1

Research on Distributed Generation

Technologies and its impacts on Power System
F.H. Guan, D.Ｍ Zhao, X. Zhang, B.T Shan, Z. Liu

Abstract-The traditional energy structure of our country is

single and the environmental pollution is serious. To a certain
extent, it impeded the sustainable economic and social
development of China. With the energy problems increasing
seriousness, distributed generation growing is growing a wide
range of applications for the merits of small investment,
environmental protection, clean, reliable power supply and
flexible generation manner, and so on. However, a large number
of distributed power poured into the grid change the grid’s
structure increase the randomness of system running, and
impede the power system seriously. This paper introduces the
definition, types and technical characteristics of distributed
generation technology, and analyzes the impacts on various
aspects of power system, finally, points out the research
directions of DG.
Index Terms-power system; distributed generation; distributed
power; distributed network
I. INTRODUCTION
II. DISTRIBUTED GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES
Distributed power generation is not a new concept, the early
small hydropower, small thermal power also belong to
distributed generation, nevertheless, because technical and
economic performances were not good, and eliminated
gradually.
A. The definition of distributed generation
Generally, Distributed generation (DG) or Distributed
Resource (DR) refers to the small generating units (DG) and
the joint energy storage and power generation systems (DR =
Distributed Generation (DC) + Energy Storage (ES))) installed
in the user side, which meet specific user needs, and their
scale generally are not big, about a few dozen kilowatts to tens
of megawatts. The common DC adopts some environment-
friendly energy, such as natural gas, hydrogen, solar energy,
wind energy and so on. Hence, this technology is a multi-use
energy technology. Additionally, in order to improve the

P resently, central power generation, long distance power
transmission and power grid interconnection are main
modes of the electrical energy production, transmission and
distribution, supplying for more than 90% power loads of the
world. However, the requires to energy, power supply
reliability, quality and safety are increasing nowadays.
Meanwhile, the world-wide energy crisis, electricity crisis and
large scale power outages also exposed the deficiencies of
central power generation to a certain extent [1]. For the merits
of small investment, clean and environment protection, power
supply reliability and flexible power generation methods,
Distributed Generation (DG) is becoming a hot research
increasingly. Distributed generation combined with
centralized power generation methods will be the development
of power systems.
energy efficiency and reduce costs, it often uses Combined
Cooling, Heat and Power, (CCHP). This generation
technology is a very promising technology for power
generation from the point of view of energy use, energy saving
and environmental [2].
B. The types and technical characteristics of DG
In different areas, classification of DG is different.
Generally, there are three classification methods: 1) According
to the type of technology, DG can be divided into wind power,
solar photovoltaic, small hydropower, fuel cells, micro-
turbines, and so on; 2) based on the use of primary energy, DG
can be divided into renewable energy and Non-renewable
energy; 3) in accordance with the interface to power system,
DG can be divided into directly associated (electromechanical)
and through the inverter connected system. The technical
characteristics of DG are shown in Table I.

F.H. Guan is M.S. student in power system and its automation at North
China Electric Power University, 102206,Beijing,China (email:
namegfh@163.com)
D.M. Zhao is a professor of the School of Electrical Engineering, NCEPU,
102206,Beijing,China (email: zhao-dm@ncepu.edu.cn)
X. Zhang is a teacher a Ph.D. in power system and its automation at North
China Electric Power University, 102206,Beijing,China (email:
zxtemper@163.com)
B.T Shan and Z. Liu are M.S. students in power system and its automation
at North China Electric Power University, 102206,Beijing,China(email:
shanbaotao@126.com and liuzhe@ncepu.edu.cn)
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TABLE I. THE TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DG

