Impact Study of Smart Grid Technologies on Low Voltage Networks with High Penetration of Renewable Generation

The evolution of technology brings many innovative solutions due to higher visibility and controllability in systems. Smart grid technologies have many advantages, while bringing integration and use case formulation challenges in the meanwhile. In this paper the effects of renewable generation, energy storage, controllable inverters and demand side management (and combinations of previous solutions) were analyzed to form operation and control based on real network information and conditions. Several scenarios are examined (weekdays vs. weekend profiles), different penetrations of distributed generation were considered for a detailed analysis of network losses and voltage conditions on a low voltage network. A stochastic approach was used to handle the uncertainties of the elements. The contribution of this research is a smart grid technology comparison from a distribution system operator point of view to enhance the integration of renewable energy sources. Effective voltage control is feasible with inverter control from the distributed generation. However, reactive power strategies do not suit the network with a high R/X ratio. Different scenarios showed that the storage and demand side management strategies must consider locality for efficient operation.