ANALYSIS OF HARMONIC PROPAGATION IN MEDIUM VOLTAGE DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS WITH INTEGRATION OF DISTRIBUTED SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAICS

Abstract

The paper conducted an analysis of the risk of high-order frequency resonance in the medium-voltage distribution network with integration of solar photovoltaics (PV). The model of an identified distribution network was simulated and calculated in ETAP. Applying Harmonic analysis tool in ETAP to analyse specific operational cases showed that characteristic harmonic current generated from the PVs’ inverters propagating throughout the grid caused harmonic voltages to rise in amplitude at 5th and 7th order. The harmonic propagation effect is greater when the PV is connected towards the end of the grid, and especially in PVs’ high power generation mode where the load is low consumption, harmonic propagation has a much greater effect.