Investigating the Impact of Photovoltaic Connection to the Malaysian Distribution System

Abstract

This paper investigates the grid-connected photovoltaic (GCPV) effects to the Malaysian distribution systems. Increased in distributed generation installations into electricity distribution network co uld have a better impact on the planning and operation of a power system. The scenario discussed in this paper is the solar irradiance level effects on grid-connected photovoltaic (GCPV) system which located in Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. The research consists of analysis in current and total harmonic distortion performance due to sun irradiance which may give an impact on photovoltaic systems to generate output power. PV generation depends directly to the sun’s radiation. Hence, the intermittent fluctuations may potentially cause problems to the network operation, especially in high penetration levels. In addition, a larger number of distributed GCPV is added into the grid, the effect or impact may become more significant. There are several previous researched regarding the impacts of PV that have been done in North America, China and Japan. However, the country like Malaysia generally follows the European standard distribution system layout. Besides, Malaysia located near the equator and ideally receives sunshine continuously throughout the year. The different suggest that each system handles unbalanced networks differently and thus require a personalized analysis. The results of data irradiance (W/m 2 ) and harmonic distortion (THD%) of this study fi nally were analyzed and compared in graphical results. At the end of this study, a few suggestions were provided to overcome this problem.