Evaluation of the impact of distributed synchronous generation on the stochastic estimation of financial costs of voltage sags

• Main Authors: N Mbuli, R Xezile, JHC Pretorius, P Sowa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2016-03-01
• Series: Journal of Energy in Southern Africa
• Subjects: financial costs; stochastic estimation; uniform probability density function
• Online Access: https://journals.assaf.org.za/jesa/article/view/1561
• ISSN: 1021-447X; 2413-3051

Power system faults can cause voltage sags that, if they are less than voltage sensitivity threshold of equipment, can lead to interruption of supply and lead to incurring of financial losses. The impact of distributed generation (DG) on these financial losses is investigated in this work. Using the method of fault positions, a stochastic approach to determine voltage sag performance, profiles of magnitudes of remaining voltages at a monitoring point for faults occurring along lines in the network is developed. It follows that an expected number of critical voltage sags at a monitoring point is calculated and the expected cost of these sags is derived for various voltage sensitivity threshold limits. An illustrative study is carried out comparing the expected costs of voltage sags for a network without DG with a DG case, for various mixes of customers. It is shown that in the presence of DG, the expected costs of voltage sags are lesser for all voltage sensitivity criteria assumed and for all customer mixes. The study demonstrates that the impact of incorporating DG sources results in a reduction in the expected cost of voltage sags.