Assessing the performance of smart inverter volt-watt and volt-var functions in distribution systems with high PV penetration

The overvoltage problem in distribution networks may be caused by significant active power injection from photovoltaic (PV) generation. In the distribution networks with high PV penetration around the world the overvoltage is commonly mitigated by curtailing active power injection due to lower X/R ratio. However, this directly results in suboptimal capture of energy from PV generators. To mitigate overvoltage, smart inverter Volt-Watt and Volt-Var control functions have been introduced in recent standards. The utility of these functions has been established in few recent studies. This paper shows how smart inverter Volt-Watt and Volt-Var control functions alleviate the overvoltage problem in distribution networks with high integration of PV generators.