Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221

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Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Review of power system impacts at high PV penetration Part II: Potential

solutions and the way forward
Dhivya Sampath Kumar a ,∗, Oktoviano Gandhi b , Carlos D. Rodríguez-Gallegos b , Dipti Srinivasan a
a
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), 117576, Singapore
b
Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), National University of Singapore (NUS), 117574, Singapore

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Issues and challenges of integrating intermittent renewable energy from large photovoltaic (PV) systems have
Grid impacts been a significant area of study. Numerous research works have analyzed the impacts of solar PV on the
Photovoltaic system grid and highlighted various aspects to be the limiting factors for PV penetration. This two-part review paper
Power system
assesses the overall power system impacts of high PV penetration and the potential solutions for mitigating
Solution measures
these impacts. This paper, the second of the two, focuses on the various solution measures that have been
Stability
proposed in the literature such as accurate forecasting, voltage and frequency regulation techniques, harmonic
compensation techniques, reactive power management, generator planning and dispatch strategies and adaptive
protection schemes that are necessary to solve and mitigate the grid impacts caused by high PV penetration.
The limiting factors in implementing these solution measures and their cost bearer have also been highlighted
in this paper.

1. Introduction
As indicated in the first part of our review (Gandhi et al., 2020a),
the PV system installation capacity is progressively increasing in time
with yearly installed capacities around 100 GWp in recent years. In-
ternational Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA, 2019b) estimated that
the cumulative installed capacity would exceed 760 GWp by the year
2020 and would increase up to 2840 GW by 2030 and 8519 GW by
2050. This enormous increase in PV installation capacity has gained the
attention of different grid owners/operators due to their repercussions
on the grid quality. Among the various power system concerns of
having high PV penetration, the key ones are related to voltage issues,
variations in the grid frequency, harmonics, protection coordination,
rotor angle stability, and the grid flexibility requirements.
As a consequence, many countries have aimed to regulate the
installation and operation of PV systems by defining new grid codes.
Many of the codes have been created to regulate the allowed time and
level of grid voltages at which a PV farm should continue its normal
operation before disconnecting from the grid for cases of low and high
grid voltage. For example, Germany has set its grid codes to require PV
farms to operate even when the grid voltage is reduced for a period of
0.15 s (after which the PV system must be disconnected) and to operate
for 0.25 s when the grid voltage reaches 120% of its nominal value (Al-
Shetwi and Sujod, 2018; Troester, 2009). Many countries such as Italy,
Japan, China, Germany and South Africa have similar allowed voltage
range ±10% of its nominal value for large-scale PV plants. Similarly,
most of the countries have a frequency variation range between 47 and
52 to 53 Hz. For example, Germany, Spain and Japan allow continuous
operation from 47.5 Hz to 51.5 Hz while Malaysia (47 Hz to 52 Hz),
and Australia (47.5 Hz to 52 Hz) allow larger variation (Al-Shetwi and
Sujod, 2018). The previous are just some examples on the grid code
evolution to adapt to PV systems and further details on grid codes
can be found in Al-Shetwi and Sujod (2018). With ever increasing PV
penetration across the globe, more and more utilities are modifying
their grid codes.
However, to solve the current problems of PV integration and
further enhance the PV penetration, it is inevitable to introduce various
solution measures for a healthy grid. Different solutions have been
proposed in the literature to ensure the grid stability, that can be as
direct as to increase the size of the grid lines, to install extra equipment
in the grid such as capacitors, tap transformers, voltage regulators,
batteries, and smart PV inverters. However, these measures have their
own limitations, such as high costs and high control complexity. This
review paper examines the characteristics of the different solutions pro-
posed in the literature to solve the issues and challenges introduced by
high PV penetration in the grid. This work also analyzes the limitations
and challenges of these solutions as well as how combinations of these
measures could be implemented. Thus, this work provides the readers a

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: eledsk@nus.edu.sg (D. Sampath Kumar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2020.08.047
Received 4 February 2020; Received in revised form 13 August 2020; Accepted 15 August 2020
Available online 26 August 2020
0038-092X/© 2020 International Solar Energy Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D. Sampath Kumar et al. Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221

2. Various solution measures for PV grid integration

List of Abbreviations

APF Active power filter The two main attributes of renewable generation, such as PV power
ANN Artificial neural networks that can affect the grid stability and reliability, are variability and un-
certainty. The reliability implications of integrating these variable and
ARMA Auto-regressive moving average
uncertain PV sources in large-scale into power networks are analyzed
ARIMA Auto-regressive integrated moving average
in Part I of this review paper (Gandhi et al., 2020a). This section strives
BESS Battery energy storage system
to provide a detailed description of how these impacts can be addressed
CI Converter-interfaced through various approaches, tools, and practices for reliable large-scale
DER Distributed energy resources integration of PV. Fig. 1 outlines the measures investigated in this paper
DERMS Distributed energy resource management and the power system impacts – as discussed in Part I of this review
system – that they can solve. The subsection which elaborates each of the
D-FACTS Distributed flexible AC transmission system solution is also indicated in the figure.
DOCR Directional over-current relay
DR Demand response 2.1. Role of forecasting
D-STATCOM Distributed static synchronous compensator
DVR Dynamic voltage regulator Forecasting of PV power output is necessary to ensure resource ad-
equacy in a power system. A system with poor resource adequacy plan-
ESS Energy storage system
ning might have limited reserve capacity to accommodate unexpected
EV Electric vehicle
system conditions, which, when breached, will affect voltage stabil-
FCL Fault current limiter ity (North American Electric Reliability Corporation, 2009). Short-term
HV High-voltage PV fluctuations that occur due to scenarios such as cloud cover can lead
LASSO Least absolute shrinkage and selection oper- to undesirable voltage fluctuations in the distribution feeders (Woyte
ator et al., 2006), whereas long-term PV power variations can generally be
LV Low-voltage handled by recent forecasting methods. Accurate PV power forecasting
MIR Minimum import relay can allow generation companies and system operators to plan their
MPC Model predictive control operations accordingly to ensure that the power supply meets the load
NPF Normalized participation factor demand (van der Meer et al., 2018). With increasing PV penetrations,
NWP Numerical weather prediction the task of accurate forecasting becomes crucial for reserve allocation
and grid stability (Antonanzas et al., 2016). Forecasting PV should be
OCR Over-current relay
accurate with minimum complexity and computational costs.
OLTC On-load tap changer
Forecasting of PV power can be done either using solar irradi-
PCC Point of common coupling ance forecasting or by forecasting PV power directly using methods
PV Photovoltaic such as numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. The forecasting
PF Power factor techniques have been classified by Raza et al. (2016) based on their ap-
ROCOF Rate of change of frequency proaches as persistence/naive method, physical approach (NWP mod-
RPFR Reverse power flow relay els), statistical approaches (such as artificial neural network (ANN) and
SPC Synchronous power controller time series models, namely auto-regressive moving average (ARMA)
SST Solid state transformer and auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA)), as well as
SVC Static VAR compensator hybrid techniques (NWP+ANN, ANN+Fuzzy, ARMA+ANN). The pros
and cons of each forecasting method have been analyzed and reviewed
UPFC Unified power flow controller
by many researchers (Diagne et al., 2013; Raza et al., 2016; Antonanzas
VSD Variable speed drive
et al., 2016; Barbieri et al., 2017; Das et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2018;
VSG Virtual synchronous generator Akhter et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2019a)
WECC Western electricity coordinating council Solar forecasting at different timescales plays a vital role in different
aspects of power system operation and planning, as summarized in
Fig. 2. It can be seen from Fig. 2 that forecasting can also be broadly
classified based on the forecasting horizon as very-short-term forecast-
holistic view of the strategies and approaches aimed to mitigate power ing, short-term forecasting, medium-term forecasting, and long-term
system issues related to high PV penetration. forecasting. The very-short-term forecasting and intra-hour forecasting
This paper is the second part of a two-part comprehensive review of have a forecast horizon of less than 1 h and are very useful for power
the impacts of and solutions to high PV penetration in power system. system operations such as power smoothing, real-time dispatch, control
The first part of the review paper (Gandhi et al., 2020a) discusses and regulation activities during ramping events and also for optimal
the impacts of high PV penetration in power system. These impacts reserves calculation. The intra-day forecasting, which also comes under
are caused by four PV characteristics, namely: distributed, diurnal, short-term forecasting has a forecast horizon ranging from 1 h to 6 h
converter-based, and intermittent. Subsequently, in this paper, the so- and is mainly used by grid operators for load-following activities and
zone-control. Day-ahead forecasting, whose forecast horizon usually
lutions to the power system issues at high PV penetration are reviewed.
ranges from 1 to 3 days, is used for unit commitment and day-ahead
Section 2 of this paper discusses the various solution measures for
markets by grid operators or generation companies. Another interest-
solving the grid impacts due to PV penetration. As the nature of some
ing forecasting product that can improve the network operation and
of the proposed solutions enables them to address multiple issues, reliability is called nodal-injection forecast (North American Electric
Section 3 attempts to map the challenges that can occur at high PV Reliability Corporation, 2009), where the forecasts are generated on
penetration with the possible approaches proposed by various works a day-ahead basis for each node in the transmission network and are
in the literature. Section 4 elaborates on the challenges and limitations used for the planning process of transmission congestion. Medium-term
involved in implementing these solutions and their possible cost bearer. forecasting with a forecast horizon ranging from 1 week to 1 month and
Section 5 concludes the paper with potential futuristic solutions. long-term forecasting with a forecast horizon ranging from 1 month to

