Abstract:
Sri Lanka as a developing country is in its way for a green environment with energy
security. Sri Lanka has already agreed to reduce 20% of the greenhouse gases
through the signed agreement COP21 of the United Nations Environmental
Framework Convention on Climate Changes (UNFCCC).
The solar resource is the most commonly available renewable energy source in Sri
Lanka. Therefore Sri Lankan government set its target to install 1000MW solar
photovoltaic rooftop systems by 2020 from launching the programme called “Battle
for Solar Energy”. The number of solar rooftop installations increased rapidly with
the launch of this programme and at present the total rooftop installation capacity is
more than 100 MW.
The intermittency behavior is the main obstacle associated with solar photovoltaic
energy generation. The utility (Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB)) has to maintain
thermal power plants running as spinning reserves to overcome the effect of
intermittent nature of solar photovoltaic power plants. This research titled as
“MANAGING THE RESOURCE INTERMITTENCY TO MAXIMIZE THE
SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC PENETRATION” was carried out to find out a way for
maximizing solar photovoltaic penetration. Two models were developed using
Matlab Simulink to study the behavior of solar power plants integrated to the power
distribution system. One is a centralized PV system and the other is a system of
small PV plants geographically scattered and connected over a low voltage
distribution feeder. The cumulative capacity of the scattered system is similar to the
capacity of the centralized system.
The measurements of the simulations reveal that, more solar photovoltaic capacity
can be connected to the distribution system while meeting the grid code requirements
when the solar PV systems are geographically scattered.