diesel natural gas
natural gas fuel
technique Type reciprocating reciprocating Micro-turbine fuel cell Solar wind power
turbine
generator generator
30kW 30kW 30 0.5 100 1kW 600kW
capacity
-6+MW -6+MW -400kW -40+MW -3000kW -1MW -2500kW
installation cost 600 700 1200 400 4000 250
6600
（$/kW） -1,000 -1,200 -1,700 -900 -5,000 -312.5
power efficiency
30-43% 30-42% 14-30% 21-40% 36-50% 6%-19% 2%-34%
（LHV）
total operation
80-85% 80-85% 80-85% 80-90% 80-85% 45%-60% 40%-78%
efficiency
total operation 0. 005 0. 007 0.008 0.004 0.0019 0.001 0.0125
cost（$/kW） -0.015 -0.020 -0.015 -0.010 -0.0153 -0.004 -0.025
Uncertain ， Uncertain ，
site area .22-31 .28-.37 .15-.35 .02-. 61 .9 depending on depending on
the size of the the size of the
power power
pollution level（ NOx:7-9 NOx: 0. 7-13 NOx:9-50ppm NOx:<9-50ppm NOx:<0.02 Nothing Nothing
gm/bhp-hr） C0:0. 3-0. 7 C0:1-2 C0:9-50ppm C0:<15-5Oppn C0 :< 0. 01
no operation
reliability level higher higher higher high not high not high
experiment
Residential,
Back-up unit for power supply
Residents’ commercial
industrial, Generator-driven in remote
main application install electricity and
commercial, cogeneration plant CHO peak clipping areas and
fields electricity, power supply
public Plateau zone
CHP in remote
institutions
areas
not not
schedulable schedulable schedulable schedulable schedulable schedulable
schedulable schedulable
installation
position unlimited limited unlimited limited unlimited limited limited
limitation
1 installation costs in accordance with the size of the installation power, the location of the installation, networking fee and other fee changes;
2 the efficiency taking into account of the heat efficiency of the role of the CHP; the impact of DG on power system

reduce the dependence of distribution network on the large-

III. THE IMPACT OF DG ON POWER SYSTEM
With the improvement of the distributed generation
technology and costs reduced, the ratio of the distributed
generation system installed is increasing year by year, which
bring a lot of problems to the power system planning,
operation and protection, etc. The impacts on power system
are mainly in the following ways.
A. The impact on power system planning [3]-[6]
The main tasks of Distribution Network planning are to
study the developing scale and speed of the distribution
network; plan and design according to the outcome of the load
forecasting in planning period and the existing distribution
network and frame structure; propose reform package through
analysis the weak links of the grid. So that the entire power
system realizes optimum and provide a reliable, high-quality
power to the city's economic development and people's living
standard. However, the random input and withdrawal of a
large number of DC from the grid increase the uncertainty of
power system load forecast, so that it is difficult to accurately
the growth of forecast load for planners; distribution network
planning is a dynamic programming problem, whose attributes
closely related to the distribution network nodes. The
distribution network nodes is very much, the system increases
a large number of distributed generators nodes, so that it more
difficult to find the best network layout program from all
possible structure of the network. The inputs of DG gradually
scale power plants and transmission, and the feed power flow
characteristics of the original unidirectional power also
change. The types of DG units and the diversification of
energy used make it an urgent need to address how to make
sure a reasonable power structure in distribution network and
how to coordinate and effective use various types of power. In
addition, national energy policy and energy planning have a
direct impact on the decision-making of process power system
planning [7].
B. The impact on power flow and loss
Power flow is the most important and most basic tool to
study operations, planning and safety analysis of power
system. Power flow in the traditional radial distribution
network is unidirectional from the power to the user, but the
inputs of DG into distribution system make the structure of the
network change and power flow not unidirectional from the
substation bus to Loads. There may be reflux and complex
voltage changes. Consequently, the power flow of the
distribution network does subsequent adjustment.
The losses of grid depend largely on power flow, DG
impacts on power flow distribution, and are also bound to
affect the loss of grid. DG may increase or reduce losses,
depending on the location, capacity of DG and the relative size
of load quantity, as well as the network topology and other
factors. The impact of DG on power flow and loss is divided
into the following three conditions:

