This interim knowledge sharing report is written at the completion of stage 3, and covers the activities and learning in the first three stages of the project.
Report extract
In Australia many roof-top residential photovoltaic (PV) generators have been connected to the Low Voltage (LV) grid, making Australia the top ranking country for residential solar installation on a per capita basis1. This trend has not slowed down, with the expectation that more PV systems will be connected in future.
Residential roof-top PV generators, a form of renewable distributed energy resource (DER), has made a significant contribution to Australia meeting its greenhouse gas abatement commitment. As distribution networks are not traditionally designed to host DERs, the two-way flow of electricity created has impact on the ability of the distribution networks to deliver quality electricity supply to its customers.
The amount of DER that can be connected to a distribution network while the network remains within its technical limits is called its ‘hosting capacity’.
Jemena and its project partners believe that hosting capacity can be increased by retrofitting novel, grid based, dynamic and deployable power electronics technologies and control systems to the existing distribution networks, and set to demonstrate the technologies in this Jemena DER hosting capacity project.
The Jemena DER hosting capacity project started in January 2019. By the time of this report, network modelling and bench testing have been completed by University of New South Wales (UNSW), control schemes and hardware designs completed, equipment manufactured and delivered by the equipment supplier, and Jemena and AusNet Services have installed and commissioned all three technologies in their distribution networks. Experiences gained from these activities are documented in this interim knowledge sharing report.