Impact off Different Photovoltaic Bus Location on

Distribution Grid Voltage Profile, Power Losses And

Substation Short Circuit Level
Martino Adisuwono
Department of Electrical
Engineering, Universitas
Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
adisuwono.martino@gmail.com
Chaizar Ali Fachrudien
Department of Electrical
Engineering, Universitas
Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
chaizar.ali@gmail.com
Victor Widiputra, ST. MT.
Department of Electrical
Engineering, Universitas
Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
victor.widiputra@gmail.com

Dr.-Ing. Eko Adhi Setiawan, ST., MT.

Department of Electrical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
ekoas@eng.ui.ac.id

Abstract—In 2014, world’s photovoltaic penetration had
reached 177 GW while 99% of it was on-grid. One of the
major factors that increase photovoltaic installation is the
decrease in price of the photovoltaic itself. As IEA
(International Energy Agency) has reported, photovoltaic
modules prices have decreased by 70% in the past 15 years.
High penetration of an on-grid photovoltaic affects the
characteristics of power system both positively and
negatively. This paper investigates the effects of different
photovoltaic penetration locations on distribution grid
voltage profile, power losses and substation fault current
level. The investigation was done by simulation on
DIgSILENT Powerfactory 14.1 using the modified IEEE 13
Node Test Feeder as the distribution grid and IEEE 9 Bus
System as its transmission grid. Photovoltaic penetration
was set at its maximum penetration on the distribution grid
which is 5 MWp. The penetration location was categorized
into 4 categories which are; clustered near the substation,
clustered near the midpoint of the feeder, clustered near the
end of the feeder, and evenly distributed throughout the
feeder. All of the investigations were done at all the 13 buses.
It is shown that the photovoltaic penetration near the end of
the feeder gives the highest voltage profile improvement
with the average bus voltage of 0.999pu; meanwhile the
penetration near the substation gives the lowest voltage
profile improvement with the average bus voltage of
0.985pu. The lowest power loss is achieved when the
photovoltaic penetration is evenly distributed throughout
the feeder, with power losses only 0.717%. Meanwhile the
least efficient configuration is when the photovoltaic
penetration is clustered near the substation with the power
losses of 2.034%. On the other hand, penetration near the
substation gives the lowest short circuit current level.
Keywords – DIgSILENT; distribution grid; photovoltaic
penetration location; power losses; short circuit current; voltage
profile.
I. INTRODUCTION
In 2014, world photovoltaics penetration gain capacity of
177 GW [1], where 99 per cent of it is photovoltaic on-grid. The
main factor for increasing number of photovoltaic usage because
the price of solar power plant is more affordable. IEA
(International Energy Agency) have reported, photovoltaic
module price has decreased 70% in the last 15 years. The
increasing number of photovoltaic installation can affect the
characteristic of power system.
The changing characteristic of power system needs to be
learn because it can affect quality and reliability of power
system. The quality of the system is determined by voltage
profile this needs to be compatible with the grid code which
already existed. Indonesia has grid code -10% and +5% from the
nominal voltage. Voltage profile magnitude is determined by
power losses in the system. The greater power losses make the
decrease of voltage profile.
In term of Reliability, there is a relay to protect the system if
there is a disturbance. Relay overcurrent mostly use for relay
protection, this relay works when there’s a current exceed the
maximum current permitted.
This paper investigated the impact of photovoltaic towards
the quality and reliability of voltage profile, power losses and
short circuit level. IEEE 9 bus system is used as system
transmission and IEEE 13 test feeder is used as system
distribution. This paper will focus on grid IEEE 13 bus.
DIgSILENT powerfactory 14.1 is using as simulation software.
II. DISTRIBUTION POWER LOSSES, VOLTAGE PROFILE AND SHORT current. Relay over currentworks when there’s a current exceed
CIRCUIT the maximum current permitted, it can trigger circuit breaker to
A. Distribution Power Losses open the circuit.
Power loss in transmission line is formulated: III. SIMULATION SYSTEM DESIGN
2
Pd = I Zl (1) DIgSILENT powerfactory 14.1 is using as the software
simulation. IEEE 9 bus system is used as system transmission
Pd is power loss, I is current in transmission line, and Zl and IEEE 13 test feeder is used as system distribution.
transmission impedance. Based on PLN [2], there’s a 9.71%
power loss where 7.52% occurred in system distribution. A lot
losses occurred in system distribution because of the usage
voltage id mid-low voltage, this make the current flows in the
line is quite massive. Great current line has a great impact in
losses.
Besides transmission losses , electric equipment also the
reason of system distribution losses such as transformer.
Transformer usually has efficiency more than 95%. Efficiency
is formulated :
𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝑉𝐴)
Eff = (2)
𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝑉𝐴)+𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 (𝑉𝐴)+𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠(𝑉𝐴)

