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Effects of Photovoltaic Systems on Power Quality

Conference Paper · September 2016

DOI: 10.1109/NAPS.2016.7747955

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 Effects of Photovoltaic Systems on Power Quality
Kaveh Rahimi Saeed Mohajeryami Alireza Majzoobi
Electrical and Computer Energy Production and Department of Electrical and
Engineering Department Infrastructure Center (EPIC) Computer Engineering
Virginia Tech UNC Charlotte University of Denver
Virginia, USA North Carolina, USA Colorado, USA
krahimi@ieee.org smohajer@uncc.edu alireza.majzoobi@du.edu

Abstract— Renewable Energy Resources (RER) are growing

steadily and they are projected to supply all the electricity demand
in the future. Currently, wind and solar energy resources have the
highest rates of growth, and specifically in the recent years, solar
energy has been number one in growth rate among all types of
renewable resources. However, dealing with the solar energy’s
intermittent nature is the main challenge of its utilization.
Fluctuations of received solar irradiance can cause significant
variations to the output of Photovoltaic (PV) systems. Those
output variations can also affect voltage and current at the Point
of Common Coupling (PCC) and consequently, power quality of
the system. In this work, fluctuations of a PV system due to a cloud
shadow are simulated and their effects on Total Harmonic
Distortion (THD), and Individual Harmonic Distortion (IHD)
during the period in which the cloud shadow passes over the PV
system are studied. Simulations results show that decrease in Fig. 1. Growth rate of renewable energy resources from 2009 to 2014 [2].
received irradiance caused by the cloud shadow can significantly
impact the current THD of the system. Moreover, the effect of the
impedance between the utility grid and the PCC on voltage THD
is assessed.