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Fig. 1. Overview of power system issues caused by the integration of PV and their corresponding solution measures.
Fig. 2. Classification of forecasting based on horizon and the relevant power planning and operation (inspired by Diagne et al., 2013).
1 year are generally used by grid operators for resource and capacity
planning purposes.
Different forecasting techniques are suitable for different temporal
resolutions. Diagne et al. (2013) observed that the persistence mod-
els are very efficient for very-short-term forecasting. However, it is
to be noted that persistence models work best for specific location
and data. New models such as least absolute shrinkage and selection
operator (LASSO) models proposed by Yang et al. (2015) can also be
used for very-short term PV forecasting. Image-based methods that use
sky/shadow cameras also have a forecast horizon of less than 30 min
and are mostly employed for intra-hour forecasting, whereas those
that use satellite images can be used for both intra-hour and intra-day
forecasts (forecast horizon ranging from 30 min to 6 h). The data-driven
models such as time-series models and statistical models are suitable
for intra-hour and intra-day forecasting. For day-ahead, medium-term,
and long-term forecasting, NWP can be used. New concepts such as
reconciliation have been gaining popularity as this method aggregates
and unifies the forecasts that are acquired across a geographical and
temporal hierarchy (Yang et al., 2017; Yagli et al., 2019b). This method
can be used for power system hierarchy and can provide more accurate
operational PV forecasting compared to the bottom-up forecasting. For
more details on solar forecasting techniques and concepts, readers are
referred to Kumar et al. (2020b).
The forecast horizon also affects the accuracy of the forecasting
model, and the forecast errors increase with the increase in forecast
horizon (Akhter et al., 2019). These forecast errors can have a high im-
pact on the power system planning and operations aspects (Ahmed and
Khalid, 2019). With the emergence of machine and deep learning meth-
ods, many researchers have applied them in solar forecasting (Zhang
et al., 2017a, 2019; Yagli et al., 2020). Analysis of the different avail-
able PV power forecasting techniques by Das et al. (2018) shows that
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machine learning and hybrid methods with optimization algorithms,
show an improved accuracy compared with the other models, especially
with non-linear data. However, when around 68 machine learning algo-
rithms were evaluated with different data and weather zones by Yagli
et al. (2019a), it was found that no universal model exists at the
moment and tree-based methods were the overall best performers
under all the sky conditions, whereas support vector regression and
multi-layer perceptron algorithms worked best on clear sky conditions.
And none of the methods except the random-forest quantile regression
method performed better under over-cast sky condition. Nevertheless,
most of the machine learning-based algorithms were not compared with
persistence models. Thus, it is recommended for researchers to have a
uniform/universal guideline for bench-marking to evaluate the realistic
performance of the forecasting method, as mentioned by Yang (2019).
It is evident that forecasting techniques of PV power output play a
major role in helping the grid operators to plan for PV intermittencies,
thereby increasing the PV hosting capacity. It can be summarized that
with improvement in forecast accuracy, utilities and systems can better
manage resources and thus reduce the occurrence of stability issues.
2.2. Voltage regulation
The common voltage problems that occur due to high PV penetra-
tions in the power grids, namely voltage fluctuations, voltage unbalance
and voltage magnitude (over voltage/under voltage) issues are dis-
cussed in the first part of this review paper (Gandhi et al., 2020a).
Many techniques have been proposed in the literature to regulate
voltage in distribution networks with high PV penetration. Haque and
Wolfs (2016) gave a detailed review on the impacts of distributed PV
in low-voltage (LV) distribution networks and highlighted the possi-
ble commercially available and emerging mitigation solutions to the
D. Sampath Kumar et al.
voltage problems. Rafi et al. (2020) specifically reviewed the differ-
ent converter-based technologies for addressing the voltage unbalance
problems due to renewable penetration. In Ali et al. (2019), the various
power electronic options for voltage regulation in networks with high
PV penetration have been categorized into series, shunt and hybrid
(series+shunt) devices based on their topology.
Here, we discuss the addition of classical/conventional technologies
first, followed by the emerging technologies discussed in the litera-
ture. Conventional measures to be done at the grid side addressing
voltage regulation/unbalance issues include network upgrade as well
as the installation of fixed/switched capacitors and on-load tap chang-
ers (OLTC). Meanwhile, the emerging technologies include solid-state
OLTCs, solid-state transformers (SSTs) and distributed flexible AC trans-
mission system (D-FACTS) devices. The other measures implemented at
the customer side, such as the use of reactive power management and
installing energy storage for voltage regulation, will be discussed later
in Sections 2.5 and 2.6 respectively.
Reconductoring, which means increasing the size of feeders’ cross-
sectional area, is another possible solution for having a better X/R
ratio and improved voltage regulation (Haque and Wolfs, 2016). The
stochastic analysis conducted by Shahnia et al. (2010) indicated that
the voltage unbalance problems caused by the PV integration in the
distribution feeders can be solved by increasing the cross-sectional area
of the feeder. However, this is a very expensive solution and should be
sought as a last resort for improving the voltage regulation.
Installing capacitor banks for addressing voltage issues such as
voltage unbalance and voltage fluctuations is very common. Fixed
(switched) capacitors provide fixed amount (varying amount, in dis-
crete steps) of reactive power compensation which might not be suf-
ficient for voltage regulation in case of rapidly varying PV power and
changing load pattern (Liu and Bebic, 2008). Moreover, the use of these
devices might lead to overcompensation problems, which create the
need for an additional regulator.
Conventional OLTCs are the most common solution suggested for
solving the voltage problems such as voltage sags/swells and fluc-
tuations in distribution lines. However, it comes with its share of
limitations such as high response time (∼100 ms), increased rate of tap-
changing failure, as well as high service and maintenance cost (Yang
et al., 2013). Moreover, frequent and fast operation of OLTCs will be
necessary for highly intermittent PV, which may stress the OLTCs and
affect the lifetime of these devices (Liu et al., 2012).
Solid-state OLTCs built using power electronic devices are more
popular due to its significant merits over the conventional ones as it is
able to handle problems such as voltage fluctuations, sags, and swells
better (Echavarría et al., 2007; Yang et al., 2013). One of the significant
advantage is that the response time of solid-state OLTCs is much shorter
compared with the conventional OLTCs. However, limitation of the
number of switches, and step-wise control which leads to operational
discontinuity are some of the demerits of solid-state OLTCs (Haque
and Wolfs, 2016). SSTs (Shah and Crow, 2016; Saleh et al., 2019;
Sun et al., 2020) are another possible emerging solution to the voltage
problems that eliminate the requirement of tap changers, and serve as
a replacement to all the present line-frequency transformers. However,
the cost, implementation, and feasibility of these new devices still have
to be analyzed for wide deployment.
D-FACTS controllers are also potential emerging solutions for volt-
age regulation and they commonly include devices such as dynamic
voltage regulators (DVRs), distributed static synchronous compensators
(D-STATCOMs), static VAR compensators (SVCs) and unified power
flow controllers (UPFCs). SVCs are commonly used in transmission lines
to increase the power transmission capability, improve the transient
stability, reduce line losses, control voltage, and improve the load
power factor (PF). However, their use in distribution systems with
DERs is still being explored. For now, the distribution network cannot
completely rely on SVCs as they behave as a fixed capacitor/inductor
when their limit is reached. In many cases, DVRs are proposed to be
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Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221
used as voltage regulators due to its smaller rating compared to other
D-FACTS devices (Ghosh and Ledwich, 2002; Jowder, 2009; Babaei
and Farhadi Kangarlu, 2011; Vilathgamuwa et al., 2006). However,
their capabilities are limited as ideal DVRs are ineffective in mitigating
transients for non-linear loads, the choice of filter capacitor, etc. A
comparison made between DVRs and D-STATCOM devices by Shahnia
et al. (2014) showed that D-STATCOMs are better for mitigating voltage
unbalance problems than DVRs. D-STATCOMs have been widely used
by researchers (Chen et al., 2013; Kumar and Mishra, 2014; Arya et al.,
2015, 2016) for voltage control and increasing the hosting capacity
of PV. Though D-STATCOMs are capable of voltage improvement and
mitigating voltage unbalance problems in LV distribution lines, they
require additional devices such as a zig-zag transformer for compensat-
ing the harmonic and neutral currents (Singh et al., 2011). UPFCs have
also been explored for voltage regulation in distribution lines (Sayed
and Takeshita, 2011, 2014). Apart from voltage regulation, they are
also capable of series compensation, multi-function power flow control,
and regulation of phase angle. UPFCs are generally recommended
to be installed at the end of the feeder, whereas D-STATCOMs are
recommended to be installed either mid-line or 2/3rd point from the
starting point of the distribution line (Al-Mawsawi, 2003). Ongoing
research is still exploring the applications and possibilities of UPFCs
in distribution lines.
There is a need to have coordination among utility devices such
as OLTCs, SVCs, other voltage regulators, and energy storage systems
(ESS) for effective operations of the devices. Daratha et al. (2014)
have attempted to solve the voltage regulation issues due to PVs by
establishing coordination between OLTC and SVC in an unbalanced
distribution network. In another work by Muttaqi et al. (2015), coor-
dinated control methods have been proposed for voltage regulation in
distribution lines using OLTC, voltage regulators, and distributed gen-
erators. A coordinated control among these devices can help in power
balance, peak shaving, reducing the stress of OLTC, and power losses,
etc., which in turn helps in mitigating the voltage issues. Other new
techniques such as agent-based control have been proposed by Farag
and El-Saadany (2011) for the purpose of voltage regulation as the
authors claimed that conventional scheduling techniques such as OLTCs
and capacitors would conflict with each other due to the presence of
distributed generators. A summary of the various grid-side measures
for voltage regulation that are discussed in the literature is presented
in Table 1.
Maharjan et al. (2020) proposed an entirely different perspective to
the voltage instability problem in distribution networks that occur due
to high PV ramping events (as a result of fast-moving clouds). After
the Motor regulation act (EC) 640/2009, the European commission
is actively encouraging high efficiency motors such as variable speed
drive (VSD) loads as an alternative to induction motor loads. The
results simulated in a UK-based distribution system corroborated by
analytical studies convey that a considerable proportion of VSD loads
in distribution networks can avert events such as voltage collapse and
voltage instability issues that can occur due to PV ramping.
2.3. Frequency regulation
The large-scale integration of PV not only affects the nodal volt-
ages but also the frequency of the power network. The sudden and
frequent ramp-ups of PVs that appear in short timescales can have
a prominent impact on the network frequency. Also, with the rapid
increase in the penetration of converter-interfaced (CI) technologies
like PV, electric vehicles (EVs), and storage devices in the grid, the
synchronous-based conventional generators may be partially or fully
retired, which can severely affect the frequency stability of the net-
work (Kumar et al., 2019). These CI devices are capable of effective
active and reactive power control, however, they lack an inherent
response to the frequency deviations in the network. Ye et al. (2019)
reported that the rotating inertia of the East China power grid was
D. Sampath Kumar et al. Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221

