Date of Award

Spring 5-3-2024

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor

Mohamad Musavi

Second Committee Member

Paul Villeneuve

Third Committee Member

Amamihe Onwuachumba

Additional Committee Members

Asa Sproul

Abstract

Due to advancements in smart inverter technologies, distributed energy resources, such as solar photovoltaic systems, can contribute to network voltage and reactive power regulation in accordance with the IEEE 1547a standard. Depending on the penetration level, the solar photovoltaic system often causes a voltage rise at its connection point and surrounding nodes.

To resolve the voltage rise issue, utilities and developers use strategies like voltage/Var (Volt/Var) and voltage/wattage (Volt/Watt) control, among others. Some electric utilities prefer the Volt/Var control. During Volt/Var operation, PV inverters, based on the Volt/Var settings, can consume reactive power from the network when the voltage at the reference node or PCC is high, and when the voltage at this point is low, they inject reactive power into the grid.

This Volt/Var control mode increases the reactive power burden at the feeder or substation when the inverter consumes reactive power to lower the voltage. This raises the need for reactive power compensators such as capacitors and dynamic reactive devices (i.e., STATCOM). Given the variability of solar power generation, these reactive power compensators must be well programmed for Volt/Var regulation of the inverters.

To optimize these compensators, this thesis uses optimization tools like genetic algorithms to optimize reactive power compensation settings for solar power plants operating in Volt/Var control mode.

Download

Share