Reprinted with permission from the April 2012 issue
How To Manage Grid
Impact As Solar
Deployment Increases
Modern PV inverters can handle some grid stability tasks,
but energy storage may also be required.
b Kleber Facchini
A s solar projects become bigger
and more numerous, grid inter-
connection issues become increas-
ingly important. When the level of
solar penetration is low, the ability
of a solar plant to impact the grid is
minimal, but as solar power contin-
ues to expand, the potential for grid
impact increases.
In the first three quarters of 2011,
the U.S. solar market installed more
than 1 GW of grid-connected pho-
tovoltaics and exceeded its 2010 total
of 886 MW, according to data from
the Solar Energy Industries Associa-
tion. This brings the total U.S. grid-
connected PV installations to more
than 3 GW - ten times the size of U.S.
solar capacity in 2005. Much of this
2011 growth was driven by a number
of utility-scale project completions.
As more PV installations are de-
veloped and integrated into the grid,
utility companies and independent
system operators need to make sure
these projects are connecting in a way
that avoids power disruptions. As a
result, there is increasing regulation
on connecting solar power (and other
renewable energy sources) to the grid.
For many years, conventional
sources of energy were the dominant
presence in the electrical network,
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the plant must facilitate grid recovery
which meant that some issues related
to grid interconnection
were not apparent. For
example, traditional
power plants typically
use conventional syn-
chronous generators. Kleber Facchini
Such generators easily
provide reactive power and are able to
actively manage voltage dips, sags and
swells.
In the same way, renewable power
also needs to provide some level of
voltage and frequency ride-through
or spinning reserve to prevent power
disturbances from adversely affecting
the grid.
At the same time, solar project
developers are also looking for grid
parity, which means avoiding unneces-
sary equipment costs. How do project
developers and grid operators un-
derstand the potential impact on the
grid? What equipment is necessary to
support grid interconnection without
jeopardizing progress toward reduc-
ing costs? Understanding these issues
is key as more solar power and other
renewables come online.
New grid interconnection require-
ments have a similar theme across the
U.S.: Projects must avoid creating is-
sues on the grid, and if disturbances
do occur - even if the disturbance is
not caused by a renewable source -
with the resources available.
Specifically, utilities are requiring a
number of grid integration features,
including voltage and frequency ride-
through, voltage control through
reactive power, and smoothing or lev-
eling of output power during sudden
changes in energy production.
This last feature is the most difficult
to accomplish and is typically only
achieved with battery storage. Regula-
tors are also interested in harmonics,
voltage flicker and potential electro-
magnetic transients produced by the
solar plant. In addition, they are look-
ing to understand how the plant will
manage when exposed to such events
by connecting to the grid.
Beyond inverters?
Either a system impact study or a
grid interconnection study is typically
the first step toward both understand-
ing a solar plants potential impact on
the grid and meeting the utilitys re-
quirements. It also determines the ap-
proach that needs to be taken by the
solar project developer for meeting the
utilitys requirements.
In some cases, controls installed
in the solar inverter are enough to
meet utility requirements. However,
if there is a high penetration of re-
newables, more complex solutions
may be needed, and the use of some
grid-tied storage may be necessary to
meet utility ramp-rate requirements.
A system impact study typically
includes three components: a steady-
state or load-flow analysis, a transient
analysis and a harmonics study.
By methodically analyzing these
three areas, power system engineers
determine how much reactive support
is needed, how to supply that support,
the ability of the plant to ride through
transient disturbances, and the quality
Copyright 2012 Zackin Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 Voltage Ride-Through Time Duration Curves
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1.0
No Trip
POI Voltage (PU)
0.9
Zone
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
-1.0 0.0
High Voltage Duration
The North American Reliability Corp.s (NERC) requirements for voltage ride-through
Source: Eaton Corp.
of the power produced by the solar
plant.