Table 1
Summary of grid-side measures for voltage regulation.
Category Related references Solution measures Pros Cons
Shahnia et al. (2010) Reconductoring Effective in reducing the voltage Very expensive solution due to
Conventional
drop as larger cross-sections have low cost–benefit ratio
solutions
improved X/R ratio
Liu and Bebic (2008) Fixed/switched Simple and affordable solution for Overcompensation can occur and
capacitor improving voltage, reducing line this may require additional
losses and power factor (PF) voltage regulators
correction
Liu and Bebic (2008), OLTC Most common and existing Fast and frequent operation may
Haque and Wolfs (2016) solution in distribution networks stress the equipment
Echavarría et al. (2007), Solid state Faster response time than Number of limited switches and
Yang et al. (2013) OLTC conventional OLTCs operational discontinuity due to
Emerging step-wise control
solutions
Daratha et al. (2014) SVC Also increases power transmission Transforms into fixed
capability, stability and reduces capacitor/inductor when limit is
power losses reached (which makes it not
controllable at times)
Shah and Crow (2016), SST Also capable of reactive power Cost and feasibility is still under
Saleh et al. (2019), Sun compensation, frequency research
et al. (2020) regulation, power quality
improvement, and DER utilization
Ghosh and Ledwich DVR Mostly preferred compared to Ideal DVRs may not be effective
(2002), Vilathgamuwa other DFACTS devices due to in mitigating transients for
et al. (2006), Jowder smaller rating non-linear loads and the choice of
(2009), Babaei and Farhadi filter capacitor.
Kangarlu (2011)
Chen et al. (2013), Kumar DSTATCOM Ideal for voltage regulation, May need additional devices for
and Mishra (2014), Arya voltage unbalance, PF correction compensating the harmonic and
et al. (2015, 2016) and increasing the hosting neutral currents such as a zigzag
capacity of PVs transformer
Sayed and Takeshita UPFC Also capable of series Implementation and feasibility
(2011, 2014) compensation, multi-function still under research
power flow control, and
regulation of phase angle.

reduced by 25% when the synchronous generators were replaced with
large, high-voltage (HV) DC lines. This kind of large transitions without
sufficient inertial backing might make the grid vulnerable and can
lead to severe frequency stability issues even for a small transient
event. This demands the grid operators to explore additional frequency
support devices, controllers, additional reserves, and synthetic inertia
for frequency regulation.
Therefore, it is recommended for CI technologies such as PVs to
emulate frequency responses through various means such as smart
controllers, smart inverters, etc. Frequency deviation or rate of change
of frequency (ROCOF) can be included as an input to the PV controllers.
Many researchers have illustrated the capability of PV controllers to
generate inertial response and provide frequency support even without
the presence of any external energy storage (Xin et al., 2013; Morjaria
et al., 2014; Craciun et al., 2014; Remon et al., 2017b). Remon et al.
(2017b) analyzed the impact on a transmission power system of a large-
scale PV plant with virtual synchronous power converters by modeling
a synchronous power controller (SPC). The proposed SPC was able to
allow the PV system to react to power imbalances in the system, miti-
gating frequency transients by limiting both the ROCOF and frequency
deviation, effectively mitigating rotor angle and frequency stability
issues. Morjaria et al. (2014) proposed a PV plant controller with
various capabilities such as voltage control and regulation, voltage and
frequency fault ride-through, reactive and real power control, and also
ability to adhere to certain frequency response requirements such as
frequency droop controls. The proposed architecture claimed to resolve
both the voltage and frequency stability problems (using voltage and
power control) and mitigate the effects of intermittency with fault-ride
through and frequency droop control capabilities.
2.4. Harmonic compensation
The non-sinusoidal/harmonic currents drawn by the power elec-
tronic devices, such as non-linear loads and PV inverters, cause power
quality issues at the supply voltage side. The increase in the integration
of these devices can have a detrimental impact on the power quality of
distribution networks if left unattended. As PV inverters are a potential
source of harmonic distortions, it is imperative to analyze their impacts
especially with the alarming rise of grid-connected distributed PVs and
large-scale PV power plants. The harmonic issues that occur in the dis-
tribution networks due to the increase in PV penetration are discussed
in the first part of this review paper (Gandhi et al., 2020a). It is to be
noted that the harmonic distortions can become more severe during PV
ramping (up/down) and the effect is more pronounced with multiple
PV systems integrated into the grid (Ding et al., 2016). Harmonics
is one of the critical factor in determining the penetration levels of
inverter-based distributed generators such as PVs in the distribution
networks (Bhowmik et al., 2003; Sakar et al., 2018).
Harmonics in distribution networks are generally addressed us-
ing simple passive filters. However, passive filters are crammed with
problems such as resonance with line impedance, tuning difficulties,
fixed/step frequency (Beres et al., 2016). Active power filters (APFs) are
suitable alternatives as they can help in reactive power compensation,
voltage fluctuations and voltage unbalance issues apart from harmonic
compensation (Singh et al., 1999). Although APFs can typically cancel
out the entire harmonic distortions if implemented at all the nodes
with inverters/non-linear loads, this is impractical and expensive. In an
effort to avoid such extreme measure and to comply with the IEEE Stan-
dard which allows up to 5% harmonic distortion, many have plunged
into optimization of (siting and sizing) APFs (Keypour et al., 2004; Ziari
and Jalilian, 2012; Shivaie et al., 2014; Lakum and Mahajan, 2019).

