Japanese test facilities for smart grid

The Japanese government policy for carbon emission reduction is based on the increasing of generation capacity for photovoltaic to 28GW by 2020 and 53GW by 2030. Even if renewable energy sources are expected to contribute to the emission reduction, there may be some technical difficulties to integrate a large amount of renewable sources to the existing electric power system. Difficulties and challenges associated with the renewable energy sources are mainly related to the location of the sources and to the unstable output of the generation. Smart grid technologies are the key to solve these challenges. This paper introduces a smart grid test facility developed starting from 2010 in Amagasaki Japan. The aim of the facility is to create an advance environment with a large amount of renewable sources integrated. In a Mitsubishi factory, 4MW of photovoltaic panels are connected to a distribution grid in several combinations and voltage level. The test facility is used to develop and test new algorithms, systems and equipments for the smart grid of 2020. The paper focuses on equipment and technologies to ensure high power quality in the power system especially regarding frequency and voltage stabilization.