B. Voltage Profile
Voltage profile is voltage at each bus in power system.The
occurred power losses has an impact in voltage profile.The
increase in power losses , increasing the voltage drop.the
increase in voltage drop is decreasing voltage profile. The
equation of voltage drop[3] :
100 Figure 2. IEEE 9 Bus System
u %  2
 im1 PiRi   im1QiX i (3)
U n
Few modification has been done in IEEE 13 test feeder:
Total capacity load is 4.55 MVA, therefore foreach bus there isa
Δu% : Voltage drop loadwith capacity 0.35 MVA.
𝑃𝑖′ : Active power flow
𝑄𝑖′ : Reactive power flow
𝑅𝑖 &𝑋𝑖 : Line impedance
C. Short Circuit
Short circuit is occurred because of direct contact between two
wired or terminal without impedancemassive increase in
current.

Figure3. IEEE 13 Test Feeder

5MWp photovoltaic penetration based on maximum capacity of
transformer in IEEE 13 test feeder that is 5MVa.
This case study is done by installing single photovoltaic at
Figure 1. Short circuit
bus near substation, far from substation, in the middle of system
The value of impedance is very small that massively increasing
distribution, and installing photovoltaic well distributed around
current.
bus. Power losses change and voltage profile is the observed
short circuit can cause current increase up to 6 times it
parameter. In short circuit cases, Short circuit is try in each bus
nominal value. This phenomenon can destroy electrical
and substation short circuit current value is the observed
equipment. Short circuit can be prevented by using relay over
parameter. 3 phase short circuit is simulated.
 IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
A. Power Losses and System Efficiency
Table 1. Power losses and system efficiency
Supply Power
PV Power Load Capacity Losses Power System Efficiency
Location (MVA) (MVA) (MVA) Losses (%) (%)
Far 4.643490067 4.55 0.093490067 2.013357742 97.98664226
Near 4.644749724 4.55 0.094749724 2.039931746 97.96006825
Center 4.603140232 4.55 0.053140232 1.15443436 98.84556564
Distributed 4.582883808 4.55 0.032883808 0.717535282 99.28246472
Without PV 4.657209465 4.55 0.107209465 2.302010801 97.6979892

According to table 1 and figure 4, it is clearly shown that

photovoltaic penetration improves the system efficiency.
From the graph above, it is shown that different photovoltaic
locations give different power system efficiency
improvement. The highest efficiency improvement occurred
when the photovoltaic penetration was evenly distributed
across the power system. Distributed photovoltaic greatly
reduces the magnitude of current that flows within the
transmission line, and according to power loss equation, as
the current that flows within the line decreases, the power loss
decreases as well.
Figure 4. System efficiency comparison

B. Voltage Profile Improvement

Table 2. Voltage Profile
Voltage Profile
Bus Far Near Center Distributed Without PV
650 0.99759615 0.99519231 0.99759615 0.99759615 0.98798077
646 0.99519231 0.98798077 0.99519231 0.99759615 0.97836538
645 0.99519231 0.98798077 0.99519231 0.99759615 0.97836538
632 0.99759615 0.98798077 0.99759615 0.99759615 0.97836538
633 0.99519231 0.98798077 0.99519231 0.99759615 0.97836538
634 1 0.975 1 1 0.975
611 1.00240385 0.98317308 0.99278846 0.99759615 0.97355769
684 1.00240385 0.98317308 0.99278846 0.99759615 0.97355769
671 1 0.98317308 0.99278846 0.99759615 0.97355769
692 1 0.98317308 0.99278846 0.99759615 0.97355769
675 1 0.98317308 0.99278846 0.99759615 0.97355769
652 1.00961538 0.98317308 0.99038462 0.99759615 0.97355769
680 1 0.98317308 0.99278846 0.99759615 0.97355769
Average 0.99963018 0.98494822 0.99445266 0.99556705 0.9530785
Standard Deviation 0.00552263 0.00522469 0.00301581 0.0002615 0.00586275
 as well. As it has been mentioned before, photovoltaic
penetration reduces the power loss. Reduced power loss
means lower voltage drop, in other words, a higher voltage
profile.

