Impact of PV on peak load shaving on an actual distribution system

This paper deals with the impact of photovoltaic distributed generators (PV-DG) on the peak load shaving of Clemson university campus system (CUCS). This distribution system has seven individual feeders with all loads directed from acquired smart meter data. MATLAB/Simulink simulation is developed to conduct the study. Power flow is solved in phasor domain with an associated algorithm built to manage the data and iterate 5 minute simulation periods. A PV-DG model is built accurately to estimate the power output of a specific PV array (PVA) with 1 second solar irradiance data. The peak load shaving using PV-DG is studied with two selected critical days. Feeder voltages and line currents are observed to stay within the standard range and cable thermal ratings, respectively. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the simulation to accommodate a practical system and perform the peak load shaving using PV-DG.