206
D. Sampath Kumar et al.
DVRs, DSTATCOMs and unified power quality conditioner are other
viable options for harmonic compensation.
Though PV inverters are blamed for causing harmonic distortion,
smart inverters can also include APF function for harmonic compensa-
tion when connected to the point of common coupling (PCC) (Yang
et al., 2019b; Ouai et al., 2018). A coordinated control of multi-
functional inverters with harmonic compensation and reactive power
compensation is proposed by Yousef et al. (2018). However, one has
to keep in mind that adding more functions can incur additional cost
and reduce the reliability of the inverters. Moreover, the electrolytic
capacitors used in most of the devices such as APFs and PV inverters
are determined to be one of the most vulnerable devices which can
lead to power electronic device failures, especially in hot/dry envi-
ronment (Harb and Balog, 2013). Hence, in the future, capacitor-less
devices, such as the ones proposed by Rohouma et al. (2020), can be
used for harmonic as well as reactive power compensation.
2.5. Reactive power management
Traditionally, the reactive power support is provided by reactive
power devices, such as capacitor banks in distribution systems, and
STATCOM in transmission systems. Advances in inverter technologies
have enabled PV to also provide reactive power support.
At the moment, most PV inverters are still only generating active
power, firstly because of the previous regulations requiring unity PF,
and secondly because the PV owners are only compensated for active
power production; there is no incentives for reactive power support yet.
PV that is operating on unity power factor does not contribute to the
reactive power supply and harmonic current that are required by the
loads. Omar and Mahmoud (2018) found that seven 5-kWp PV systems
decreased the PF of a 400 kVA network during daytime, from 0.866 to
0.802.
Numerous benefits of PV reactive power support, both at the distri-
bution and transmission levels, have been reported in the literature.
Reactive power from PV can be used to mitigate both overvoltage
and undervoltage problems regardless if these problems arise from
the presence of PV systems (Tan, 2004), and to reduce the power
losses and system operational costs (Ziadi et al., 2014; Gandhi et al.,
2016). Voltage control through reactive power can prevent tripping of
PV which occurs because of automatic disconnection during overvolt-
age/undervoltage conditions (Tan, 2004). Moreover, it also improved
the voltage profile at the PCC at the medium voltage (MV) grid (23 kV).
According to Ding and Mather (2017), PV reactive power capability can
enable 150%–350% higher PV penetration.
At the transmission level, reactive power control of PV power plant
can also improve the frequency response, by reducing ROCOF, as
well as increasing the nadir and settling frequency (You et al., 2017).
During transient conditions, reactive power injection from PV, if well
coordinated, is found to be helpful for the system operations (Zhang
et al., 2012; Tielens and Van Hertem, 2016). In fact, PV without proper
dynamic reactive power capability is found to contribute to sustained
power system oscillations after disturbance nearby the PV plant.
Although now IEEE Standard 1547 has made reactive power capa-
bility mandatory for PV and other DERs, it made no mention about
remunerating the DER owners or operators. Nevertheless, it has been
shown that reactive power supplied by PV incurs cost in the form of
increased power losses in the inverter (Gandhi et al., 2018c; Braun,
2007) and reduced inverter lifetime (Gandhi et al., 2019). Although
PV is still not as effective as switched capacitors in providing reactive
power support (Gandhi et al., 2018a, 2017), it is increasingly becoming
so at higher PV penetration and higher inverter efficiency. Moreover,
combinations of PV and traditional reactive power devices can be more
effective than only one of them. Nonetheless, while PV reactive power
cost has been formulated for the distribution systems, it is yet to be
formulated for the case of transmission systems (Gandhi, 2019).
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There are also drawbacks associated with PV reactive power sup-
port. By absorbing reactive power, PV increases the current flowing
through the lines, reduces the PF and therefore increases the losses (Liu
et al., 2008). Moreover, it is imperative to have proper reactive power
control in place. Gandhi et al. (2020b) have shown that ineffective
reactive power control can worsen the voltage violations in systems
with high PV penetration. Reactive power control has to also take into
account the imbalance of PV installations across the three phases (Wang
et al., 2019).
There are a few strategies for PV to provide reactive power in the lit-
erature, namely active-power-dependent control (𝑄(𝑃 )) (Braun, 2009;
Samadi et al., 2014), voltage-dependent or droop control (𝑄(𝑉 )) (Ja-
hangiri and Aliprantis, 2013; Braun, 2009; Gandhi et al., 2018b) and
optimized control (Kekatos et al., 2014; Ziadi et al., 2014; Gandhi
et al., 2018d). Most 𝑄(𝑃 ) and 𝑄(𝑉 ) controls are local controls while
the optimized controls can be local, distributed, or centralized.
Fig. 3 illustrates the possible PV reactive power outputs under
different reactive power controls. Fig. 3(a) displays (𝑄(𝑃 )) control for a
particular PF. When the PF is different, then the slope of the blue line in
Fig. 3(a) changes accordingly. 𝑄PV PV
max and 𝑄min refers to the maximum
and minimum allowed PV reactive power output, while 𝑃 PV,rated and
𝑆 inv,rated are the DC rating and AC inverter rating of the PV system.
It is possible for 𝑄PV
max , 𝑃
PV,rated , and 𝑆 inv,rated to have the same value.
𝑉min , 𝑉max , and 𝑉ref are the minimum, maximum, and reference values
of voltage magnitude of the system/node where the PV installation is
located. 𝑉lo and 𝑉hi are the voltage references for the droop control.
2.5.1. Active-power-dependent control
𝑄(𝑃 ) controls generally come in two forms: (i) constant (shown in
Fig. 3(a)) and (ii) varying PF control. Leading (lagging) PF means that
the PV is injecting (absorbing) reactive power to (from) the system.
Absorbing reactive power from the system will lower the voltage
and reduce the voltage variation between periods of high and low
irradiance (Tan, 2004).
In constant PF control, a particular PV system maintains a fixed
PF, e.g. 0.9 lagging, in order to regulate the voltage of the system.
For varying PF control, the reactive power output typically follows
Eq. (1) (Zhao et al., 2018).
{
𝛼(𝑃 PV − 𝑃 PV,th ) 𝑃 PV > 𝑃 PV,th
PV
𝑄 = (1)
0 𝑃 PV ≤ 𝑃 PV,th
where 𝛼 is a constant and 𝑃 PV,th is a threshold PV power, above which
overvoltage problem is probable or expected.
2.5.2. Droop control
The PV reactive power output in droop control is based on the
voltage magnitude at the respective node, as illustrated in Fig. 3(b).
The PV inverters will absorb (inject) reactive power if the voltage is
above (below) a certain value. The higher the voltage deviation of the
node, then the higher the magnitude of the reactive power support.
Because of that, PV inverters at the end of distribution feeders are
usually required to provide more reactive power support.
2.5.3. Optimized reactive power output
For this category, the reactive power outputs from PV are not
determined by the voltage or the PV active power output, but by
many parameters in the grid — the extent depends on the optimization
algorithms and the level at which they operate, local, distributed, or
centralized. The objectives of the optimization varies as mentioned
in Gandhi et al. (2020a). The optimized reactive power outputs are
bounded by the inverter and PV rating, as shown in Fig. 3(c).
Centralized optimization assumes that there is a communication link
between the central controller and each of the PV in the system. The
central controller needs to have access to the grid topology, power
flows, load and generation data, etc., and computes the optimal reactive
D. Sampath Kumar et al.
Fig. 3. Mechanism of different types of reactive power control: (a) active-power-dependent control (𝑄(𝑃 )) with fixed PF, (b) droop control (𝑄(𝑉 )), and (c) optimized control.
power output for each PV in the system based on those parame-
ters (Gandhi et al., 2018d). Centralized optimization typically is the
best in terms of performance compared with other optimizations. Nev-
ertheless, although it might be reasonably implemented in transmission
systems with utility-scale PV, in distribution systems with countless
small PV installations, the centralized control might not be suitable.
Distributed control still requires some forms of communication, but
is usually limited among the distributed generation/controller within
a particular area (Zhang et al., 2014; Tang et al., 2019). The data
required for the optimization varies depending on the algorithms. Since
there are multiple controllers in the system, it is more robust to failures
(Zhang et al., 2018b).
On the other end of the spectrum is local optimization, where only
local information is used by PV to optimize its reactive power output.
Since there is no access to global information, it is difficult for the PV
to optimize the reactive power support for a global objective function,
such as minimizing operating cost of the system. Recently, there have
been some works proposing local optimization algorithms capable of
optimizing global variables (Sondermeijer et al., 2019; Dobbe et al.,
2018; Bellizio et al., 2018; Gandhi et al., 2020b).
2.6. Storage & inertia requirements
Energy storage and reserves can provide immense benefits in im-
proving grid stability and reliability. Besides the PV smoothing func-
tions, they can also provide ancillary services such as voltage and
frequency regulation, harmonics compensation, etc. This subsection
mainly explores the benefits of storage (mainly battery energy stor-
age system (BESS)) and reserves in mitigating the issues due to PV
integration, i.e. helping in PV smoothing and improving the network
voltage and frequency. For other applications of energy storage systems
(ESS), such as for energy arbitrage, increasing PV self-consumption
in buildings, and decarbonizing the electricity sector, the readers are
referred to Denholm et al. (2013), de Sisternes et al. (2016), Davies
et al. (2019), Lamont (2013), Luerssen et al. (2019).
2.6.1. BESS for PV power smoothing
An important and convenient way of mitigating the overvoltage
issues in power networks with a large amount of PVs is by using ESS to
absorb the excess PV power. Among the various ESS available, such as
supercapacitors, BESS, pumped hydro storage, flywheels, compressed
air energy storage, BESS can be easily coupled with PV inverters
and also have the potential to address the problems caused by PV
intermittencies. According to Chen et al. (2019) and Rallabandi et al.
(2019), BESS can smooth the PV power output to mitigate the issues
related to intermittency using ramp rate control. The same can also be
done via power processing using a low-pass or moving average filter,
as suggested by Ellis et al. (2012) and Ceja-Espinosa and Espinosa-
Juárez (2017). Using the proposed methodology, the BESS can charge
or discharge whenever the PV output exceeds the set limits, thus effec-
tively smoothing the PV power output and mitigating the short-term
fluctuations of PV power.
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2.6.2. BESS for voltage regulation
Furthermore, BESS is also capable of voltage regulation at both
distribution and transmission scales. Considering the challenge in co-
ordinating ESS with conventional voltage regulators, a coordinated
control of energy storage and OLTCs for mitigating the voltage rise
problems in PV integrated distribution networks have been proposed
by Liu et al. (2012). Sugihara et al. (2013) have proposed an interesting
voltage management strategy that uses customer-owned ESS, where the
network operators control these ESS for a specific period of time in
exchange for a subsidy that can cover a part of the initial ESS cost.
The PV intermittencies on a distribution network have been studied,
and a charging and discharging control strategy has been proposed
by Alam et al. (2013) for mitigating the voltage rise problems and also
supporting evening peak load demand. Yang et al. (2014) proposed a
sizing strategy for BESS to achieve voltage regulation and peak shaving
functions for a distribution network with PVs and was successful in
achieving the intended purpose. Apart from achieving the technical
objectives, this method has also be applied for the cost–benefit anal-
ysis of BESS under various PV penetration levels. Abdelrazek and
Kamalasadan (2014) proposed a storage management system control
scheme that is capable of reactive power dispatch for voltage regu-
lation purposes. A control strategy for improving the voltage quality
combining multiple DERs such as BESS, EVs, hybrid PVs, and wind
systems have been proposed in Behravesh et al. (2019). Recently,
coordinated control strategy of BESS based on distributed control and
model predictive control (MPC) methods have gained much attention
by researchers for solving voltage regulation problems (Wang et al.,
2016; Golsorkhi et al., 2017; Guo et al., 2019; Krata and Saha, 2019).
2.6.3. BESS for frequency regulation
The functionalities of BESS in frequency regulation when connected
with large PV systems have been discussed by Omran et al. (2011)
and Delille et al. (2012). A rule-based BESS controller was proposed
by Chen et al. (2016) that can aggregate the distributed BESS for
participating in frequency regulation. This study also analyzed the
optimal penetration level of BESS using control performance stan-
dards proposed by National American Electricity Reliability Coopera-
tion (NERC) (Atic et al., 2004). In a separate study, Shi et al. (2018)
developed a joint optimization framework to demonstrate the economic
gains from using BESS for peak shaving and frequency regulation. An
adaptive dynamic programming based ESS control strategy that assists
in frequency stability of PV-dominated microgrids is proposed by Mu
et al. (2019). The proposed method was shown to be superior to other
standard machine learning approaches such as proportional integra-
tion differentiation control, fuzzy logic control, and learning quadratic
controller. Summarizing the above methods, we can see that BESS can
compensate or absorb fluctuations in power supply to maintain nodal
voltages and frequency, positioning BESS as a potential solution among
the many solutions proposed for mitigating PV intermittency issues.
D. Sampath Kumar et al.
Though frequency regulation can be emulated using appropriate
planning and control of the CI distributed resources such as PV, ESS,
and EV, it is necessary to acknowledge that there are major differences
in the frequency regulation provided by these devices and synchronous
machines. The rise and influence of CI devices in frequency regulation
of power networks have been detailed by Ye et al. (2019). The extensive
analysis of the paper (Ye et al., 2019) can be summarized as: The CI
devices react to the frequency deviations according to their control pro-
grams, however, the synchronous machines provides inherent inertial
responses through their controllable input power. The CI devices can
utilize the control technology of voltage source converters and provide
primary and secondary responses in multiple timescales. However, after
the interim frequency support, during the restoration period, these
CI devices have to recover from its operation at a sub-optimal point,
which can lead to secondary frequency drop due to its reduction in
power output. Hence, further research on the frequency regulation of
CI devices, which includes control of time-dependent energy reserves,
aggregate modeling of large-scale CI, control, and coordination of CI
devices in multiple timescales is recommended.
2.6.4. Inertial measures
Another problem that has been highlighted in Part I of our review
(Gandhi et al., 2020a) due to the high penetration of PV is reduced
network inertia that is currently faced by many countries with high
renewable penetration. Several grid-scale mitigation measures, such
as synchronous condensers and fast response ESS (batteries, super-
capacitors and flywheels), have been explored by different countries
such as the United States and Britain in dealing with the decreasing
inertia challenge (PPA Energy, 2013). Due to its fast-acting nature, ESS
can be considered as an effective device to arrest frequency changes
following a contingency event by rapidly injecting active power. Dis-
tributed control that is based on ESS for grid stability enhancement
has been gaining more attention recently (Mercier et al., 2009; Soni
et al., 2013; Hammad et al., 2019). The principle of the controllers
is to charge/discharge power during and after transients in order to
