UTILITY-SCALE SOLAR PV AND

DISTRIBUTION VOLTAGE CHALLENGES

Tim Taylor
Electric Distribution Academy
An Instructor on HeatSpring, a NABCEP-certified Training Provider

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Topics
1. Utility distribution and voltage control

2. Common voltage challenges created by utility-scale

Solar PV on distribution

3. Other potential voltage issues

4. Consideration of voltage in hosting capacity analysis

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UTILITY DISTRIBUTION AND VOLTAGE CONTROL
Utility Distribution Feeder and Voltage Control
Transmission System
• Simple Definition of Distribution:
Transformer with o System between transmission and retail customers
Load-Tap Changer
Distribution
Substation • Common nominal, primary distribution voltages :
Circuit Breakers o 4, 7.2, 12.5, 13.8, 23, 34.5 kV Typical Allowable Voltage Variation
At Customer Service Entrance*
• Main feeder (or circuit)
Two-Phase Lateral
o Three-phase “backbone”
+ 5%
R Recloser o Most often operated radially
Three-Phase
Underground
Office/Campus • Laterals *See ANSI C84.1-2020 Electric
Loop Single-Phase Lateral Power Systems And Equipment –
Fuse
o Single-phase Voltage Ratings (60 Hz) for details
Single-Phase
by nominal voltage and operating
Underground o Two-phase and three-phase condition
Residential (URD)
Loop
• Common overcurrent protective devices
Voltage Regulator o Circuit breaker, reclosers, fuses

• Common voltage control equipment:

Single-Phase Lateral
o Substation transformer Load Tap Changer (LTC),
Shunt Capacitor voltage regulators, shunt capacitors
Bank
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Distribution Voltage and Solar PV
Potential Distribution Voltage Issues Created by Utility-Scale Solar PV
Transmission Distribution
• Voltage Regulation Issues System Substation
Distribution Feeder

• Short-Term Voltage Variability

• Ground Fault Overvoltage IL1 IL2 IL3 IPV IL4 IL5 IL6
Loads Loads
• Load Rejection Overvoltage
• Non-compliance with Mandatory IEEE 1547-2018, IEEE Standard for Interconnection and
Voltage Tripping and Ride-Through Interoperability of Distributed Energy Resources with Electric
Power System Interfaces, is the principal standard governing
Requirements the interconnection of DER to utility distribution systems.
• Voltage Flicker
IEEE 2800-2022, IEEE Standard for Interconnection and
• Rapid Voltage Change (RVC) Interoperability of Inverter-Based Resources (IBRs)
Interconnecting with Associated Transmission Electric Power
• Transient Overvoltages System, is the principal standard governing the
interconnection of IBR to utility transmission systems.

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COMMON VOLTAGE CHALLENGES CREATED BY
UTILITY-SCALE SOLAR PV ON DISTRIBUTION
Reverse Power Flow
• With no generation on feeder,
power flows from substation to
loads

• Reverse power flow will occur if Distribution

Solar PV generation is greater than Transmission
System
Substation

downstream load Transformer Distribution Feeder

• Solar PV generation flows back IL1 IL2 IPV IL5 IL6

IL3 IL4
towards substation Loads
Loads
– Opposite the direction that radial
feeders were designed for

• Potential consequences
– Misoperation of voltage regulators
or load tap changers (LTC’s)
– Voltage rise

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Voltage Regulation: Steady-State Voltage Rise
Distribution Substation
Distribution Feeder
• A generation source on
IPV
distribution will impact the
Loads IL1 IL2 IL3 IL4 IL5 IL6
feeder’s voltage

Upper Voltage Limit (1.05 pu)

• Concept of “voltage rise” occurs
With Solar PV
with reverse power flow

• Factors:
Without Solar PV – Location and output of Solar PV
– Impedances of circuit elements
– Location and size of shunt capacitors
Lower Voltage Limit (0.95 pu) and voltage regulators
– Load on feeder

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Low Voltage Conditions Due to Solar PV and Voltage Regulator

Scenario of a large solar PV plant located downstream, and

in close proximity to, a line voltage regulator with Load Drop
Compensation (LDC) active. Voltage regulator is located
two miles from the substation.
Upper Voltage Limit (1.05 pu)
Distribution
Substation Voltage
IS Regulator IL

IPV Without Solar PV

Loads
With Solar PV

Lower Voltage Limit (0.95 pu)

