Project Description:

Distributed Generation (DG) sources of renewable energy are increasingly becoming popular to aid in meeting the electric demand from the edge of a grid. As the penetration of Renewable DG increases, undesirable impacts may arise such as voltage fluctuations, reverse power flows, frequency variations, and incorrect operation of grid control mechanisms. These impacts can often be a result of the intermittent nature of renewable DG. Inappropriate placement of DGs may exaggerate the situation and limit the penetration of DG. This project aims to develop a method for identifying the optimal placement of DG regarding both siting and sizing, evaluating the maximum penetration threshold, examining the interdependence of local renewable source and load profiles, and determining optimal approaches of voltage and frequency controls.

Funding Sponsorship:

VCU Presidential Research Quest Award .

Related Outcomes:

[3] M. H. Athari, C. Yang, Z. Wang "Sequential Optimal Placement of Distributed Photovoltaics based on Downstream Power Index" , 2017 North American Power Symposium (NAPS), Sep 17-19, 2017. Link to Publication

[2] H. Sadeghian, M. H. Athari, Z. Wang, "Optimized Solar Photovoltaic Generation in a Real Local Distribution Network", IEEE Power & Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (ISGT), Arlington, VA, Apr. 2017. Link to Publication

[1] M. H. Athari, Z. Wang, S. H. Eylas "Time-Series Analysis of Photovoltaic Distributed Generation Impacts on a Local Distributed Network", IEEE Power & Energy Society Powerthech Conference, Manchester, UK, Jun. 2017. Link to Publication