Inverter Reactive Power Compensation

We’ve always known producing solar energy was smart, but recent engineering
solutions with Blue Oak Energy’s Fall River Mills Project (4 MW) here in California
proved just how smart solar is when connected to an electric utility’s grid.

Today’s modern utility-scale inverters are smart enough to allow an owner of a solar
array full compensation for the power generated, even if the electric utility requires a
reactive power component to the electricity generated. Utilities have started to require
power factor control to compensate for rapid changes in the weather, which can strain
the utility grid power quality in certain locations.

Inverters are known by utility companies as "static" electrical devices because they are
not traditional rotating machinery like conventional electrical generators.

Here’s what happened at Fall River Mills. Energy from the facility ties into two different
grids owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Company. PG&E voltage
compensation devices successfully hold one grid’s 12,000 volts steady within the
allowed 2.5% variances, but voltage regulation devices on the other grid respond
slower. PG&E’s concern was that if a fast-moving cloud drastically dropped the power
generated by the Fall River Mills solar array during a partly cloudy day, the slower grid
could see a drop of as much as 600 volts, or a 5% reduction, which would result in what
utilities call unacceptable “voltage flicker”.

Dynamic Clouds are a Utility Concern for

Solar Plants
When AC voltage and current fluctuate at the same time, or in phase with each other,
the power factor or phase angle between waveforms is one (1.0), or “unity” in electrical
generation lingo. To rectify the “Partly Cloudy Day Scenario,” PG&E asked the Fall
River Mills solar plant to continuously put electrical energy into the grid at less than
unity, or a power factor of 0.93, which reduces the potential “Cloudy Day” voltage flicker
to 300 volts by lowering the local grid impedance. Then, if a fast-moving cloud rapidly
reduces the solar array’s power output, PG&E would only see a 2.5% voltage drop,
which is within acceptable tolerances.

Modern Inverters Control Power Factor

Real power for an electrical generator is useful energy entering the grid and is a
function of generation level and power factor. At a power factor of 0.93, real power
equals 93% of the generation level. The remaining 7% is known as reactive power.
Since typical utility power purchase agreements only base payments on real power
generation and not reactive power generation, it’s critical to maximize real power output
while still satisfying the utility’s reactive power requirements.

The modern current source utility-scale inverters on the market today provide a benefit
to the utility grid and help to correct the power quality available on the grid while still
maximizing real power generation. These inverters can operate at power factor levels
less than unity and still produce 100 percent of real power. The inverter has the ability to
provide reactive power based on a function of the entire size of the inverter, not just on
the level of generation. So, if cloudy skies drop solar generation from 100 percent to
10%, the inverter can use the other 90% of its remaining capacity to supply reactive
power support and enhance utility grid power quality.

“What we’ve learned is inverters are incredibly sophisticated, flexible electrical devices,”
says Dan Noren, Blue Oak’s Project Manager. Mr. Noren further explained, “There are
up to 11 different ways to adjust the real-time relationship between real and reactive
power in many modern solar power inverters. No conventional generator can do that.
It’s a benefit of solar power that utilities are starting to understand and realize can
enhance their local grid stability. I believe a key advantage of the modern inverter is its
ability to automatically match grid voltage, while at the same time independently change
its power factor to improve grid stability during rapid generation and/or load changes. 
The range of reactive power support is typically larger for inverters since rotating
generators have a thermal limitation (e.g., internal wire insulation) which limits power
factor control.  It’s economically infeasible for a rotating generator to provide the same
range of power factor operation as the inverter.”

There are other scenarios where the inverters can add value to the utility electric grid. In
many locations, it may be desirable for the inverter to act as a Static VAR Compensator,
with its built-in capacitor bank, to reduce voltage variations during rapid changes in
generation and/or load, even at night when not generating real power. The inverter’s
near-instantaneous response to changes in the system voltage via Static VAR
Compensation is a great benefit to the utility company’s power quality requirements as
defined by IEEE519 and IEEE929. Additionally, inverters may be configured to provide
real-time reactive power to compensate for large reactive power loads on the load side
of the meter at specific site.  The benefit here is that an industrial facility which creates
reactive power can produce energy with a solar array, but also get the added benefit of
reactive power compensation. It can be the proverbial “triple bank shot” because you
can offset the reactive power fees, demand charges and the energy fees
simultaneously.

These are just a few of the interesting opportunities that may be achieved with the
reactive power compensation in today’s modern static inverter systems. Because solar
energy’s ability to support grid power quality is unique and flexible, we expect solar
power quality support will be a growing area of concentration for the renewable energy
industry.