When LDC is used on the Voltage Regulator Control:
• The voltage regulator adjusts the voltage setpoint based on IS
• When a solar plant immediately downstream of the voltage
regulator is producing power, the magnitude of IS, compared
to when the solar plant is not producing power, is reduced.
• The voltage regulator, seeing a light load condition, does not
boost the voltage setpoint as much as it should. As a result,
the voltage downstream is less, and in our particular case, you
can see that the voltage at end of the feeder has fallen below
the lower limit. 9 ©Electric Distribution Academy – Not to be copied without permission
Short-Term Voltage Variability
• Power output variability
– Changes in cloud cover
– Voltage impacts on feeder, dependent on:
• Size of solar PV farm
• Inverter settings
• Impedance between solar PV farm and bulk
power system

• Possible impacts
– Voltage excursions outside of ANSI C84.1
acceptable limits
– Increase in operations of LTC’s, voltage
regulators, and shunt capacitors
– Tripping of inverters
Analysis of High Penetration Levels of Photovoltaics into the Distribution
Grid on Oahu, Hawaii, Dr. Emma Stewart et. al., NREL, May 2013,
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/54494.pdf

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Mitigation Measures for Common Voltage Issues
Excessive
operations
High or Low Short-term of voltage
Steady-State Voltage Reverse control
Mitigation Action Voltage Variability Power Flow device Comments
Modify control settings
Voltage control equipment: LTC’s (Load Tap Changers), voltage
of voltage control
regulators, switched shunt capacitors
equipment
Modify constant power factor setting, if in use
Change inverter settings Use Volt/VAr control (if it is a smart inverter, and if permitted by
the distribution organization)
Relocate voltage control
Voltage regulators, switched shunt capacitors
devices
Upgrade controller of
Upgrade controller to one that permits bi-directional power
voltage control
flow
equipment
Install new voltage Include controller that permits bi-directional power flow
regulator or LTC*
Replace existing feeder conductor with a larger conductor,
Reconductor resulting in less impedance to substation

Smart inverter Strongest impacts at location of smart inverter, unless

application communications is used

*Load Tap Changer 11 ©Electric Distribution Academy – Not to be copied without permission
“Smart” Inverters
Smart Inverter Capabilities
• A technology improvement to help solve
Voltage support Anti-islanding
issues created by high penetrations of
Voltage ride-through Ramp rate control
inverter-based resources (IBR)
– Controllability Frequency support Remote communications

– Responsiveness Frequency ride-through

– Communication

• Will permit higher penetrations of solar PV

and other IBR to be installed on systems Other Reactive
Power Modes:
• Constant power
• Adoption of smart inverters done on a state factor
basis, usually in accordance with IEEE 1547- • Constant VAR
• Watt-Var
2018

Smart inverters are also called:

- Advanced inverters
- Grid-interactive inverters
- Grid-friendly inverters
Volt-VAr Mode (Regulation Mode)

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OTHER POTENTIAL VOLTAGE ISSUES
Ground-Fault Overvoltage (GFOV)
• Typical utility feeder is designed to be effectively-grounded
– Designed so that during a feeder line-to-ground fault, line-to-ground voltage on the unfaulted phases is no more than 138% of
nominal line-to-ground voltage
– Utility overcurrent protection is designed accordingly, with fault currents that occur on the effectively-grounded system
• GFOV has the potential to occur:
– Feeder breaker opens at distribution substation (which also removes the substation transformer grounded neutral)
– Solar PV plant creates an “unintentional island”, with no intentional “ground-source”
– Line-to-ground fault still exists on feeder 1. Pre-Fault
Line-to-
Breaker Opens Ground 1.0
Voltage
Solar PV Step-Up Transformer (p.u.)
Substation Transformer
Phase A
0
Fault Phase A Phase B Phase C
PV
Neutral Inverter
2. During Fault
Phase B
Line-to- 1.73
Ground
Phase C Voltage 1.38
(p.u.)
Transmission Distribution Circuit Distribution (e.g., 480 V) 1.0
(e.g., 115 kV) (e.g., 13.8 kV) Breaker (e.g., 13.8 kV) No Grounding
Effective Grounding
0
Single-Phase-to-Ground Fault Phase A Phase B Phase C

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Effective Grounding of PV Plant
• Utilities commonly require a means to maintain
their effective grounding during the scenario
previously described

• Two principal effective grounding means:

– Grounding reactor in neutral of grounded Grounding Reactor in Grounded Wye-delta Step-Up Transformer

Wye:delta transformer
– Grounding transformer bank
• Wye-Delta Transformer
• Zig-Zag Transformer

