Assessment of power quality of renewable plants: experience of Western Region of India

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of power quality measurement for grid-connected inverter based resource plants in the Western Region of India. An overview of the power quality assessment carried out in Western Region as mandated by the technical standards for connectivity regulation in India is introduced in the paper. The paper also talks about the process followed by the testing agencies for carrying out the field measurement of power quality (viz. harmonics in current and voltage, flicker and DC current injection). The characteristics of harmonics observed in various cases by the testing agencies differed from each other like higher harmonic content in only current waveform or only in voltage and the combined presence of both current and voltage harmonics distortions varying based on type of grid interconnection, generation and technology, the paper highlights the interpretation of these results. Various aspects which need to be taken care during measurement period, like the generation level of the plant, occurrence of fault/disturbances (if any) in the system affecting measurement results etc. are also briefly covered. The paper makes an investigative approach including both measurement based and simulation based results, to ascertain the harmonic sources for highlighting the power quality issues.