Impact of the penetration levels of PV and synchronous machine based DG sources on the reliability of a microgrid

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of varying photovoltaic and synchronous machine based distributed generation source type penetrations on the reliability of a microgrid. An investigation into the effect of varying the percentage penetrations of photovoltaic and traditional generation sources on the load point reliability indices in a microgrid is conducted under fluctuating solar energy and loading conditions. In the context of this paper, an assessment of the reliability worth for each penetration condition is conducted with consideration to customer outage and environmental costs. Assessments are conducted on a typical microgrid test network utilizing an analytical method based on failure mode and effect analysis approach.