1) All load quantity at the load nodes are greater than the
amount of the DG nodes output, the direction of power flow is
invariable , all the lines losses reduce;
2) At least one load capacity of the nodes is less than the
amount of DG output, but the total load quantity of system is
greater than that of the DG, there may be reflux ,and the losses
of some lines increase ,but the overall line losses may reduce;
3) At least one load capacity of the nodes is less than the
amount of DG output, and the total load quantity of system is
greater than that of the DG, if the total quantity of all DG is
less than twice the total load, the impact is the same to the
situation.
4)Otherwise, the line loss of distribution network will
increase.
C. The impact on power short-circuits current and relay
Although, there are power relays installed in the distribution
network side in many cases, when the distribution network
operates normally, there isn’t inject grid power, but when
failure, there will be transient DC current injecting power grid,
which increase short-circuit current level of the distribution
network switches and may exceed standard. As a result, when
high power DC inject power grid, it is important to compute
and analysis advance beforehand in order to determine the
impact level of DC on the short-circuit current of distribution
network.
80% of the faults are transient in distribution network, and
the relay protection devices has already existed early ,whose
design is based on the structure of single power radial the
network [4],[8]-[9]. After DC is injected, the structure will
change, so that the size, direction and duration of short-circuit
current will change. Thus, DG produces a greater influence on
the original relay in the distribution network [10]:
1) the run-time of DC may lead to failure of the relay.
2) The relay may misoperation. The feeder may trip, which is
adjacent to the feeder fault and operating normally.
3) It change the fault levels the of distribution network. The
raise or decrease of the level depends on the amount and types
of operating DC, the raise request to upgrade the switching
equipment; the decrease could cause problems to over-current
protection. Thereby , if the capacity of DC is very large, which
causes great fault current changes; it must improve its capacity
and upgrade the circuit protection device.
D. The impact on voltage
The access of DC causes the structure change, and then
causes the steady-state voltage change [11]. The original
voltage regulating scheme may not meet the requests of
distribution network after DC access. Therefore, it must assess
the impact of DC on power system voltage, so as to ensure
that the applications of DC will not have adverse
consequences for users in a growing number of cases. The
impacts of DG on distribution network voltage are as follows:
1) DC access will have a significant impact on the feeder’s
voltage in distribution networks, related to the size of the
capacity and the location of distributed power [12].
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2) The support effect of DC on voltage in the same node
should be less than that in a number of nodes, whose
penetration Level is the same.
3) In steady-state case, the transmission power in the feeder
reduces and the output of reactive power support, the load
nodes voltages along the feeder are driven up.
E. The impact on Power Quality
DG is built on the basis of power electronics technology. A
large number of power electronic converters increase the
number of non-linear loads, which will cause the waveform
distortion of current, voltage, harmonic pollution of the power
grid. DG affects Power Quality in the two main ways:
1) voltage flicker. The factors caused voltage flicker by DG
include: a large-scale distributed units start-up, the drastic
change of the distributed unit output, as well as adverse effects
brought by the interplay of the DC unit output and voltage
feedback control equipment in system.
2) The introduction of a large number of harmonics. A large
number of power electronic devices used in DG will inevitably
bring a large number of harmonics to the system; the
magnitude and order of harmonics are affected by the way, as
well as power converters work mode.
Although the introduction of DG can cause voltage flicker
and the introduction of a large number of harmonics, DG also
has the potential to improve power quality. When the load
paralleled power grid is large, DG can be quickly put into use,
as far as possible to reduce the system failures and improve
the stability of the entire power grid, thus ensure power
quality.
F. The impact on power market
The deregulation of power industry and the rise of the power
market make all kinds of DG ways fair exchange on the
unified and open market transactions to supply the users a
variety of choices [13]:
1) Different electricity suppliers;
2) Different periods of electricity;
3) Different quality of power;
4) Different measurement methods;
5) Different rate structure;
6) Different payment forms;
7) Different management plans in the user side;
8) Own power generation or storage. The open distribution
network introduced the electric power retail market [14]. The
competitions brought about business opportunities to company
self-install power plants and the DC installed by the users in
the retail electricity market. The users are facing with three
options:
1) Supply from the electric power grid;
2) Own generation, self-sufficiency;
3) Own generation and sell to grid. According to the
information from generation competitive market and the
demand of retail power market, the users can live with their
DC and let it play a bigger role, resulting in greater efficiency
and supply for themselves or in the vicinity of users heating
and supply service. The establishment of retail electricity
market will radiate the power retail mechanisms. Any form