Figure 5. Voltage profile comparison

Figure 7. Standard Deviation of Voltage Profile

Comparison

A good voltage profile is a voltage profile with values

that stay within grid code allowed range. The improvement
of the voltage profile should be roughly the same on all bus.
From figure 7, it is shown that different photovoltaic location
gives different standard deviation of voltage profile. Large
standard deviation means that the voltage improvement is
uneven. An uneven voltage improvement can lead to an over
Figure 6. Average Voltage Profile Comparison voltage condition at certain bus, while on the other bus which
is far away from the photovoltaic, the bus voltage does not
Based on table 2, figure 5, and figure 6, photovoltaic improve significantly.
installation on a distribution grid improves the voltage profile
C. Substation Short Circuit Level
Table 3. Substation short circuit level
Substation Short Circuit Level (p.u.)
Busbar Without PV Far Center Near Distributed
Bus 650 5.0662 4.3535 4.27 4.2751 4.2882
Bus 632 4.7618 4.0946 4.1084 3.9747 4.116
Bus 645 4.6538 3.978 3.9886 3.86 4.0078
Bus 633 4.6538 3.9779 3.9885 3.86 4.0078
Bus 634 0.9622 0.0829 0.0756 0.0855 0.0545
Bus 646 4.5933 3.9128 3.9213 3.7958 3.9437
Bus 671 4.5161 3.8911 3.8522 3.7296 3.9304
Bus 692 4.5161 3.8911 3.8522 3.7296 3.9304
Bus 684 4.4558 3.841 3.7848 3.6653 3.8696
Bus 675 4.4219 3.7872 3.7467 3.629 3.8279
Bus 611 4.4004 3.7795 3.7228 3.6062 3.8092
Bus 680 4.4181 3.7834 3.7487 3.6311 3.8294
Bus 652 4.3116 3.7228 3.6235 3.5115 3.7068
Average 4.564075 3.917741667 3.883975 3.772325 3.938933333
 REFERENCES

[1] International Energy Agency (IEA). Trends 2015 in Photovoltaic

Applications. IEA-PVPS T1-27:2015.
[2] PT PLN Persero. Statistik PLN 2014. April, 2015. ISSN: 0852 – 8179
No. 02701 – 150430.
[3] Armend Ymeri. Lutfije Dervishi. Arta Qorolli. Sherwani. Impacts of
Distributed Generation in Energy Losses and voltage drop in 10 kV
line in the Distribution System. ENERGYCON 2014. June 13-16,
2014. 978-1-4799-2449-3/14, 2014.
Figure 8. Substation short circuit level comparison

Figure 9. Average Substation Short Circuit Level Comparison

According to table 3, figure 8, and figure 9, photovoltaic

installations are able to reduce distribution grid short circuit
level as well. This phenomenon is caused by these factors:
 The flow of short circuit current flow is divided into
two directions, towards substation and towards
photovoltaic. Hence, the short circuit level on
transformer decreases.
 Different short circuit level reduction on different
buses is affected by line impedance.
𝑉
I= (4)
𝑍
Where I as the current, V as the voltage dan Z as the
line impedance.
V. CONCLUSION
Based on this studies, several conclusions has been
made:
 Photovoltaic installation on a distribution system
decreases power loss, increases system efficiency,
increases voltage profile, and decreases substation
short circuit level.
 Different photovoltaic penetration location on a
distribution grid affects its power loss, system
efficiency, voltage profile, and short circuit level
characteristic.
 It is shown that the photovoltaic penetration near the
end of the feeder gives the highest voltage profile
improvement. The lowest power loss is achieved
when the photovoltaic penetration is evenly
distributed throughout the feeder. The penetration
near the substation gives the lowest short circuit
current level.