restore the stability. So, any inverter-based devices that can provide
fast frequency response can be used as potential mitigation solutions
for grid with low inertia. However, it is to be noted that these devices
provide inertia at a cost whereas physical inertia is free. Moreover,
these devices may have a delay of around 0.1 to 0.5 s for a 50 Hz system
to respond to a frequency change assuming a delay of 2 to 3 cycles for
frequency measurement (considering processing, filtering and signaling
time of 20 ms) (Miller et al., 2017). This kind of delay can lead to
catastrophic under-frequency load shedding even before these devices
respond for networks with high renewable penetration. Hence, before
completely opting for inverter based resources to emulate synthetic
inertia, it is necessary to consider their characteristics, practicality,
opportunity cost and economics.
The concept of providing external inertia has evolved into a new
term that is coined as a virtual synchronous generator (VSG). When a
short-term energy storage and combined with suitable power electronic
converters , it can behave as a VSG and emulate virtual inertia, as
shown in Fig. 4 (Zhang et al., 2018a). Such a VSG replicates the behav-
ior of a synchronous machine for short time intervals and contributes
to the frequency regulation. A detailed survey on the fundamentals and
concepts of VSG has been elaborated by Bevrani et al. (2014). Many
recent research works have proposed the idea of virtual inertia control
methods using ESS, especially for frequency regulation in network with
high renewables such as PVs (Soni et al., 2013; Torres L. et al., 2014;
Fang et al., 2018; Alipoor et al., 2018).
2.7. Generation planning and dispatch
With increasing PV penetration in the grid, an increasingly re-
duced inertia is inevitable. Apart from introducing virtual inertia as
mentioned previously in Section 2.6, it is also necessary to retain a
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proportion of the total generation using synchronous generators for
retaining inherent inertia and maintaining grid stability (Eftekharnejad
et al., 2015; Nghitevelekwa and Bansal, 2018; Kumar et al., 2019;
Johnson et al., 2019; Kumar et al., 2020a). The dispatch flexibility
of conventional generators to accommodate more varying renewable
sources has also been reanalyzed by nations like China (CCCPC (Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China), 2016) and India (NREL,
2017). Various studies have been conducted to identify the optimal
dispatch ratio of conventional generation that is both economical and
will not compromise on the power system stability considering the
PV penetration levels. However, this process is expected to be tedious
and further complicated by other considerations such as contractual
obligations of existing generators and/or spinning reserve requirements
to adhere to Susanto et al. (2018). The constant need to balance the eco-
nomics and operational system stability further worsens the difficulty
in economic dispatch. For instance, the research work by Remon et al.
(2017a) deduced that high penetration of PV brings substantial benefits
in economics and sustainability, but the resulting decrease in the ratio
of power generated by synchronous generators reduces the total inertia
of the system which is often undesirable. Thus, there exists a need to
find the right balance between the trade-offs of economics and stability,
which is a big challenge with increasing PV integration into the grids.
This subsection identifies the necessary solutions that can be obtained
from the existing conventional generation sources for increasing the
hosting capacity of PVs without violating the grid constraints.
2.7.1. Dispatch strategy
Generation dispatch and rescheduling strategies have the capability
of alleviating concerns about rotor angle stability and may also be able
to achieve an economic dispatch ratio of PV systems and conventional
synchronous generators. As illustrated earlier, the constant need to
find a balance between economics and operational system stability is
one of the key challenges in the widespread integration of PV systems
into the grid. According to Eftekharnejad et al. (2015), a dispatch
strategy can be defined as a control strategy that pertains to the
power output adjustment from the other generators for maintaining the
balance of generation and load. Eftekharnejad et al. (2015) determined
optimal dispatch ratios (ratio of generator displacement/replacement to
generator dispatch) for long-term generation planning and dispatch by
analyzing the system response in transient state and steady-state sepa-
rately. Transient response was studied using the frequency and voltage
profile and a 45% dispatch ratio was initially recommended. However,
in steady-state analysis, the probability of voltage excursions beyond
the acceptable limits was used to determine the optimal dispatch ratio
and the ideal levels was found to be approximately 71%. Similarly, a
generator scheduling strategy was proposed by Kumar et al. (2020a)
for a Texas 2000-bus case considering the criticality of generators.
The authors determined a 60% generator dispatch with 40% generator
displacement to be the best dispatch index for the test system used.
Othman and Busan (2016) proposed a rescheduling strategy using a
normalized participation factor (NPF) index to identify critical genera-
tors for rescheduling to fulfill certain stability objectives and compared
the results against the weighted-average sensitivity of stability index
approach. It was found that the NPF approach was more appropriate
and cost-effective. Papadopoulos and Milanović (2017) classified the
critical generators using probabilistic assessment and engaged them in
dispatching operation considering the transient stability indices. From
their simulation results, retaining a spare generation capacity of 15%
can assure that the transient stability is maintained for the test system
used. In the generation rescheduling algorithm proposed by Fan et al.
(2018), variances of branch power flows caused by uncertainties and
the thermal limits of branches were used in the generation rescheduling
control algorithm. Comparisons were made with the proposed algo-
rithm and the conventional participation factor control algorithm, and
it was concluded that the proposed rescheduling control algorithm
was much better in reducing the variances of branch power flows. In
D. Sampath Kumar et al.
Fig. 4. Representation of a virtual synchronous generator (Zhang et al., 2018a).
another study, Fan et al. (2013) proposed a probabilistic optimal power
dispatching strategy with cost minimization as the primary objective
having constraints such as overload probability threshold. Results from
simulations found that total cost is the highest without dispatching,
but the proposed strategy still costs more than an economic dispatch
approach that disregards the overload probabilities.
Based on the numerous works studied, different approaches with
varying objectives tend to yield different dispatch strategies. Hence, it is
essential to research further on the generation dispatch accounting for
both the grid stability, the associated generator costs, and the objective
to be achieved. It is also recommended to consider other intermittent
renewable sources in combination with PVs to have a realistic energy
mix as in Lund (2006) and coordinated dispatch while solving the
generation dispatching problems (NREL, 2017). Moreover, it is signifi-
cant to select the timescale of operation (real-time dispatch/day-ahead
dispatch/long-term dispatch) and include the uncertainty of renew-
ables, generation cost, impact of forecasting errors in the generation
scheduling problem for an integral and in-depth analysis.
2.7.2. Flexible conventional generation
Improving the flexibility of conventional power plants can be con-
sidered as an interim solution for accommodating the variability and
uncertainties that are caused by the increasing penetration of renew-
able energy. These conventional sources can be made more flexible
by improving the operational practices of the generators by using
emerging technological advancements such as data analytics, real-
time monitoring or, by using retrofitting options (physical component
change/operational modifications). According to IRENA (2019a), the
specific objectives of flexibilization can be listed as:
• Shorter start-up timeto quickly reach full load
• Lower minimum load and improved part-load efficiency for in-
creasing the bandwidth of their operation
• Higher ramp rate can change its production in line with the system
needs
• Shorter minimum uptime and runtime can allow a plant to react
rapidly
One of the main objectives of flexible and refurbished power plants,
which is reducing the renewable energy curtailment has been achieved
in many countries such as Germany, Denmark, China, India and United
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States (IRENA, 2019a). The retrofitting option can also be implemented
with ESS such as in California at Southern California Edison’s Center
Peaker, where the gas power plant was coupled with BESS (Interna-
tional Energy Agency, 2019). Here, the BESS engages in fulfilling the
spinning reserve requirements for the first few minutes followed by
the generator after it ramps up to its entire capacity. The employment
of new and innovative generation technologies, the use of multiple
smaller/modular power sources instead of the large power plants,
transition to lower efficiency open cycle gas turbines are the other
options towards flexible conventional generation.
2.8. Adaptive protection and changes required in switch gear
Given that the integration of PV systems to the grid can change the
behavior and the magnitude of fault current and might cause protection
failures (Gandhi et al., 2020a), protection schemes now must encounter
and adapt to these new threats to ensure a resilient power system. Over
the years, there has been a significant amount of research to mitigate
these adverse impacts of PVs that can expose the power network to po-
tential damage. A detailed survey on the impacts of distributed energy
resources (DERs), including PVs on the distribution grid on a protection
aspect and the protection alternatives, are discussed by Gopalan et al.
(2014), van der Walt et al. (2018), Razavi et al. (2019) and Barra et al.
(2020).
The most common practice followed by the distribution system
operators during a fault condition is to disconnect all the connected
PVs in order to maintain relay coordination according to the previous
IEEE standard 1547 (IEEE, 2003) which is still followed by many
countries. However, this practice can lead to voltage flickers, and grid
instability issues as too many generators are disconnected at the same
time. This will also cause re-synchronization problems when the PV are
reconnecting to the network. In order to solve these grid stability issues,
previous standards were revised and amended (IEEE Standard Associ-
ation, 2018), where the DERs were allowed to ride-through the fault
according to the low-voltage ride-through characteristics and provide
reactive power support. These new grid codes can significantly improve
the reliability of networks with large PV penetration and potentially
avoid deteriorating events such as voltage collapse.
Distribution lines are generally protected by fuses, reclosers, and
over-current relays (OCRs), which operate on the principle of fault
D. Sampath Kumar et al.
Fig. 5. Classification of protection schemes with DERs based on literature work.
current levels. However, when these fault current levels become vary-
ing due to the presence of any distributed generation sources such
as PVs, the conventional OCRs may not be sufficient for line protec-
tion, which makes it necessary to explore new protection schemes.
In general, the fault current induced by inverter-based generators is
insignificant, e.g. PV inverters’ fault current is limited to 2 p.u. Hence,
protection schemes should have the capability to distinguish between
a fault event and an abnormal loading condition. Nonetheless, these
issues become predominant in microgrids/distribution networks when
operated in islanded condition making the protection schemes even
more challenging. It is also to be noted that the fault current injected
by synchronous-based DERs is much higher than the inverter-based
DERs, and the extent of fault current variation and voltage violation
depends on the location and penetration level of the DERs. Therefore,
the designed protection schemes should be capable of working in the
presence of both DERs and consider their different penetration levels.
The main technical factors that influence the design of protection
schemes are:
• Type of network (radial/ring/meshed)
• Changes in network topology
• Types of DERs (synchronous-based or inverter-based)
• Penetration levels of DERs
The design of the protection schemes for systems with high DER pen-
etration can be broadly classified into adaptive and non-adaptive pro-
tection schemes. Relays in adaptive protection must adapt to changing
fault levels in power systems, while non-adaptive protection schemes
aim to reduce or block fault currents from PV systems during fault
periods (Telukunta et al., 2017). Non-adaptive protection schemes were
initially recommended as it does not require revision of relay settings
for changes in the fault current. One of the popular non-adaptive
protection schemes is the use of fault current limiters (FCLs) due to
their ability to limit the fault current injected by the DERs such as
PVs (Shahriari et al., 2010). Several works in the literature (Shahriari
et al., 2012; Esmaeili et al., 2016; Elmitwally et al., 2016; Zhang
et al., 2017b) also suggested the optimal location of FCLs considering
the protection coordination in the feeder with DERs. Inverter control
strategies are also applied to limit the fault currents induced by the
DERs (Yazdanpanahi et al., 2012; Bottrell and Green, 2014; Jalilian
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Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221
et al., 2015; Sadeghkhani et al., 2017). However, care should be taken
while implementing the current limiting circuitry in these methods, as
it can result in overvoltages for some unbalanced faults (Salem et al.,
2017).
According to Rockefeller et al. (1988), adaptive protection could
be defined as ‘‘an online activity that modifies the preferred protective
response to a change in system conditions or requirements. It is usually
automatic, but can include timely human intervention’’. Meanwhile,
an adaptive relay is defined as ‘‘a relay that can have its settings,
characteristics or logic functions changed online in a timely manner
by means of externally generated signals or control action’’. In other
words, having an adaptive protection means having dynamic protection
settings in the relays according to the changing fault current levels in
the distribution network. Subsequently, the question on the time to
change the protection setting emerges. Sherbilla et al. (2011) suggested
that protection settings of OCRs should be changed with the addition
of DERs in the grid. And with the capabilities of digital relays to store
different groups of settings, research on proposing dynamic settings
according to the type of DERs and network topology was started to
overcome the impacts of DERs and avoid the installation of FCLs.
However, when the OCRs are equipped with predefined settings con-
sidering some network conditions, the uncertainties of the connected
renewable sources may not be captured appropriately, which may lead
to relay malfunctioning for some events. Considering this factor, many
researchers (Zamani et al., 2012; Laaksonen et al., 2014; Coffele et al.,
2015; Kumar et al., 2016; Ojaghi and Mohammadi, 2018) proposed
dynamic protection settings of OCR according to the change in the
network conditions for distribution systems and microgrids.
As the conventional distribution networks are becoming more
meshed in nature with increasing penetration of DERs, researchers
started employing directional over-current relays (DOCRs) and in-
cluded control algorithms for distribution systems (El-Khattam and
Sidhu, 2009; Ezzeddine et al., 2011; Saleh et al., 2015; Huchel and
Zeineldin, 2016; Papaspiliotopoulos et al., 2017; Kumar et al., 2018;
Chabanloo et al., 2018). While many used machine-learning-based ap-
proaches for the optimization of DOCR coordination, other researchers
(Eriksson et al., 2015; Cintuglu et al., 2017; Habib et al., 2017) also
examined the multi-agent methods for adaptive protection. The relia-
bility and selectivity of the DOCRs are mainly ensured by the protection
coordination strategy. Hence, changes in the settings considering the
D. Sampath Kumar et al. Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221

