Investigation of impact of integrating on-grid home based solar power systems on voltage rise in the utility network

South Africa, with steep population and economic growth is suffering from energy deficit, like many other developing countries. The demand is becoming greater than the available generation in the country. Hence, much research is on in South Africa regarding deployment of alternative energy sources such as solar PV and wind plants for local energy generation to supply remote and off-grid areas. Currently, solar photovoltaic (PV) is expensive especially when it is off-grid. Lately much research has been going into the integration of on-grid home-based solar PV (HBSPV) systems to the grid such that customers can get both solar and utility grid power according to periods of sun and no-sun. Also, with proper legislation, the customers might also be able to sell excess solar power to the utility grid. However, it is important to investigate the impact of integrating HBSPV systems on the voltage quality in the grid. This paper investigates the problem of voltage rise in the grid which might be caused by high level of penetration of on-grid HBSPV systems. In this study, the HBSPV system is modeled as a static generator and different bus voltages were recorded and studied for different levels of HBSPV penetration on a 9-bus test system.