Impacts of varying penetration of distributed resources with & without volt/var control: Case study of varying load types

This paper provides a follow-up to an earlier one on impacts of distributed energy resources (DR) on distribution feeders. As DR penetration level on the feeder increases, there can be impacts to distribution system/feeder capacity, line losses, and voltage regulation. These can vary as the penetration level reaches the capacity of the distribution feeder/system or loading. The question is how high of a DR level can be accommodated without any major changes to system operation, system design and protection. Our objective for this work was to address the question of how the DR impacts vary in regards to both DR voltage regulation capability and load mix. A dynamic analysis was used to focus on the impacts of DR with and without volt/var control with different load composition on the distribution feeder. The study considered an example 10MVA distribution feeder in which two inverter-based DRs were used to provide voltage regulation. The results due to DR without voltage regulation capability are compared with DR capable of providing local (at its bus) voltage regulation. The analysis was repeated for four different feeder load compositions consisting of (1) constant power, (2) constant impedance, (3) constant current and (4) ZIP (equal combination of the previous three).