Table 2
Executive summary of real case studies stating grid impacts due to high PV integration and solutions.
References Country Test network studied Impacts considered Proposed mitigation strategies
Johnson et al. (2019) US Electric Reliability Grid stability (Inertial Rotational inertia of conventional
Council of Texas strength) generators
Kumar et al. (2020a) US Texas 2000 bus (built Grid stability (voltage, Generator dispatch strategy
on footprint of Texas) frequency, rotor angle) considering criticality of generators.
Eftekharnejad et al. (2015) US Western Electricity Grid stability (voltage, Generator dispatch ratio considering
Coordinating Council frequency) bus criticality indices
(WECC)
Fan et al. (2018) US Arizona area of WECC Load flow constraints Generator rescheduling based on
along with PV and load probabilistic method
uncertainty
Remon et al. (2017a) Chile Northern Chile Grid stability (frequency) PV power plants enabled with
synchronous power controllers
Alam et al. (2013) Australia New South Wales Voltage rise and reverse ESS used for evening peak support
Distribution system power flow and mitigating PV impacts
Krata and Saha (2019) Australia South-East Queensland, Voltage regulation Real-time voltage control
Australia coordination with ESS based on MPC
Rafi et al. (2016) Australia LV network, Brisbane Voltage rise Hierarchical control selection using
available network resources and
installation of new devices
Rafi et al. (2020) Australia LV network, Brisbane Voltage unbalance Review of various techniques for
reducing neutral current. Converter
based ones are recommended for the
tested network
Muttaqi et al. (2015) Australia Distribution network of Voltage regulation Coordinated voltage control of OLTC,
Aurora Energy voltage regulator and DERs
Maharjan et al. (2020) UK United Kingdom Voltage stability A portion of induction motor loads
general distribution replaced by variable speed drive
system loads
Delille et al. (2012) France French Frequency Ultra-capacitor based distributed ESS
island-Guadeloupe for dynamic frequency control
Guo et al. (2019) Finland Two 20 kV distribution Voltage regulation Coordinated voltage control of ESS,
feeders OLTC and DERs based on MPC
Laaksonen et al. (2014) Finland Hailuoto island Protection Adaptive protection and microgrid
control system
Esmaeili et al. (2016) Iran Two distribution Protection Optimal planning of FCL using
feeders of Sirjan stochastic method
Salem et al. (2017) Egypt Nediba distribution Protection Inverter control to perform role of
system FCL
Ouai et al. (2018) Japan Wakkanai project Harmonics Hierarchical control strategy of
central station active power generation, reactive
power compensation and filtering
Susanto et al. (2018) Indonesia Lampung, Nusa Grid stability (voltage, Technical framework to integrate
Bangladesh Tenggara, Sulawesi frequency) large PV plants to weak power
Philippines Tenggara (Indonesia) distribution systems
Kishoreganj
(Bangladesh)
Tarlac (Philippines)
Reindl and SERIS (2020), Singapore 22 kV distribution Future PV deployment, No immediate concerns for 2 GWp of
Pandey et al. (2020) networks (for grid grid stability, policy & PV by 2030, mitigation measures &
impacts) regulatory policy changes suggested for high
recommendations penetration
NREL (2017) India All five operating Grid economics and Policy and network operational
regions (grid) stability changes discussed for increasing
renewable penetration