power generation can provide power products to the retail
electricity market as electricity supplier fair exchange in the
retail market.
G. The impact on traditional control devices
Every traditional control device of distribution network is
designed for one-way flow. When DG is accessed to the
system, the direction of each flow relates with the concrete
position and capacity of DG. As a result, how to choose a
reasonable DG to adapt the original line, in other words, how
to transform the existing control devices to adapt to the DG
will be the real problems we have to face. With further
practical of DG technology, new types of control and interface
devices will emerge. The problem how to coordinate different
devices and with the control and setting devices in traditional
power grid has to be solved.
H. Reliability problem.
Sometimes DC has a negative impact on the reliability, but
sometimes has a beneficial role; it depends on the Specific
situation and can not be generalized.
1) Adverse circumstances: when the big system power
failure, the fuel of some DC will be suspended or auxiliary
power supply to DC losses, DC outage will still be unable to
upgrade the reliability of power supply at the same time. DC
can’t cooperate with the relay of distribution network well, so
that the relay may malfunction, lower reliability. Improper
installation location, capacity and connection way will
deteriorate reliability of the distribution network.
2) Favorable situations: DC may partly eliminate the
overload and plug of distribution network; increase the margin
of transmission distribution network. Under the appropriate
DC disposal and voltage regulator way, DC will help to ease
voltage dip and improve the system voltage regulation
performance. Specially designed DC make itself keep running
when the big electricity transmission and distribution systems
fail. These are conducive to improve the reliability level of the
system.
I. Power-effectiveness problem.
DC Access may make some equipment idle or back-up. Such
as: when the DC runs, distribution transformers and cable
lines connected with the power distribution system often light
load because of the small load, some of the equipments in the
power distribution system become back-up for DC, so that the
cost of distribution network increases and the effectiveness of
the supply bureau decline. Otherwise, the load forecasting of
distribution system may also more difficult.
J. The real-time monitoring, control and adjustment problems
in distribution system
The real-time monitoring, control and adjustment problems
in original distribution system were unified complete by
power supply department. As the original source of the power
grid is a radial network, information collection, the switch
operation, the corresponding energy scheduling is relatively
simple. The DC Access make it complicated, which needs to
increase information, such as monitor information or control
4
information, which is going to implement. All these are
required re-validation according to DC grid connected
regulations, and finalize an agreement through the specific DC
grid connected protocol.
K. The Ferro-resonance problem.
When the DC connects with distribution network through
transformers, cable lines, switches and so on, once the
distribution network failures (such as single-phase short-
circuit) and the switch in system side off, the switch in DC
side will be disconnected also, supposing that the DC
Transformer did not take the load at this time, the reactor of
transformer and the large cable capacitance possibly cause
Ferro-resonance and result in over-voltage, may cause large
electromagnetic force, so that the transformer sends out noise
or damage the transformer.
L. Others problem.
In addition to the above-mentioned impacts, DC access still
exist some other problems to be further studied. For example,
with the rise of DG, it is necessary to establish appropriate
laws and regulations and industry Specification[15];
meanwhile, in order to achieve coordination between the DG
systems as well as between the DG system and the distribution
network and the dispatching of DC, it needs to research
communication technology, GPS technology, DSP technology
involved as well as the application of the dynamic
measurement and online detection of the power system in DG
, and so on.
IV. THE FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS OF DG
Distributed generation, as a cutting-edge research field of
power system, focused on how DG impact on power system.
In view of this, this paper expatiated on the future research
direction of DG from the following aspects:
1) The improvement of existing distribution generation
technologies and research and development of new
technology, such as the development of new electrolyte
materials and catalysts and the improvement of the
performance of fuel cells, service life, cost performance and so
on.
2) For the planning and operation of DG, the installation site,
capacity and permeation limit of different types of DG in
distribution network should be determined in order to ensure
the optimization of economy and security; Researching the
probabilistic power flow model and algorithm of the DG
power system and voltage and reactive power control strategy
of DG power network, as well as improving and enhancing the
system's ability to bear the random power; researching
coordination control method of the randomized generation
power and conventional generation power, and the system’s
best operating point should be found.
3) The modeling method of high permeability containing DG
would be researched for a variety of ways and features
provided by DG of the power; researching on the change law
of solar and wind energy with the weather conditions;
establishing the models of random energy forecast, generated

