Alternative Approaches for Analysing the Impact of Distributed Generation on Shunt Compensated Radial Medium Voltage Networks

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of distributed generation (DG) on the output of shunt capacitors using power system analysis (PSA) tool DIgSILENT Powerfactory. The study then investigates two non-PSA techniques and one alternative PSA technique which makes use of Load Flow Sensitivities (LFS) to perform voltage assessment and assess the effect of DG on medium voltage (MV) shunt capacitors. The use of non-PSA techniques is crucial to utilities in developing countries like those found in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally the use of PSA tools are part of standard practice and the use of LFS can be shown to reduce the steps involved in voltage analysis and provides additional benefit to using PSA tools. In this paper, authors use South African MV capacitor placement methodologies implemented by the national energy utility, Eskom.