Power quality survey of a photovoltaic power plant

Grid code requirements for grid-connected PV generation have experienced a continuous evolution all over the world in recent years. Among these requirements, PV plants must be able to ride through specific voltage dip shapes, according to current National Grid Codes. Under this new framework, this paper presents a survey of power quality carried out in a Spanish PV power plant. Voltage dips and supply interruptions have been collected during one year of observation in the region with the highest PV power capacity installed in this country. Several methods, including both tabular and graphical representations of the data, are discussed to analyse the occurrence of electrical disturbances in this type of renewable energy systems. This paper thus allows to assess the performance of current PV plant inverters facing real power quality events. © 2013 IEEE.