DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

Key words:

Requerimientos de conexión a red, Huecos de tensión, Instalaciones eólicas y fotovoltaicas, : Grid code requirements, Voltage Dips, Draft of Operation Procedure, PV power plants and Wind farms

Article type:

ARTICULO DE INVESTIGACION / RESEARCH ARTICLE

Section:

RESEARCH ARTICLES

The integration of renewable energy resources into power systems have increased considerably along the last decade, mainly encouraged by both development technical solutions and policy proposals as a way to reduce energy dependence from third-countries. For the Spanish case, the remarkable penetration of renewable energy sources has been mainly driven by wind and photovoltaic power plants. As a result of these relevant modifications in the mix of generation, a set of changes in the grid-code requirements have been proposed by most governments, mainly those characteristics related with grid connections under disturbances of renewable energy resources. Under this framework, the present paper discusses the evolution of wind farm and PV power plant integration in the Spanish power system, describing the requirements and electrical behaviors of these sources under disturbances. Both active and reactive power limits have also described in the paper, including disconnection constraints. In addition, the last draft issued by the Spanish Transmission Operator System (REE) provides modifications and greater requirements aiming to support disturbances and voltage dips even more critical.

Real field-test measurements carried out along several years in different Spanish PV power plants gives a comparison between collected data and grid-code requirements. This study provides a preliminary analysis regarding the severity of the current grid-code requirements compared with real disturbances. Moreover, these data gives additional information in reference to the inverter performance under the presence of disturbances, and their electrical behavior in current LV PV plant installations.