Performance Assessment of Grid Connected 2.5MW Solar Photovoltaic Plant: A Case of the Nigerian Defence Academy

Abstract

This paper presents the impact of 2.5MW Solar Photovoltaic Generation (SPVG) of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) on 33/11Kv New NDA Feeder. Distribution networks in Nigeria had suffered setbacks such as network losses, voltage deviation and inadequate power injection into substations compared to the net power delivered to the load. The Purpose of Distributed Generation (DG) is to minimize line los ses and improve the voltage profile of the network. Solar Photovoltaic Generation (SPVG) is one of the DGs that is capable of supplying real and reactive power into an existing distribution network to increase its overall efficiency. There is need to addressed this problem by analyzing the impact of distributed generation in order to improve the performance of the generation. Hence, this study examines the impact of solar photovoltaic generation on NDA 33/11kV injection substation distribution networks. To achieve this, the system network line diagram and SPVG data were from obtained from Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Kaduna regional Centre and the 2.5MW hybrid solar captive power plant located in the NDA permanent site, Afaka-Mando, Kaduna. Thereafter, the modeling of the power system network of the NDA 33k/11V and that of 2.5MW SPVG model were developed on PSAT. The performance of the developed system was evaluated using static and dynamic response analysis (current and voltage) as performance metrics. The simulation results when the DG was placed within the five (5) buses showed that the impact of the developed 2.5MW SPVG on the network obtained the active and reactive power losses of (0.1887, 0.1317, 0.0942, 0.0886p.u) and (0.3321, 0.2872, 0.2117, 0.1873pu) without the DG placement on the test network. When SPVG was optimally placed on the network, the active and reactive power loss became (0.0091, 0.0043, 0.0037, 0.0022pu) and (0.1413, 0.1222, 0.1077, 0.0810pu). This resulted in 12%, 21.33%, 24.21%, 26.77% and 33.22% improvement in voltage profile, active power flow, reactive power flow, active power loss and reactive power loss when compared to that without DG placement. This implies that the impact of DG on the NDA network resulted to increase in load demand. Once the DG was introduced, it now increased the amount of power that is available and the same time, the 2.5MW solar hybrid power plant is already injecting into the existing power flow. It also reduces the power losses due to location that it was strategically placed there by curbing the issue of load demand in the NDA. All simulations were implemented in MATLAB R2022b.