uncertainties of DERs and topology changes while maintaining the
coordination are necessary while designing the adaptive schemes.
There are also alternatives to adaptive OCRs and DOCRs for the pro-
tection of distribution lines with DERs, namely differential protection
and distance protection schemes. However, the suggested relays are
much more expensive than OCRs. Moreover, differential relays require
communication between the relays connected in a distribution line for
its operation, and any sort of communication failure may lead to relay
failure (van der Walt et al., 2018). High penetration of renewables can
also affect the zone settings in distance relay protection on lines that are
upstream and cause under-reach or over-reach issues (Telukunta et al.,
2017) Moreover, these protection schemes may work well only for MV
and HV transmission lines. Hence, adaptive distance and differential
protection with PVs on distribution lines still need more research before
they can be applied in real life.
Based on the works that are available in the literature, the protec-
tion schemes for the distribution systems/microgrids can be broadly
classified as shown in Fig. 5. While designing a protection scheme, the
type of network, the possible DERs to be connected, communication
architecture, grid constraints, cost, and trip time of the relays should
be considered. Clearly, the need for traditional protection schemes

212
D. Sampath Kumar et al.
to adapt to the changing requirements of a grid integrated with PV
systems remains a challenge.
Table 2 presents an executive summary of some of the real case
studies stating the grid impacts due to high PV penetration and their
corresponding mitigation strategies/solutions.
3. Combination of solution measures
The majority of solutions that help in grid robustness and stabiliza-
tion have been elaborated in the previous section. This section provides
a collective summary of the above-mentioned solutions and some of the
emerging techniques suggested in the literature works to solve the PV
intermittency issues. The following subsections then attempt to map the
different grid solutions that can solve the grid stability issues caused by
PV. The existing and upcoming mitigation measures for grid stability
and reliability can therefore be broadly grouped under the following
two main categories, as outlined in Fig. 1:
• Supply and demand-side management
• Installing new equipment
3.1. Supply and demand-side management
With increasing PV penetration, sufficient flexibility will be needed
to respond to the variations and uncertainties of PV output, and respon-
sive load will become increasingly valuable. Thus, innovative method-
ologies need to be developed to ensure real-time balancing between
demand and supply. As mentioned earlier in Section 2, the act of PV
curtailment, the use of flexible power generation, an efficient dispatch
strategy, and accurate solar forecasting can help in proper supply–
demand management and reserve allocation. Here, some of the other
measures such as the concept of firm generation, demand response
management, geographical diversity of PV systems, and PV fleet man-
agement that can assist in supply and demand-side management are
discussed.
PV curtailment is always the instant solution used by the utilities
to solve voltage issues. And, until today this method has been heavily
criticized by renewable energy developers and many environmental
advocacy organizations as an inefficient method that wastes renewable
energy. However, terms such as ‘‘economic curtailment’’, ‘‘overbuild-
ing/oversizing’’, ‘‘firm generation’’ and ‘‘implicit storage’’ are becoming
the recent topics of discussion among PV researchers to increase the
hosting capacity of PV. Economic curtailment is a concept where the
process of curtailing is much more cost-effective compared to grid
feed-in even while considering the declining cost of storage. Similar
to the idea of oversizing conventional generation assets, overbuild-
ing/oversizing PVs can be done to ensure sufficient capacity in case of
low irradiance. Firm PV generation simply means seamless, effectively
dispatchable solar power generation similar to conventional power
sources (Perez et al., 2019). The term ‘‘implicit storage’’ is introduced
by Perez et al. (2020) as the overbuilt/curtailable amount of PV that
enables operational curtailment without loss of planned production.
All the above mentioned terms indicate that instead of the ‘‘bottom-
up’’ approach where we focus on solution strategies to facilitate inter-
mittent renewable power flows, one can also look into a ‘‘top-down’’
approach where the supply-side PV is shaped/firmed up to solve the
problem of intermittency. By drawing case studies on the State of
Minnesota, Perez et al. (2019) argued that a combination of proactive
curtailment and PV overbuilding can achieve PV firm generation at
the lowest cost in comparison to storage-only solutions. Furthermore,
he also suggested that strategies such as load flexibility/demand-side
management and geographical dispersion can compliment firm PV
generation. A firm solar forecast strategy that revolves around implicit
storage to solve load-balance uncertainty problem was suggested as an
alternative to the probabilistic forecast methods (Perez et al., 2020).
Through a New York case study (where the entire load is supplied by
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Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221
PVs), the authors asserted that the proposed forecast strategy combined
with implicit storage can likely result in lower electricity production
costs, even below the present New York independent system operator’s
wholesale market prices.
Demand response (DR) is one of the critical mechanisms of demand-
side management (Logenthiran et al., 2012). Traditionally, DR pro-
grams have been designed to help utilities meet peak load require-
ments, security improvement, congestion management, alleviate local
distribution system constraints, or to mitigate grid emergencies. More-
over, DR, when adequately designed, could be a viable resource for
managing system balancing issues associated with integrating large-
scale PV generation (Watson, 2013). Energy demand management can
also help in mitigating intermittencies by efficient usage of energy (via
smart meters) and time-of-use pricing, which can smooth the demand
curve.
A good geographical diversity of PV systems can also be exploited
to tackle the problems of intermittency. As discussed earlier, one of the
main reasons for PV intermittency is the weather variations, such as
the shading effect from passing cloud cover. However, shading effects
from cloud cover are typically expected to be localized within a certain
area and can be mitigated when PV systems are installed across a wide
area of high geographical diversity (Nghitevelekwa and Bansal, 2018).
Fares (2015) associated an increase the in predictability of renewable
generation to both geographic diversity and the ‘‘law of large numbers’’.
The ‘‘law of large numbers’’ states that the aggregated result of many
uncertain processes like PV output can become more predictable as the
total number of PVs increase. This averaging effect on PV generation
is evident from SERIS (2013) where the solar power output for a large
number of PV systems (around 10,000 PV systems) with 1 min data
across Singapore has a relatively smoother profile than the measured
irradiance for a single PV system. However, this effect may be more
pronounced in countries with larger geographical area such as the US
and Australia. Therefore, there is clearly some value in factoring the
geographical diversity of PV systems during the planning stages to allay
concerns regarding intermittency.
3.2. Installing new equipment
Depending on the specific characteristics of the grid, the residual
grid stabilization needs can be addressed with hardware solutions at
both central and local levels. Various equipment-based solutions have
been proposed, and many are in practice to mitigate the intermittency
of PV and maintain the grid stability. A brief discussion of the same
is stated by Reindl and SERIS (2020) and Pandey et al. (2020) using
a Singapore case study. Most of the equipment to be installed in the
power network that assists in the grid stability, such as BESS, D-FACTS,
solid-state OLTCs, SSTs, VSGs, and adaptive relays have been discussed
in the earlier subsections.
The evolution of smart inverters, which may possess advanced func-
tionalities, may render the use of legacy equipment such as capacitor
banks, voltage regulators and OLTCs, unnecessary for grid support.
The new IEEE standard for DER interconnection (IEEE Standard As-
sociation, 2018) requires the inverters to be capable of providing
voltage regulation in distribution feeders. Moreover, apart from voltage
regulation, frequency support, and ride-through capabilities, the smart
inverters are also expected to possess functionalities such as ramping,
soft start, dynamic current support, power output scheduling, dynamic
load control, and harmonic control (Olowu et al., 2018). The advanced
inverter functionalities can help in avoiding oscillatory behavior such
as inverter hunting (Horowitz et al., 2019) and can also assist in solving
the voltage issues associated with PVs in the power network.
The installation of grid-tied PV systems also requires installing
relays such as minimum import relays (MIR) and reverse power flow
relays (RPFR) in the grid (Olowu et al., 2018). MIRs are the relays that
trip the grid-connected PV whenever the PV power output goes above
or beyond a certain threshold value whereas the RPFR is necessary for
D. Sampath Kumar et al.
disconnecting the PV from the grid to prevent the power flow in reverse
direction. Both these relays are suggested for alleviating the impacts of
reverse power flow and prevent voltage instability in the power grid.
Table 3 describes the grid issues that can occur at high PV penetra-
tion and the various mitigation strategies that are currently employed
today and future measures discussed in this section.
3.3. An integral approach
While previously the proposed measures which aim to handle the
issues related to high PV penetration installations were described in-
dividually, studies have shown how some of these solution measures
can be combined to reach a better outcome in the system perfor-
mance. Calderaro et al. (2014) proposed an approach to enhance the PV
penetration by controlling the reactive/active power from the inverters
by applying a neural-networks-based algorithm. With their case study
(in a distribution grid from Italy) they demonstrated that losses can
be reduced while increasing the hosting capacity. Other works have
also proposed the combination of optimizing the reactive and active
power output of the inverter (Delfino et al., 2012; Moawwad et al.,
2013; Olivier et al., 2015). A combination of reactive power control and
active power curtailment has also been done by Weckx et al. (2014) to
handle high PV penetrations. Furthermore, reactive power generation
from the inverters has been combined with the addition of storage de-
vices (Hashemi et al., 2013). There, the authors have demonstrated that
with reactive power control, the required size of the applied battery can
effectively be reduced (by around 30%), while keeping the grid voltage
within the desired range. In Kabir et al. (2014), this same combination
was applied in residential distribution networks. They conclude that,
although the reactive power capabilities from the inverters are enough
to assure proper grid voltage considering a urban grid, batteries must
also be considered to assure grid quality when dealing with rural grids
(as these tend to have a higher line resistance). Adhikari and Li (2014)
also applied this combination to deal with islanded microgrids to assure
proper frequency and voltage support on the grid. In the work of Stetz
et al. (2014), a control on the reactive power generation from the PV
inverters and the stage of the tap transformers is discussed and applied
on 40 distribution grids from Germany. There, they showed how their
approach can be cost-effective with respect to the conventional grid
extension measures to handle the voltage constraints (cost reduction
potential of up to 75%). Jashfar and Esmaeili (2014) developed a multi-
objective algorithm for a optimal dispatch schedule of OLTCs, capacitor
banks and PV inverters to assure proper power quality on distribution
grids as well as to reduce the operation period from the transformers
and capacitors when a high PV penetration is considered. Rafi et al.
(2016) have proposed a hierarchical control selection where the avail-
able distribution network resources such as ESS/DSTATCOMs are first
used, followed by installation of new devices such as smart inverters
(based on penetration levels, standards, economics) to mitigate the
voltage rise problems in LV distribution networks. Thus, with growing
renewable penetration, adding new equipment/technologies and an
integral approach for them to work collectively becomes necessary for
a stable and resilient grid.
Adding new functionalities in the DERs or adding new equipment
requires better management and control of these devices for them to
be integrated with utility operations. In relevance to the distribution
grid, a new term has been coined, namely distributed energy resource
management system (DERMS), which is a platform for the grid oper-
ators to control and maintain the grids that are primarily based on
DERs. According to Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI, 2018),
the core capabilities of DERMS are: (a) aggregate all the individual
DERs and represent their aggregated virtual resources, (b)translate the
different languages spoken by the DERs and present to the upper
entity as an understandable language, (c) provide simplified aggregated
services and (d)optimal grid services by utilizing various DERs. DERMS
projects have been widely used by many utilities such as Pacific Gas and
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Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221
Electric, Pennsylvania Power & Light electric utilities, Arizona Public
Service, and Tuscon Electric Power (EPRI, 2018). Thus, implementable
platforms such as DERMS can leverage the DERs to improve the perfor-
mance both at the local and system level, thereby increasing its hosting
capacity. Upgrading the existing grid with smart grid technologies and
new equipment will gradually lead to the evolution of a more digital
grid. And these advanced attributes and functionalities can contribute
to better management and control of these DERs, which in turn help in
maintaining the stability and reliability of the grid.
4. Challenges involved in implementing the solution measures
In the previous section, various strategies and equipment were pro-
posed to enhance PV penetration in the power grid. However, there are
some challenges and limitations in applying those solutions which will
be described here. Moreover, the cost bearer involved in implementing
these measures are also discussed in this section.
4.1. Challenges involved
Some of the main challenges in implementing the various solutions
are discussed below.
• Increased maintenance and reduced lifetime of tap transformers:
While tap transformers can be used to automatically change their
voltage range between their primary and secondary side to keep
the grid voltage within the desired range, their main drawback
is their increase in operation and higher cost (Woyte et al.,
2006). Due to the intermittent nature of solar PV, for systems
with high PV penetration, the voltage can rapidly increase and
decrease. As a result, the tap transformers would need to increase
its operation time to always keep the voltage within the required
range. This will then affect the lifetime of the transformer. In Lau
et al. (2016), the influence of large-scale PV systems on these
transformers was studied considering a distribution grid from
Malaysia. The authors noticed that the number of tap changes
from these transformers increases with higher PV penetration.
In addition, 1.5 times more tap changes were registered under
a cloudy day, with respect to a sunny one. For a cloudy day with
50% PV penetration, the operation of the transformer increased
by 38%. This value doubled at a 100% PV penetration. In Yan
et al. (2014), the impact of high penetration PV systems on
the tap transformers was also studied. They concluded that the
tap changing operation of these transformers can considerably
increase to keep the voltage levels and that this will result in
more maintenance and lifetime reduction. Ari and Baghzouz
(2011) also reported a significant increase in the number of tap
changes and a reduction in the transformer lifetime at 20% PV
penetration.
• Insufficient response time for voltage regulators: While this is a
traditional approach to control the grid voltage, one of its key
drawbacks is its long reaction time in comparison to the potential
power generation changes from PV systems. This long reaction
is a consequence of their control design which considers the
operation of gear-driven switching devices (Ghosh et al., 2014).
In addition, even for cases where its reaction time is short enough
to handle changes in the grid voltages, this will be translated
into switching process of these devices, therefore reducing their
lifetime (Katiraei and Aguero, 2011).
• Limited effectiveness of reactive power from PV systems and capacitor
banks: As indicated by Woyte et al. (2006), the effectiveness of the
reactive power injection at the grid at the LV side will depend on
the ratio between the line resistance and line impedance (R/X ra-
tio). Furthermore, there are some related concerns with respect to
protection from non-desired islanding (Verhoeven, 2002; Woyte
et al., 2003). When it comes to the reactive power generation
D. Sampath Kumar et al. Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221

