Power quality analysis of grid connected solar power inverter

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) energy has been widely interested today because it is clean and endless energy without causing pollution. To produce electricity from solar energy, it would be required an inverter to convert the direct current into alternating current. The inverter is the cause of problems that affect the stability of the power system because it is a switching device served to adjust the frequency of the AC power as needed. At the same time, it can cause harmonics which result in waveform distortion and affect electronic devices that receive power. Then, it could make electronic device malfunction. This paper studies the characteristics of harmonics on grid, PV system, and load. The result shows that most grid's harmonics are affected from PV system and load when the inverter power up to almost the rated power, meanwhile, percentages of harmonics are reduced and harmonics of load depend on the type of load. Next, comparing harmonics on three sides, and found that harmonics of PV system hardly affect to load and harmonics of grid are more affected from load than PV system.