Estimation of solar photovoltaic energy curtailment due to volt-watt control

Abstract

The widespread deployment of autonomous inverter-based solutions for mitigating voltage and frequency excursions caused by high-penetration photovoltaic (PV) systems has drawn increased attention due to their potential impact on PV production. It is now important to quantify the amount of solar energy curtailed as a result of the activation of inverter-based grid support functions (GSFs). This study proposes a methodology for estimating the impact of volt-watt on customer PV energy curtailment using smart meter voltage data. This method estimates maximum possible curtailment for a given volt-watt curve based on the customer smart meter voltage during the time period of interest. This study compares the proposed methodology with field measurements using irradiance and customer inverter data from Hawaii as well as with results from a previous simulation-driven study on the impact of advanced inverter GSF activation on PV energy curtailment. Results show that the proposed method for estimating lost PV production caused by volt-watt control aligns reasonably well with field measurements and computer simulations for hundreds of customers. The proposed method could be used to estimate customer energy curtailment, which could inform future compensation mechanisms for utilities leveraging customer-sited resources to mitigate high voltage and defer infrastructure upgrades.