• In reality, whether a GFOV will be produced is

dependent upon:
– Ratio of generation to load on feeder, and
percentage of load that is grounded
– Power factor of load
– Behavior of inverter controls during fault Zig-Zag Grounding Bank Wye-Delta Grounding Bank

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Other Voltage Considerations – Utility-Scale Solar PV
• Load Rejection Overvoltage (LROV)
– Can occur when a feeder, or portion of a feeder, is islanded
and Solar PV plant output level is substantially above load
• Mandatory Voltage Tripping Requirements
– Undervoltage and overvoltage tripping magnitude
and duration requirements specified in
IEEE 1547-2018, Clause 6.4.1
• Voltage Disturbance Ride-Through Requirements
– Specified in IEEE 1547-2018, Clause 6.4.2
• Voltage Flicker
– Fluctuating luminance caused by voltage fluctuations.
IEEE 1547-2018, Clause 7.2.3
• Rapid Voltage Change (RVC)
– Can be caused by frequent transformer energization, frequent
switching of capacitors, or from abrupt output variations
caused by DER mis-operation IEEE 1547-2018 Clause 7.2.2
• Transient Overvoltage Limits Figure is copyrighted by IEEE, and is from IEEE 1547-2018. It is shown here only for
illustrative purposes, and not to be used for commercial purposes. The IEEE 1547-
– IEEE 1547-2018 Clause 7.4.2 2018 standard is available for purchase online.

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CONSIDERATION OF VOLTAGE IN HOSTING
CAPACITY ANALYSIS
Hosting Capacity Analysis (HCA)
“Hosting capacity analysis (HCA) of a distribution system is the amount of DER that can be accommodated
without adversely impacting power quality or reliability under existing control configurations and without
requiring significant infrastructure upgrades” – IREC (Interstate Renewable Energy Council)

States whose regulatory bodies have mandated HCA maps include CA, NY, MN, NV, NJ, CT, MD

HCA Dependencies
• Location on circuit
• Load profile
• Time of day, day of week, season
• Feeder and substation design,
including protection and voltage
regulation
• Existing and queued DER
• Utility’s Hosting Capacity criteria and
thresholds

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Hosting Capacity Map

From publicly-available National Grid NY Hosting Map - http://ngrid.portal.esri.com/SystemDataPortal/NY/index.html

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Common Hosting Capacity Criteria and Thresholds
HCA Criteria
• Primary over-voltage
• Primary under-voltage
• Primary voltage deviation
• Regulator voltage deviation
• Equipment percentage
overload
• Substation percentage
overload
• Protection, including
possibility of unintentional
islanding and ground-fault
overvoltage
20
Typical Voltage Threshold Used in HCA
Criteria Value
Primary Over-Voltage 1.05 pu
Primary Under-Voltage 0.95 pu
Primary Voltage Deviation 3%
Regulator Voltage Deviation 50% of voltage
control
bandwidth
Recommended Reference on Hosting Capacity Analysis: “Key Decisions
for Hosting Capacity Analyses”, IREC – Interstate Renewable Energy
Council, Sky Stanfield et. al., September 2021,
https://irecusa.org/resources/key-decisions-for-hosting-capacity-analyses/
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HCA Challenges
• Utility system data validation
– Incorrect data, including the network model, can lead to inaccurate results and mistrust by the users of
HCA
• Utility results validation
• Update frequency
– National Grid – Quarterly
– Xcel Energy – Minnesota – Annually (but moving to quarterly)
• Inadequate details for users to make decision
– Causes (constraints) that limit hosting capacity would be useful, but unavailable
• HCA shows results on a feeder or feeder segment basis, but not at the point of
requested interconnection

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Summary
• Utility-scale Solar PV can present voltage challenges on distribution feeders

• Voltage mitigation measures are case-dependent

– Least expensive measures include voltage control settings changes
– More expensive measures include new voltage regulation equipment, reconductoring, or addition of
new protection equipment such as 3V0 protection

• “Smart inverter” functionality and IEEE 1547-2018 are being adopted, and can assist with voltage
problem mitigation

• Hosting Capacity Analysis maps/results are more frequently being provided by distribution
organizations
– Provide indications of amount and locations of Solar PV that feeders can accommodate without
mitigation measures
– Consider violation of voltage limits in their calculations

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For More Information
Tim Taylor offers training courses on HeatSpring,
including:
• Interconnection of Utility-Scale Solar PV to Distribution
• Overview of Electric Distribution Systems
• Electric Distribution Equipment
• Introduction to Utility Distribution Systems

Go to HeatSpring.com for more information

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