Load-flow analysis is often per-
formed in the early stages of the plant
design and usually done by a consult-
ing firm or equipment vendor with
robust power engineering experi-
ence. The goal is to understand how
much reactive support needs to be
installed in the solar plant to meet
the power factor or voltage control
requirements.
The first task is to determine - or,
at least, estimate, depending on how
early the project is in the design pro-
cess - the collector bus configura-
tion. This process requires specific
engineering data on cables, step-up
transformers and switchgear. Once
this configuration is finalized, the
equivalent impedance is calculated,
such that the reactive losses in the col-
lector bus are understood.
With the reactive losses deter-
mined and a power factor require-
ment established by the utility, the
designer can start to develop a strat-
egy for reactive power or volt-ampere
reactive (VAR) compensation. Of-
ten, static synchronous compensator
(STATCOM) devices, shunt switched
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1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0
Time (seconds)
Low Voltage Duration
devices or the solar inverter itself can
supply the needed VAR support.
The best choice varies from plant to
plant, and is highly dependent on plant
size, point of interconnection (POI)
and grid requirements. That said, there
is an increasing pressure on inverter
suppliers to have extra current capabil-
ity for VAR support. Once the strategy
is chosen and drawn, the utility per-
forms a system impact study to deter-
mine how the solar plant affects the
grid it is connected to.
Frequency disturbances
For utility-scale solar plants, a dy-
namic or transient performance analy-
sis must also be performed. This study,
which is done after the initial con-
figuration of the plant is established,
determines if plant equipment and
configuration meet the transient re-
quirements imposed by the regulators.
During this study, the designer sim-
ulates voltage and frequency distur-
bances on the POI to check the plant
response. Will the plant trip offline
during grid disturbances? Or, will it be
able to stay online and help the grid to
recover from voltage and frequency
excursion events?
Voltage events are more understood
today than ever before, and the re-
sources to deal with them are applied
to solar (and wind) plants across the
U.S. Additionally, inverters are becom-
ing smarter and some vendors have
incorporated some of the controls
needed for this type of support.
Determining where a frequency dis-
turbance is originating at the POI is
key. For example, is the disturbance
coming from the plant? Or, is it being
imposed by the grid? If a frequency
disturbance comes from the grid, usu-
ally the plant is asked to ride through
these events and not trip offline. If a
plant trips offline, the frequency dis-
turbance will often worsen.
On the other hand, if disturbances
occur from the plant to the grid, due
to the inherently intermittent nature
of PV energy, there is an expectation
(not yet widely enforced) that the
PV plant will have the resources to
mitigate these events. This scenario
is more evident on high-penetration
cases, and that is where the use of en-
ergy storage is often most needed.
An energy storage device is often
connected in shunt with the solar
plant at the collector bus. It injects
or absorbs power on a transient basis
in order to smooth the output power
of the plant. Although energy storage
equipment is not typically able to keep
output power constant during long
periods of time, it is able to slow down
the positive or negative power rate of
change (mainly the latter).
This acts as a shock absorberand
avoids these ramp-rate issues on the
grid. This mechanism is particularly
important in weak grid situations,
such as where there is a high penetra-
tion of solar power or the local grid is
relatively small.
Advanced solar inverters for utility-
scale applications are equipped with
algorithms to control the positive rate
of change in PV power and curtail
output power when grid frequency in-
creases. Such conditions are indicative
of excess power on the grid.
However, when a cloud rolls over a
Copyright 2012 Zackin Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 Reactive Characteristic Curve in a specific installation and whether
its energy storage capacity is required
50.0 to meet utility requirements and/or
maximize energy harvest.
25.0
Reactive Power (MVAR)

Current harmonics
0.0
In addition to the load-flow study
and transient study, a harmonic analy-
sis needs to be performed in order to
-25.0 0 100 200 300 400 minimize resonances within the plant
electrical installation. Within the plant,
-50.0 there are many components (cables,
transformers, shunt switched banks
and other reactive elements) that, to-
Active Power (MW) gether, can resonate with one another
A solar plants reactive characteristic curve, based on VAR requirements and the plants capabilities and create harmonics within the sys-
tem. Additionally, inverters inherently
Source: Eaton Corp. create current harmonics at the collec-
tor bus, due to the internal switching
Off Nominal Frequency Capability Curve of the converter insulated gate bipolar
transistor.
