintenance costs. The BESS helps to mini-
mize start-and-stop operations of these peaker plants during
Fig. 4. Basic Schematic of the STATCOM – BESS. regulation services.

as compressed air (CAES) energy storage solutions [13]. For PV with BESS Integration Case Study
mitigating the mentioned PV solar integration problems, the In an electric utility demonstration installation, on a rural
energy storage device needs to be fast acting (<1 sec power re- feeder the total connected feeder capacity is 30.5 MVA at 12.47
sponse time). Furthermore the storage solution needs a storage kV [9]. The system level impacts at different PV penetration
capability of typically 15 min to one hour. For dynamic reactive levels are investigated with some recommended mitigation
power and voltage support, the STATCOM capacity needs to measures in the referenced paper. On this feeder, there is also
be 20 to 50 % larger than the battery power rating. a 1 MW PV array installed, a 1 MWh / 250 kW Energy Storage
Fig. 4 shows an implementation of a STATCOM with bat- System (ESS) with a 1.2 MVA Power Converter System (PCS)
tery energy storage system (BESS) application for mitigating that form the complete Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
the PV integration issues [6]. The BESS consists of a Power (Fig. 5). The BESS system is installed at the same location as the
Converter System (PCS) and an Energy Storage System (ESS). 1 MW PV array.
The technical characteristics of the main components are The practical Point of Common Coupling (PCC) and sub-
described in Fig. 4. This design will be adequate for provid- station measurements include voltage, power and recently
ing dispatch and PV smoothing support for a 50 to 100 MW PV time-synchronized phasors or Synchro-Phasors, where added
power plant [6]. The key functionality and possible revenue to provide real-time phasor information to mitigate, among
streams are calculated for the following mitigation solutions: others unintended islanding of the distributed PV genera-
◗◗ Contingency support in terms of MW and MVAr. The tion. The goal for the BESS is to mitigate any voltage profile
STATCOM-BESS system prevents the system from and intermittency issues back to the substation, but also help
collapsing for the critical contingencies. to mitigate unnecessary voltage regulator operations along
◗◗ Voltage regulation support. With the STATCOM-BESS the feeder. Different ancillary services are investigated for the
system the voltage recovery after a contingency is BESS, including energy arbitrage (to buy and store energy at
improved by 10 to 15 %. low prices and discharge and sell back at higher prices), PV
◗◗ Improved fault voltage ride-through (VRT) support on smoothing, voltage regulation and frequency regulation.
PV inverters. The PCS is oversized to perform the charging-discharging
◗◗ A 75 MW PV Power plant can be dispatched an hour ahead. as well as reactive power support at the PCC. Local and remote
◗◗ Regulation ancillary services, like spinning reserves can measurement signals, at the PV source, substation and along
be provided. the feeder is used to minimize system impacts and coordinate
◗◗ Large T&D upgrades to the PV facility can be postponed reactive power resources. Results for the active and reactive
for several years. power control options are shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 to mitigate
◗◗ Curtailments of a remote PV solar farm are minimized up the fast PV power ramp rates and provide voltage regulation
to four hours. at the same time.

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 Fig. 6. Mitigating PV intermittence and limit fast ramp rates.

Fig. 7. Reactive power injection to mitigate voltage profiles. (Light blue line is
It is clear that the BESS system provides PV smoothing and the injected reactive power.)
limits the fast acting ramps from the PV power plant, as shown
in Fig. 6. The BESS uses the reactive power generated, shown an innovative energy-management and trading solution need
in Fig. 7, to mitigate voltage profiles. fast PV resource forecasting (15 to 30 min) to participate in
transactional energy markets and operate in a microgrid. Such
PV Inverter Smart-Islanding a system will combine these resources with an advanced dis-
Distributed Generation islanding detection and control are tributed control framework as well as energy-storage and
particularly important in the measurement and control of PV volt-VAr optimization technologies that will jointly allow dis-
inverters. For most of the existing approaches, PV inverters tributed photovoltaic (PV) assets to intermittently and locally
make islanding decisions using local data, such as frequency communicate with each other and their distribution and trans-
and voltage, without using wide-area information. Wide-area mission networks.
information is however available from synchrophasors and Neural Network based forecasting and measurement
provides the measurements needed to improve these meth- techniques show a promising approach to derive sub-hourly
ods [15]. site-specific irradiance forecast as a basis to predict PV power
Synchrophasors improve islanding detection methods output [16]. Hourly forecasts can be generated from web-
because wide-area information is available to each inverter. based weather forecasts. Moreover, localized insolation
Using information obtained from a larger area results in bet- measurements and using data analytics with pattern recondi-
ter control decisions. The communications requirements are tioning algorithms can forecast sudden cloud cover impacts on
simplified because, within the wide area, only a few selected power production.
signals need to be monitored. Similar to the anti-islanding Accurate and fast solar forecasting will also help to mini-
case, providing the PV inverter with time-aligned, wide-area mize expensive energy storage requirements and can improve
information opens new opportunities to use this information the performance of smart GEC-type inverters and VAR devices
for improved control algorithms. This is a very important area with a coordinated P-Q control approach. Currently, accurate
in instrumentation, measurement, communications, and con- and fast irradiance measurements and pattern reconditioning
trol of PV systems. algorithms are of key importance.

