Impact of Climate Change and High PV Penetration on Power Factor Profile

One of the highest uptake rates observed in recent years in distributed generation technologies to tackle climate change is the solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, the growing number of PV systems deployed in power networks can adversely impact the grid. The effect on the network power factor profile, which is a key indicator of voltage stability that is recommended to be maintained within a predefined margin, is one of the adverse impacts of high uptake of PV systems. This manuscript presents an impact study of climate change and high PV penetration on power factor profile using the recently proposed weather-dependent power flow (WDPF) algorithm. The WDPF algorithm accurately takes into account the effect of weather into power flow analysis using the nonlinear heat balance model of overhead conductors. The WDPF algorithm, in this manuscript, is utilised to investigate the power factor profile paired with the impact of climate change and high PV penetration on the IEEE 14-bus network. Simulation performed on the IEEE 14-bus network shows convincing results and the benefit of using the WDPF algorithm.