Thesis work - Impact of aggregated plug-in household solar PV on low and medium voltage grids

The connection of plug-in household PV systems and balcony solar installations has increased in recent years across many European countries, where approximately 780,000 installations have been registered. These systems typically consist of one or a few solar panels connected to the grid through a microinverter, which is then plugged directly into a customer's electrical outlet.

Although the individually connected power per customer is relatively low, widespread adoption can result in a significant amount of aggregated generation. Especially in densely populated areas, the combined production from many small-scale resources could potentially lead to power flow issues, voltage variations, instability due to unbalanced loads, and other adverse effects on the power grid. This raises the question: what impact will the connection of plug-in household solar panels have on low- and medium-voltage grids? This is the question that this thesis aims to answer.

This thesis will investigate questions such as: At what penetration level of household PV systems does grid instability occur? What effects can these installations have on both the low- and medium-voltage grid?

The analysis will be carried out using several methods, including a literature review and grid stability studies conducted in simulation software such as PowerFactory or Simulink.

This thesis work is for 1 student.