Table 3
Mapping of challenges due to high PV integration in the grid and possible solutions.
Challenges/Issues Existing strategies in reviewed Possible future mitigation Comments
literature strategies
Voltage fluctuations Fixed/switched capacitors, Smart inverters, SSTs, Frequent operation of OLTCs can lead to
OLTC D-FACTS equipment stress
Voltage unbalance Reconductoring, OLTC, voltage Smart inverters, SST, D-FACTS Reconductoring is an expensive solution;
regulators, switched capacitors instead, modifying device bandwidth &
voltage conditioning devices can be used
Voltage magnitude PV curtailment, OLTC ESS, SST, D-FACTS, reactive Can opt for cost-effective solutions such
(over/under power management, modifying as dump loads & use of non-unity PF
voltage) device bandwidth operation of inverters
Frequency Conventional reserves Frequency regulators, fast Fast acting reserves can be combined
deviations & acting reserves, ESS with conventional spinning reserves
instability
Harmonics/power Filters (passive & active) D-FACTS, smart inverters Smart inverters with harmonic control
quality issues can be used
Protection issues Over current limiting Adaptive overcurrent Advanced protection relays &
strategies such as FCL protection communication may be necessary with
increased PV penetration
Rotor angle Additional reserves, ESS VSG, synchronous condensers, Optimal dispatch ratio is necessary.
instability generator scheduling strategies Virtual inertial and reactive power
sources are essential in case of high PV
penetration
Increased flexibility PV and load forecasting, Generator scheduling Accurate forecasting methods assist in
requirement additional reserves strategies, reserves, ESS, economic dispatching & optimal reserve
accurate forecasting methods allocation
Reverse power flow PV curtailment MIR, RPFR, Bidirectional With high PV penetration, MIR and
regulators RPFR are the best options

from the PV systems, one direct drawback is their possible lim-
itation on their active power so that the apparent power does not
exceed its maximum value. It is normal to generate reactive power
with a value that will allow full active power to be generated,
i.e. during night-time the inverter can produce its highest value
on reactive power and during daytime it will limit this value
to allow the active power generation. Nevertheless, studies have
shown that the reactive power generation are also linked to the
power loss and lifetime reduction of the inverters (Hashemi et al.,
2014; Yan and Saha, 2012; Braun, 2008; Gandhi et al., 2019,
2018c). With respect to capacitor banks, Woyte et al. (2006)
showed that the required amount for their installation would
bring considerable costs on the overall PV system installation.
• High cost of upgrading/installing grid elements: While this solution
does not require the addition of any external element or will
attempt to reduce their lifetime, its immediate drawback is the
cost required to install thicker lines (Liu et al., 2008; Von Ap-
pen et al., 2013; Hashemi et al., 2014; Jothibasu et al., 2016;
Yap et al., 2014). While the grid owner has previously installed
the original grid conductors, it is unlikely that they will agree
to replace them for new ones from their own pocket unless
a law dictates otherwise (Von Appen et al., 2013). Therefore,
the more preferable scenario (for the grid owner) is for the PV
owner/operator to also cover for this. However, this could then
lead to a considerable increase in the overall installation cost.
Similarly, for energy storage units, as these are extra elements re-
quired to be installed, the associated costs are the prime concerns
of these solutions (Macedo et al., 2015; Xu et al., 2012; Vosen
and Keller, 1999; Su et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2012). Moreover,
these equipment have a limited lifetime (typically below 25 years,
the usual lifetime of solar panels) and therefore they would need
to be replaced many times during the lifetime of the PV system.
Moreover, additional control algorithms would be required to
assure the proper operation of the batteries to keep the grid
stable (Rodríguez-Gallegos et al., 2017, 2018; Riffonneau et al.,
2011). This will bring more complexity to the grid operation.
4.2. Cost bearer
This paper has previously discussed the potential solutions to handle
high PV penetrations as well as their related costs, however, it is also
important to mention who will bear these costs: the PV owner itself,
the grid owner, the government, or another entity?
As the PV inverter is the one that controls the reactive and active
power output, the cost bearer of this control is expected to be the PV
owner itself. This cost can be categorized into three: investment costs,
energy losses, and lifetime and operational implications (Turner, 1996;
Gandhi, 2019). The first is the fact that the PV owner is forced to
purchase inverters with these control capabilities instead of more basic
inverters which would have been cheaper. The second is related to the
potential reduction in energy generation when forced to apply these
controls which will result in lower income to the PV owner. The third is
related to the lifetime reduction of the inverters because of the reactive
power support.
When referring to the energy storage devices, its cost is adju-
dicated to the one who bought them. There are cases for example
where the owner of the PV system purchases the batteries to sell the
stored energy when its price is the highest (Sato, 2017), and there are
other cases where the grid operator purchase them to assist the grid
stability (International-Renewable-Energy-Agency, 2019).
With respect to grid reinforcement measures to accommodate more
PVs, different countries follow different approaches. According to Ger-
man law, it is the distributed system operator who has to manage the
cost either to reinforce grid lines or replace transformers (Von Appen
et al., 2013). However, this cost may be considered in the electricity
tariff values. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a
report on the typical approaches to handle this issue (Horowitz et al.,
2019). Following are some of their suggested/practiced approaches:
• Cost-causer-pays approach: This is the traditional approach where
the applicant of a DER installation project has to cover for all the
grid-related costs, such as upgrades required, for this installation
to take place. While at a first glance this might look like a
fair method, the main drawback is that future applicants for
other DER installations might not be required to pay for grid

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D. Sampath Kumar et al.
upgrades as this has already been covered by the first applicant
and therefore the ‘‘free-rider’’ problem appears.
• Group study or group cost allocation approach: This approach works
by considering not one but a group of multiple applicants for DER
installations and aims to distribute the required upgrading costs
among them based on their DER installation influence on the grid.
This method has been applied in states such as Massachusetts
and California. Nevertheless, its clear disadvantage is that ideally
the applicants remain the same during the whole process. If
applicants dropout or change their designs, then a new study for
the cost distribution would be required which will most likely
change the cost per applicant and will delay the installations.
• Post-upgrade allocation approach: Here, the aim is for a single
entity to cover for all required costs for grid upgrades. This entity
will later be reimbursed when new applicants arrive. Depending
on the case, the single entity can be the first DER applicant (im-
plemented in New York) or the utility grid operator (implemented
in Hawaii). For the latter, the grid operator will first wait for an
applicant to require grid improvements for its installation before
doing the investment. The challenge here is whether enough
applicants will later arrive to reimburse the original payer and
how to fairly set this reimbursement payment.
• Pre-emptive upgrade cost-sharing allocation approach: Similar to the
previous approach, the utility operator pays for all required grid
improvement costs for DER installations with the difference that
now the grid operator will first perform the improvements and
wait for the DER applicants to step forward. Example is a pilot
project by the National Grid (Niagara Mohawk Power Corpora-
tion) for a ground-fault protection installation (National Grid,
2017).
While the previous paragraphs mention some approaches and practices
regarding the cost bearer, this will mostly be designed by specific
grid codes from different countries. Although many of the stated cost
practices/approaches are still not assigned in the current codes, it is
expected that this will be normalized as the PV penetration increases.
5. Conclusion and future scope
The rapid shift in the renewable portfolio standards have created
the necessity to revisit and analyze the stability issues of the power
system. The main challenges faced by the utilities due to the increasing
PV penetration are caused by the four PV characteristics – distributed,
diurnal, converter-based, and intermittent – that would place the power
system at risk, which in turn would incur a prohibitive cost for assuring
an adequate level of grid stability. As the saying goes, ‘‘prevention
is better than cure’’, it is essential for the utilities to take preventive
actions even before they encounter significant PV and other renewable
sources penetration which can help minimize the risk and the miti-
gation costs. A wide range of solution measures that are proposed by
various literature works to curb, adapt and solve the issues caused by
large scale PV integration in the power grids, have been reviewed in
this paper. The various solutions reviewed in this paper, have been
grouped into two main categories, namely: (1) Supply and demand-side
management and (2) Installing new equipment. Apart from discussing
the various solutions put forward by the researchers, the challenges and
limitations of each measure and the desirable combination of measures
to increase the hosting capacity of PVs have also been discussed in
this paper. The growing market and technological improvement have
led to a tremendous decrease in the cost of these solutions where it
has reached a competitive level with the conventional sources. These
cost-effective, dynamic engineering solutions are essential to mitigate
the risks involved with the uncertainties associated with PV and for
operational reserve management.
The ever-increasing penetration of PVs, the application of machine
learning algorithms in power systems, and the technological advance-
ment in the communication and control schemes can transform the
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Solar Energy 210 (2020) 202–221
entire grid architecture and make the grid more modern and digitized.
The role of smart grid, the evolution of connectivity among devices
and data analytics have a huge role in successful and cost-effective
implementation of the solutions. With the evolution of smart grid
infrastructure that facilitates efficient and reliable data transfer to the
distribution control center, optimization tools using machine learning
and computational intelligence techniques can be adopted for the
economic and safe operation of power systems. Various sophisticated
optimization methods have been used presently by grid operators for
different conventional timescale operations used in the power net-
works, from regulation to planning. However, the key challenge is to
develop adaptive tools for distributed grid control in an integrated
platform considering uncertainties of PVs.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by the National Research Foundation,
Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under the Energy Programme and
administrated by the Energy Market Authority, Singapore (EP award
No. NRF2017EWT-EP002-004).
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