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Solar
PV and the Grid
Interconnection "issues" involve all the necessary technical, contractual and rates and metering issues that must be settled with the utility and permitting authorities before a customer can connect a PV system into the grid. For customers interested in installing grid-tied PV systems, interconnection rules have been time and cost prohibitive in the past. The approval of much-anticipated IEEE and UL technical standards have enabled states to move forward with the standardization of interconnection rules and requirements.
Grid affects of distributed photovoltaics
The benefits of distributed generation to utility distribution grid systems are well cited, such as reduced energy losses in distribution lines, voltage support and reduced required spinning reserve.
But it would take more than
a few megawatts of aggregated small-scale PV installations of a few kilowatts
(or even tens of kilowatts) - far beyond the near-term market penetration
expected in most utilities territories - to affect such benefits on a
system of hundreds of peak megawatts. Furthermore, these distributed benefits
are highly site-specific and the value of these systems to the distribution
grid may be reduced unless the utility can influence where these installations
are sited within the network. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District
says the 10 megawatts of distributed generation PV installed on it system
of 2,700 peak megawatts (<.5 percent) has not created noticeable benefits
or problems, because it is just not enough capacity to make an impact.
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