Title: Fair power feed-in algorithms for PV curtailment with grid compliance
Student: Vishnu Shankar Ramesh
Supervisors: Gerwin Hoogsteen and Aswin R. Vadavathi
Programme: Master Sustainable Energy Technology
The modern LV distribution grid consists of prosumers who also feed excess power back to the grid in addition to consumption of power. This additional feed-in of power causes power quality issues like over-voltages, voltage unbalances during low load and high PV generation conditions. As grid reinforcement techniques involve a lot of capital investment, power curtailment is the most cost-effective solution to control such over-voltages. Curtailment however creates an unfair opportunity for prosumers connected to the grid as the PV system of prosumer at the end of the feeder gets curtailed more. This necessitates research on fair PV curtailment strategies. In a practical case, the LV grid can have a mixture of multiple types of PV systems connected including single phase central inverters, three phase central inverters, micro-inverters. The assignment involves implementation and comparison of various PV curtailment algorithms for a practical grid scenario, while maintaining power quality and bringing in fairness during curtailment in a low voltage distribution grid.