Solar Resource and Load Forecasting Conclusions

With higher penetration levels of distributed PV generation This paper has presented some of the integration challenges
and the quest to make PV power plants behave similarly to and benefits of integrating large-scale PV power plants. The
traditional generating plants and participate in the energy value of dynamic reactive power support, fast acting energy
markets, forecasting is becoming critical to the operations of storage and PV resource forecasting help to alleviate some
an electric utility [14]. Previously forecasting was mainly re- of the problems encountered with integrating intermittent
lated to load electricity demand since most generation was solar power plants on T&D systems. Local and remote mea-
fully dispatchable. surements, including synchro-phasor measurement units,
As an example, a feeder-level virtual power plant (VPP) irradiance-forecasting measurements, together with robust
that leverages innovative smart GEC type PV inverters and and secure communication networks are required to minimize

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Acknowledgment Procedures and Interconnection Requirements,” Sandia National
The author acknowledges the great work from his colleagues Laboratories SAND2012-2090, 2012.
and students at UNC Charlotte and support from his research [12] J. Smith, “US Experience with High Penetration Solar PV: Utility
partners. Experience with High Penetration PV,” in Proc. Sandia/EPRI/
DERlab Workshop on High Penetration PV, Berlin Germany, Dec 2012.
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Technology Solutions (CERTS), LBNL-50829, Apr. 2002. control with time-synchronized phasors,” in Proc. IEEE Conference
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[6] J. H. R. Enslin, “Dynamic Reactive Power and Energy Storage
for Integrating Intermittent Renewable Energy,” Invited Panel Johan Enslin (M’85, SM’92, F’13), is the Director for the En-
Session, Paper PESGM2010-000912, IEEE PES General Meeting, ergy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) and the
Minneapolis, MN, USA, 25 – 29 July 2010. Duke Energy Distinguished Chaired Professor in Power Sys-
[7] J. H. R. Enslin, “Network Impacts of High Penetration of tem at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Enslin has combined a thirty-two
Photovoltaic Solar Power Systems”, Invited Panel Session, Paper year career with leadership in industry and academia in the
PESGM2010-001626, IEEE PES General Meeting, Minneapolis, U.S., Europe, and South Africa. He served as an executive for
MN, USA, 25 – 29 July 2010. private business operations and a professor in electrical engi-
[8] H. Alatrash, A. Mensah, E. Mark, G. Haddad, and J. Enslin, neering. Dr. Enslin initiated and led renewable energy teams,
“Generator emulation controls for photovoltaic inverters,” IEEE companies and executed multi-disciplinary power system
Transactions on Smart Grid, Special Issue: Application of Smart Grid projects. Johan worked for more than eighty U.S., European,
Technologies on Power Distribution Systems, vol. 3, no 2, pp. 996- Asian, and African power utilities, governments and indus-
1011, June 2012. tries. He authored more than 280 journal and conference
[9] V. Cecchi, S. Kamalasadan, J.H.R. Enslin, and M. Miller: “Grid papers for IEEE and other organizations and has written sev-
Impacts and Mitigation Measures for Increased PV Penetration eral chapters in scientific books. Johan is a leader in IEEE and
Levels using Advanced PV Inverter Regulation”, in Proc. IEEE CIGRÉ. He holds more than twenty-one provisional and final
Energy Conversion Congress & Expo (ECCE), Denver, CO, USA, 15- patents. He is a registered Professional Engineer, and an IEEE
19 September 2013. and SAIEE Fellow.

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