Keywords—Photovaltaic Systems; Power Inverters; Power

Quality; Renewable Energy Resources; Solar Energy; Total
Harmonic Distortion

I. INTRODUCTION
Installed capacity and share of Renewable Energy Resources
(RER) from total electricity generation have been growing
continuously over the last decade. Climate change and energy
independence are the main driving forces of the increasing
deployment of RERs and their high growth rates. Nowadays, the
idea of supplying the whole electricity demand exclusively from
the renewable resources looks more feasible than ever. The
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has projected
that 80 percent of U.S electricity generation would be supplied
from renewable resources by 2050 [1].
Among all RERs, wind and solar energy resources have the
highest growth rates, and solar energy, in particular, had the
highest growth rate from 2009 to 2014 [2]. Fig. 1 illustrates the
growth rates of different RERs including solar Photovoltaic
(PV), Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSP), wind, hydro-
power and biodiesel between 2009 and 2014 [2]. Moreover, Fig.
2 presents the global installed capacity of solar PV, which
increased from 3.7 GW in 2004 to 177 GW in 2014 [2]. High
penetration of roof-top PV in distribution systems is also another
factor that makes solar PV resources an effective player in
Fig. 2. Global installed capacity of solar PV resources from 2004 to 2014 [2].
impacting the dynamics of the power system as well as its power
quality.
Integrating RERs into the power grid has many advantages
such as environmental benefits originating from carbon
emission reduction [3], [4], energy independence and security
by decreasing the dependence on fossil fuels [5], increasing the
reliability and resiliency of the power system [6], [7] and
economic benefits [8]. However, enhanced employment of
RERs introduces new challenges originating mainly from the
variable and intermittent nature of such resources.
Output of PV systems could vary significantly due to clouds’
movement and resulting shadows, for instance, 80% of their
rated capacity [9]. These significant fluctuations can cause
adverse effects such as over/under-voltage issues, reverse power
flow and power quality issues [10]. Several studies have
examined the issues of output variations of PV systems and
proposed different mitigation methods [11], [12]. Local control
of reactive power [10], employing Volt-Var control strategies,
[13] efficient inverters [14], reconfiguration and employing
meshed configurations [15], [16], application of storage units
[17], [18], and prediction techniques [19] are some of the
proposed methods to alleviate the adverse effects of PV systems
fluctuations.
Authors in [20] studied a single-phase voltage-controlled
grid-connected photovoltaic system with power quality
conditioner functionality. Moreover, [21] assessed power
quality behavior of different photovoltaic inverter topologies.
Reference [22] investigated harmonics’ impact of a 20 kW
photovoltaic systems connected to LV distribution networks.
However, few studies have assessed the impacts of cloud
shadow motion on the power quality. This work simulates the
output fluctuations of a PV system caused by a cloud shadow
and assesses the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of voltage
and current waveforms in different locations. Furthermore,
effect of the impedance between the Point of Common Coupling
(PCC) and the utility grid on the voltage THD is studied through
three different line lengths.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II
discusses power quality and its main indices. Section III is
devoted to the case study as well as presenting the simulation
results. Finally, section IV concludes the paper.
II. POWER QUALITY AND ITS INDICES
Power quality is a term typically used to express voltage and
current quality, reliability of service, and quality of power
supply [23]. The quality of voltage and current can be interpreted
as how close voltage and current waveforms are to a perfect
sinusoidal waveform with a nominal magnitude and frequency.
To quantify voltage and current quality, different indices are
suggested in the power quality literature. In this section, the most
popular power quality indices are briefly introduced and
discussed.
Fig. 3. Simulated power system in MATLAB/Simulink environment consist of a PV system, a local load, and a utility gird.
Individual Harmonic Distortion (IHD), Total Harmonic
Distortion (THD), and Total Demand Distortion (TDD) could be
considered as the most common indices to study the voltage and
current quality of a power system. IHD, THD and TDD
definitions are presented in (1)-(3), respectively.
ℎ𝑖
𝐼𝐻𝐷𝑖 (%) = ∗ 100 (1)
ℎ1
2
√∑𝑚𝑎𝑥 2
𝑖=2 𝑀𝑖
𝑇𝐻𝐷 = (2)
𝑀1
2
√∑𝑚𝑎𝑥 2
𝑖=2 𝐼𝑖
𝑇𝐷𝐷 = (3)
𝐼𝐿
where hi is the ith harmonic, Mi is the RMS value of the ith
harmonic, Ii is the RMS value of the ith harmonic of current and
IL is the peak or maximum load current at the PCC [24], [25].
Computation of TDD requires historical data, so in this
study, only IHD and THD are computed as indices for current
and voltage at different locations of the employed system.
Furthermore, their variations during the period of cloud shadow
movement over the system are tracked and discussed.
III. CASE STUDY AND SIMULATION RESULTS
In this section, first, the employed case study is introduced.
Then the effects of cloud shadow on power output of the PV
system as well as the THD of voltages and currents of the system
are discussed. The last item in this section is the impact of
impedance between PCC and the utility gird on THD of voltage
waveforms.
Case study
A 250-kW grid-connected PV system is employed as the
case study in the work. Fig. 3 shows the simulated model in
MATLB/Simulink environment. The case study is developed
based on a Simulink model [26]. The PV array, employed in this
test case, consists of 86 parallel strings, and each string is
composed of 7 SunPower SPR-415E solar modules. Fig. 4
presents the I-V and P-V characteristic curves of one of the
modules at two temperatures of 25 and 45 °C. Maximum power
of each solar module is about 415W, therefore, all 602 modules
can deliver about 250 kW. A 3-phase converter is also employed
for conversion of DC power to AC power, which is modeled by
a 3-level Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)-controlled IGBT
Bridge. An RL choke and a small capacitor filter are used to
filter out the harmonics generated by the IGBT Bridge. The
inverter is connected to the utility gird via a 250-kVA,
250V/25kV transformer.
Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) based on “Perturb
and Observe” technique is implemented, and it automatically
modifies the DC voltage reference signal of the inverter’s
regulator in order to reach maximum power delivery from the
PV array. A PWM generator controls the firing signals of the 3-
level IGBT Bridge. The utility grid module simulates a
distribution network with a voltage level of 25kV as well as a
120kV transmission system. It is assumed that the distance
between the transformer, which connects the PV system to the
grid, and the substation is 8 km.
Effect of passing a cloud shadow over the PV system on the
received irradiance is modeled as shown in Fig. 5. The received
irradiance of the PV system, first, decreases from 1000 W/m2 to
200 W/m2. Then, after the cloud shadow passes over the PV
system completely, irradiance returns to 1000 W/m2 again.
Fig. 4. I-V and P-V characteristic curves of the simulated solar arrays at 25 and
45 °C.
Fig. 5. Effect of the cloud shadow on the received irradiance.
Effect of cloud shadow on output of the PV system and
power quality
In this subsection, the impact of irradiance variations, due to
the cloud shadow, on the power quality of the system is
discussed. Three locations are selected to monitor THD of
voltage and current waveforms as well as the real and reactive
powers during the period of cloud shadow movement over the
PV system.
As shown in Fig. 3, location 1 monitors the terminals of the
3-level IGBT Bridge. Location 2 is the low-voltage side of the
transformer, where signals coming from the IGBT Bridge are
filtered by the choke and the capacitor filter. Location 3 is the
high-voltage side (grid side) of the transformer. As mentioned
earlier, the received irradiance by the PV system decreases from
1000 W/m2 to 200 W/m2 and then after 10 seconds, it starts to
return to 1000 W/m2. Fig. 6 shows the real power generated by
the PV system during the simulation time. As illustrated in Fig.
6, the output power decreases form 250 kW to about 50 kW
when the cloud shadow covers the solar arrays completely.
Different time points are selected to compute the THD of current
and voltage waveforms. A window of 12 cycles is chosen for
THD calculation according to IEEE 519 2014 standard [27].
Table I shows the THD of current and voltage waveforms at the
selected locations. Impact of the choke and filter can be seen in
the THD of current and voltage waveforms.
Table I. Current and voltage THD values at different locations
Time (Second) 5 20 30 45 55
Current THD at Location 1 (%) 4.02 8.28 17.21 5.45 4.03
Current THD at Location 2 (%) 1.26 2.62 6.07 1.87 1.26
Current THD at Location 3 (%) 1.25 2.65 6.14 1.82 1.27
Voltage THD at location 1 (%) 43.00
Voltage THD at location 2 (%) 2.00
Voltage THD at location 3 (%) 0.05
It can be seen that the THD of the current waveforms goes
up with the decrease of irradiance and the following output
power, and it reaches the maximum value when the cloud
shadow covers the solar arrays completely. In the same manner,
THD of the current decreases when the irradiance is returning to
1000 W/m2. The changes in the THD of voltage waveforms were
negligible. Fig. 7 shows three cycles of the current waveform at
t=5s (before the cloud hits the system), t=15s (the cloud covers
the PV arrays partially), and t=30s (the cloud covers the PV
arrays completely) at location 1. The effect of cloud shadow on
the current quality can be seen clearly at t=30. All the current
waveforms, depicted in this paper, are line-to-line quantities.
Fig. 6. Effect of cloud shadow on the ouput power of the solar arrays.

