Grid impact from PV-installations in northern Scandinavia

The use of solar panels is becoming more popular in Sweden. Parts of Scandinavia have many sun hours and the cold temperatures are advantageous as they lead to higher efficiencies and longer lifetimes of the solar cells. Except during the darkest time of the year (Nov-Feb) PV is a suitable complement for power production also in the northern parts of Scandinavia, especially when using a proper tracking system In this paper power quality issues concerning the connection of photovoltaic systems will be discussed. Emission up to 25 kHz will be presented as well as voltage variations caused by the production. Measurements from three phase connected plants (20 kW) and from smaller (up to 2.5 kW) single phase connected plants are shown. The harmonic emission from PV-plants is reasonable low and somewhat constant with regards to the production. Some residue from the switching of the inverter can be found typical at a few kHz.