energy of power network, assessing the reliability of the
system, and economy of the system.
4) For the protection and control of power system which
containing DG, the research on relay protection of multi-
terminal power should be carried out; researching the
influence on network stability and reliability by DG in various
conditions and a variety of network structure, and the
corresponding control strategy, as well as the effect on
FACTS in power systems and control devices, and also the
control strategy; researching the control method of
maintaining the power supply of isolated region after feeder
breaking when faults happenings.
5) The operation of DG had strong independence for different
owners, therefore, considering the independence and
randomness, a new SCADA system should be established,
which would achieve comprehensive monitoring, control and
scheduling of DG; a new type of power system control center
containing DG would be researched.
6) Researching on the features of interface device connecting
DG and power network, and further the integration DC
distribution network. With the mature of high-temperature
superconducting technology and the lower prices of electronic
devices, integrated DC distribution network will become a
reality in the near future. This is a new subject, and the
problems should be solved are the integration DC distribution
network’s modeling method, planning and operation mode and
protection and control, and so on.
7) The influence on the existing electricity market of DG, as
well as the impact on the investment system would be
researched; so as to improve the quality and reduce costs, a
new type of power supply and power management system
would be established, and the relevant laws and regulations of
electricity should be improved.
8) Based on global positioning system (GPS) technology,
communications technology, digital signal processing (DSP)
technology and the dynamic power system on-line monitoring
and measurement technology, the dynamic monitor of
distribution network containing DG, flexible scheduling and
tracking control would be realized.
9) Establishing a new relationship system between Power
Company and the users, properly researching and the making
related laws, regulations and industry standards of DG.
V. CONCLUSION
With the establishment of the fair competition electricity
market, distributed generation will have more and more
market share, and form a highly efficient, flexible power
system with the existing power system to improve the energy
efficiency, the security, stability and reliability of the whole
power supply system. However, the access of a large number
of distributed generations had to bring huge challenges on
power system. Although the current situation in China is big
centralized power grid, but the future direction of power will
be distributed generation. The research is still in its infancy
stage, and how to shorten the gap and promote the research
and development should be seriously considered for every
electrically scientific and technical personnel.
5
VI. REFEREVCES
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[2] Hu Xue-hao. Distributed Generation (Distributed Resource) technology
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[3] WANG Min; DING Ming. Distribution Network Planning Including
Distributed Generation. Proceedings of Electric Power System and
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[4] ]MO Ying-tao. Distributed Generation and its impact on system
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[5] ZHENG Hai-feng. The random power flow of distribution system with
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[6] PANG Jian-ye. The analysis of distributed power grid connected on
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[7] DING Ming; WANG Min. Distributed generation technology. Electric
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[8] LI Pei, LI Xing-yuan. Distributed Generation Sources and Their Effects
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[9] CHENG Kai. Distributed power optimization planning. tianjin: tianjin
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[10] Dugan R C,McDermott T E.Operating Conflicts forDistributed
Generation on Distribution Systems.In:Rural Electric Power
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[11] Scott N C,Atkinson D J,Morrell J E.Use of Load Control to Regulate
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VII. BIOGRAPHIES
F.H Guan was born in Liaoning province, China,
on December 20, 1982. She received the B.S.
degree from North China Electric Power University
(NCEPU) in 2006. Now she is a master
postgraduate in power system and its automation at
NCEPU. Her main field of interest is the analysis,
operation and control of power system.
D.M Zhao was born in Heilongjiang Province,
China, 1965. She received the M.S. and Ph. D.
degrees in power system and its automation from
North China Electric Power University (NCEPU) in
1995 and 2004 respectively. Now she is a professor
of the School of Electrical Engineering, NCEPU.
Her areas of interest include power system analysis
and control, artificial intelligent application to
power system, etc
X. Zhang was born in Shanxi Province, China, on
Jan. 2, 1975. He received the M.S. degree in power
system and its automation from North China
Electric Power University (NCEPU) in 2005. Now
he is a teacher of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, NCEPU, and is a Ph.D. in power
system and its automation at NCEPU. His main
field of interest is intelligence control and analysis
of Power system.
 6

B.T Shan and Z. Liu are M.S. students in power system and its automation at
North China Electric Power University, 102206,Beijing,China(email:
shanbaotao@126.com and liuzhe@ncepu.edu.cn)