Distributed PV Penetration Impact Analysis on Transmission System Voltages using Co-Simulation (1912.07193v1)

Abstract: With the growing penetrations of distributed energy resources (DERs), it is imperative to evaluate their impacts on transmission system operations. In this paper, an iteratively coupled transmission and distribution (T&D) co-simulation framework is employed to study the impacts of increasing penetrations of distribution-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems on transmission system voltages. The co-simulation framework introduces iterative coupling and unbalanced transmission system analysis that help accurately replicate the standalone T&D system results without resorting to the computational challenge of developing large-scale standalone T&D models. The integrated T&D systems are evaluated for multiple PV deployment scenarios based on randomly generated PV locations and sizes. A test system is simulated using the IEEE-9 bus transmission system model integrated at each load point with three EPRI's Ckt-24 distribution feeder models. The results are thoroughly validated using a standalone T&D system model simulated in OpenDSS.