Study on the Technical Challenges and Impact of Integrating High Penetration Photovoltaic (PV) Systems into the Ghanaian Transmission Grid

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Date
2013-07-25
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Abstract
Growing concerns about energy security, the sky rocketing prices of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emission control have heightened interest in the harnessing of renewable energy resources in response to these critical issues. However, the integration of high shares of renewable energy such as Solar Photovoltaic into the electrical transmission grid brings with it a host of technical challenges. The lack of understanding and technical know-how to resolve these challenges has preempted the development of renewable energy in many countries, especially in Africa. The inherently intermittent nature of renewable energy sources poses operational, efficiency and reliability challenges to current power systems due to temporal fluctuations, geographical dispersion of renewable energy sources and inadequacy of the existing power grid. This research focused on the technical challenges and impact associated with the integration of high scale Solar PV on the Ghanaian transmission grid and provides systemic solutions and standards necessary for the successful integration of large share Solar PV systems. The research undertook the modeling and simulation of 2.0 MWp PV of the Volta River Authority’s Renewable Energy Development. The simulated results at various penetration levels for voltage, power losses and total harmonic distortion are presented and analyzed. It can be concluded from the simulated results and analysis that the injection of high penetration solar PV causes a voltage rise, which is directly proportional to the penetration level. Further, there is a decrease in total power losses and an increase in total harmonic distortion at all penetration levels.
Description
A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Master of Science degree,
Keywords
Technical challenges, Solar PV, Penetration level, Integration
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