Modern EMC Power Quality Issues: Overvoltage Caused by PV Penetration

Due to the global vision and actions taken to lower the CO2 and decrease the emitted greenhouse gases, there has been a boost and encouragement for deploying photovoltaic systems in Poland and many other countries. However, the extensive installation of photovoltaic units in residential prosumers has led to a new electromagnetic compatibility problem. This problem is the overvoltage resulting from high penetration of the photovoltaic units. Energy companies started to receive complaints from customers about service interruptions. However, in many cases, these overvoltage incidents were not detected by the companies’ metering systems, making it difficult to identify the root cause of the problem. This paper presents a field investigation showing the recognized electromagnetic compatibility issue, highlighting how high PV penetration can lead to overvoltage in the low-voltage distribution network. It also explains why the energy companies fail to detect overvoltage. Additionally, the paper provides insight into the photovoltaic inverters operation and protection in accordance with the IEC standard.