Assessment of power quality parameters and indicators at the point of common coupling in a low voltage power grid with photovoltaic generation emulated

Increased photovoltaic (PV) integration can affect the quality of both voltage and current in low-voltage (LV) power-grid operations. This work evaluates the influence of emulated PV power injection on several power-quality parameters and indicators (P&I) at the point of common coupling in an LV network. The assessed steady-state P&I values are the RMS voltage (VRMS), non-active power (Q), total and harmonic components of voltage (THDv, Vh) and current (THDi, Ih), voltage imbalance (Desbv), and total rated-current distortion (TRD). Fifteen scenarios are emulated, considering the active power derating, shading percentage over the PV panel surface, and number of shaded PV panels. A PQube3 smart meter is used to measure 256 samples/cycle and store 16 cycles of both voltage and current, for each emulated scenario. The results indicate that the Q, Desbv, and TRD meet the reference values in each emulated scenario. However, the following P&I do not comply with the reference values of 66.67% VRMS, 26.67% THDv, and 100% THDi. Moreover, in all scenarios, Vh and Ih do not satisfy at least one harmonic component requirement, mostly the fifth and/or seventh harmonic components.