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Seuss, John

Publications and source records attributed to Seuss, John.

Novel Methods to Determine Feeder Locational PV Hosting Capacity and PV Impact Signatures

Often PV hosting capacity analysis is performed for a limited number of distribution feeders. For medium - voltage distribution feeders, previous results generally analyze less than 20 feeders, and then the results are extrapolated out to similar types of feeders. Previous hosting capacity research has often focused on determining a single value for the hosting capacity for the entire feeder, whereas this research expands previous hosting capacity work to investigate all the regions of the feeder that may allow many different hosting capacity values wit h an idea called locational hosting capacity (LHC)to determine the largest PV size that can be interconnected at different locations (buses) on the study feeders. This report discusses novel methods for analyzing PV interconnections with advanced simulati on methods. The focus is feeder and location - specific impacts of PV that determine the locational PV hosting capacity. Feeder PV impact signature are used to more precisely determine the local maximum hosting capacity of individual areas of the feeder. T he feeder signature provides improved interconnection screening with certain zones that show the risk of impact to the distribution feeder from PV interconnections.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Determining the Impact of Steady-State PV Fault Current Injections on Distribution Protection

This report investigates the fault current contribution from a single large PV system and the impact it has on existing distribution overcurrent protection devices. Assumptions are made about the modeling of the PV system under fault to perform exhaustive steady - state fault analyses throughout distribution feeder models. Each PV interconnection location is tested to determine how the size of the PV system affects the fault current measured by each protection device. This data is then searched for logical conditions that indicate whether a protection device has operated in a manner that will cause more customer outages due to the addition of the PV system. This is referred to as a protection issue , and there are four unique types of issues that have been identified in the study. The PV system size at which any issues occur are recorded to determine the feeder's PV hosting capacity limitations due to interference with protection settings. The analysis is carried out on six feeder models. The report concludes with a discussion of the prevalence and cause of each protection issue caused by PV system fault current.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Analysis of PV Advanced Inverter Functions and Setpoints under Time Series Simulation.

Utilities are increasingly concerned about the potential negative impacts distributed PV may have on the operational integrity of their distribution feeders. Some have proposed novel methods for controlling a PV system's grid - tie inverter to mitigate poten tial PV - induced problems. This report investigates the effectiveness of several of these PV advanced inverter controls on improving distribution feeder operational metrics. The controls are simulated on a large PV system interconnected at several locations within two realistic distribution feeder models. Due to the time - domain nature of the advanced inverter controls, quasi - static time series simulations are performed under one week of representative variable irradiance and load data for each feeder. A para metric study is performed on each control type to determine how well certain measurable network metrics improve as a function of the control parameters. This methodology is used to determine appropriate advanced inverter settings for each location on the f eeder and overall for any interconnection location on the feeder.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Multi-Objective Advanced Inverter Controls to Dispatch the Real and Reactive Power of Many Distributed PV Systems.

The research presented in this report compares several real - time control strategies for the power output of a large number of PV distributed throughout a large distribution feeder circuit. Both real and reactive power controls are considered with the goal of minimizing network over - voltage violations caused by large amounts of PV generation. Several control strategies are considered under various assumptions regarding the existence and latency of a communication network. The control parameters are adjusted to maximize the effectiveness of each control. The controls are then compared based on their ability to achieve multiple objectiv es. These objectives include minimizing the total number of voltage violations , minimizing the total amount of PV energy curtailed or reactive power generated, and maximizing the fairness of any control action among all PV systems . The controls are simulat ed on the OpenDSS platform using time series load and spatially - distributed irradiance data.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Tools for Enhanced Grid Operation and Optimized PV Penetration Utilizing Highly Distributed Sensor Data.

Increasing number s of PV on distribution systems are creating more grid impacts , but it also provides more opportunities for measurement, sensing, and control of the grid in a distributed fashion. This report demonstrates three software tools for characterizing and controlling distribution feeders by utilizing large numbers of highly distributed current, voltage , and irradiance sensors. Instructions and a user manual is presented for each tool. First, the tool for distribution system secondary circuit parameter estimation is presented. This tool allows studying distribution system parameter estimation accuracy with user-selected active power, reactive power, and voltage measurements and measurement error levels. Second, the tool for multi-objective inverter control is shown. Various PV inverter control strategies can be selected to objectively compare their impact on the feeder. Third, the tool for energy storage for PV ramp rate smoothing is presented. The tool allows the user to select different storage characteristics (power and energy ratings) and control types (local vs. centralized) to study the tradeoffs between state-of-charge (SOC) management and the amount of ramp rate smoothing.

Reno, Matthew J.↗