Fig. 7. Three cycles of current waveform of location 1 at t=5, 15 and 30 s.
Fig. 8 shows the magnitudes of current waveform harmonics
in terms of percentage of fundamental at t=5s, t=15s, and t=30s
at location 1. In this figure, the effect of cloud shadow and the
decrease in the received irradiance on the magnitude of
fundamental and even harmonics and consequently, the THD
could be observed. Fig. 9 presents the variations of the real and
reactive powers at location 1 during the simulation.
Fig. 8. IHDs of location 1 at t=5, 15, and 30 s.
Fig. 9. Real and reactive power at location 1.
Fig. 10 also shows the three cycles of current waveform at t=5s,
t=15s and t=30s at location 2, where is the low-voltage side of
the transformer. The results demonstrate that the current quality
decreases by the complete cloud shadow coverage at t=30. In
comparison to location 1, the power quality has improved due to
the presence of the choke and the capacitor filter.
Fig. 10. Three cycles of current waveform of location 2 at t=5, 15 and 30 s.
Fig. 11 presents the IHDs of the current waveform of
location 2 at t=5s, t=15s, and t=30s. The THD is increased by
more coverage of the solar arrays by the cloud shadow and is
maximum when all solar arrays are covered. Decrease in the
magnitude of the fundamental shows the same point. Fig. 12
presents the real and reactive powers at location 2 during the
simulation time.
 Fig. 13. Three cycles of current waveform of location 3 at t=5, 15 and 30 s.
Fig. 14 presents the magnitudes of current waveform
harmonics in terms of percentage of fundamental at t=5s, t=15s,
and t=30s at location 3. Similar to locations 1 and 2, THD is
maximum when the cloud shadow covers the solar arrays
completely. Fig. 15 shows the real and reactive powers of
location 3.

Fig. 11. IHDs of location 2 at t=5, 15, and 30 s.

Fig. 12. Real and reactive power at location 2.

Fig. 13 shows the three cycles of location 3’s current
waveform at t=5s, t=15s and t=30s. Location 3 is where the PV
system is connected to the utility grid. Similarly, the current Fig. 14. IHDs of location 3 at t=5, 15, and 30 s.
quality decreases as the cloud shadow cover the solar arrays.

Fig. 15. Real and reactive power at location 3.

It is worth mentioning that simulation results could be
affected significantly by the control strategy of the inverter of
the PV system. Different control strategies lead to different
voltage and current qualities.
Effect of impedance between the PCC and utility gird on
voltage THD
In this subsection, the effect of impedance between the utility
grid and the PCC is studied. Three different line lengths of 2, 8,
and 14 km are considered, and for each line length, THD of
voltage waveform at the PCC (location 3) is assessed.
Simulation results are presented in Table II, and as it can be seen
the voltage THD at the PCC decreases when the line length
decreases. In other words, it shows that the impedance between
the strong source of the system and the PCC affects the THD of
voltage waveform, and its increase will result in a higher voltage
THD at the PCC.
Table II. Voltage THD at location1 with line lengths of 2, 8 and 14 km
Line Length (km) 2 8 14
Voltage THD at PCC (%) 0.02 0.05 0.09
IV. CONCLUSION
Exponential growth of PV systems has highlighted the
necessity for dynamic analysis of PV systems and their
contribution to the power system’s harmonics. This work
studied the effect of cloud shadow on the dynamics of a 250 kW
PV system and assessed the THD and IHD of voltage and
current waveforms in different locations. It was observed that in
the studied locations where PCC was one of them, the THD of
current waveforms increased and maximized as the cloud
shadow covered all the solar arrays. The THD of the current
waveform at the point of the PCC increased from 1.25% (before
the cloud hit the PV system) to 6.14% (after the cloud shadow
covered the whole PV system). In addition, the voltage THD at
the PCC was assessed in three scenarios in which the line length
between the PCC and the grid were 2, 8 and 14 km. It was
observed that the THD of voltage waveform increased by
increasing the line length and the consequent impedance
increment.
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