Report for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) - Addressing Grid-Interconnection Issues in Order to Maximize the Utilization of New and Renewable Energy Sources. Summary Document

Summary Document. The report was funded by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Energy Working Group. Distribution technologies connect to the distribution network and while they can have a positive impact on that network, they can also have a negative impact at high penetrations if appropriate measures are not implemented. Solar photovoltaic systems (PV) are rapidly deployed at an increasing rate and are reliant on a source of energy that can fluctuate daily, hourly and even shorter periods. Although PV is the predominant focus of this Summary Document, the discussed grid impacts capture all those that other distribution generation technologies are likely to have (such as wind).

Potential high penetration impacts include voltage fluctuations, voltage rise and reverse power flow, power fluctuation, impacts on power factor, frequency regulation and harmonics, unintentional islanding, fault currents and grounding issues. 

This Summary Document is derived from the report ‘Addressing Grid-interconnection Issues  in  Order  to  Maximise  the  Utilisation  of  New  and  Renewable  Energy Sources’ written  for the APEC  Energy  Working  Group.  It describes  each  of  these  impacts along with the current approaches to address them. It is clear there is no ‘one size  fits  all’  solution  for  any  of  these  impacts,  and  the  technical  solutions  may  not  be implemented because of lack of appropriate policies and institutional frameworks. Thus, this Summary Document concludes with the need for government involvement and recommendations for further work.

Keywords: APEC, grid stability, grid interconnection integration, renewable energy penetration, IT Power