Optimal PV Sources Integration in Distribution System and Its Impacts on Overcurrent Relay Based Time-Current-Voltage Tripping Characteristic

A big interest in the last few decades was about the integration of multiple PV sources-based DG units (PV-DG) into Electrical Distribution System (EDS), and this is for their benefits in enhancing power system reliability and operation. To reach the maximum of those benefits, an optimal location and sizing of PV-DG sources into EDS should be properly designed and developed. This paper consists to apply various algorithms of Particle Swarm optimization (PSO) and choosing the best among them to optimally locate and size the PV-DG sources and identify their impact on protection system in EDS, using a Multi Objective Functions (MOF) that aim for minimizing the three technical parameters of Total Active Power Loss (TAPL), Total Voltage Deviation (TVD), and Total Operation Time (TOT) of Non-Standard Over-Current Relays (NS-OCR) based new time-current-voltage tripping characteristic. This work was applied on the two test systems, the IEEE 33-bus, and the IEEE 69-bus. The obtained results show that, the optimal location and sizing of PV-DG sources in the EDS deliver a positive impact in terms of minimizing the active power losses and improving the voltage profile, but a negative one in the part of system protection, exactly the overcurrent relays coordination.