65
If the system is not well tuned, the
64
presence of excessive current harmonics
63
may force solar inverters to trip offline
62
and cause unnecessary heating (and
Frequency (Hz)

61 losses) on cables and transformers. The

No Trip
60 Zone
59
58
57
56
55
0.01 0.1
The NERCs requirements for frequency ride-through
Source: Eaton Corp.
solar plant, power generation drops
significantly and, in some cases,
abruptly. A solar plant with no en-
ergy storage can adversely impact the
grid POI, possibly causing voltage and
frequency dips. This is worsened in
regions with significant renewable
power and small amounts of spin-
ning reserves.
In addition to mitigating tran-
sient power variances, energy stor-
age devices are also used to shift peak
power. They are able to absorb power
that is otherwise limited by the power
rates set by utilities, or to level the
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1 10 100 1,000 10,000
Time (seconds)
found, the designer can use de-tuning
load - deferring the cost of bringing
on additional power services.
In this case, energy is stored dur-
ing peak power production and re-
leased during peak demand. When
load shifting is implemented, solar
power is stored mid-day and released
toward the end of the afternoon (and
wind energy is stored during the
night and released in the morning or
afternoon).
The application of energy storage is
determined by the grid requirements.
If there is a need, the system impact
or grid interconnection study helps to
determine the role of energy storage
situation is worse if there are existent
background harmonics on the grid.
The proper way to mitigate har-
monics is by first identifying the back-
ground harmonics on the grid (if any),
and then running the electrical model
of the plant to identify potential har-
monics and resonances. If these are
filters at the collector bus, so that the
harmonics are attenuated.
At the solar inverter level, it is im-
portant to understand the impact
that background harmonics have on
the inverters AC filter, which acts to
filter harmonics and, in the process,
draws them to clean the electrical
line. Therefore, the AC filter of an in-
verter connected to a harmonic-rich
grid will overheat and fail over time.
Assessing the harmonics both in the
system and on the grid is key to ex-
tending equipment life.
Integrating renewable energy into
the grid requires an understanding of
the equipment and plant power sys-
tem, utility regulations and the nature
of the grid itself. As utility-scale solar
Copyright 2012 Zackin Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 power continues to grow, it is crucial are expecting renewables to act more implementation are able to provide
that a comprehensive system impact like conventional power plants and cost and time savings, information
study is performed and steps are taken provide grid support - with both re- transparencies and simplified main-
tenance. From the grid interconnec-
tion study to the final implementation
If the system is not well tuned, the presence of excessive and maintenance of the equipment, a
single supplier can simplify and expe-
current harmonics may force solar inverters to trip offline dite the process - so that the project
and cause unnecessary heating (and losses) on cables and developer minimizes installation cost
and maximizes energy harvest, while
transformers.
meeting utility regulations to support
grid stability. R
to prevent grid instability - avoiding active and real power. In this envi-
possible power outages. Further, equip- ronment, developers and designers
ment tapped for utility-scale solar ap- of solar plants may seek project part- Kleber Facchini is the product manager for
plications should be able to identify ners that have a holistic approach to commercial- and utility-scale solar invert-
ers for Eaton Corp., a diversified power
grid disturbances and respond to such utility needs, as in the end, they need
management company with more than 100
events in a way that will enhance volt- the utilitys approval for a solar plant
years of experience providing energy-effi-
age and frequency regulation. installation. cient solutions. Facchini can be contacted
In other words, as solar and wind Organizations able to provide at klebervfacchini@eaton.com.
come online at a faster pace, utilities equipment, analysis and project

Subscription information is available online at www.solarindustrymag.com. Copyright 2012 Zackin Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved.