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This work analyses the impact of photovoltaic generation on voltage stability margin in an islanded microgrid. An indicator of voltage collapse proximity, based on the maximum deliverable power, is used to study the contribution of photovoltaic generation to the voltage stability margin. In this context, the well-known power–voltage curves, also known as ‘nose’ curves, are developed, taking into account different levels of photovoltaic penetration. Furthermore, the effect of the power factor at the photovoltaic generators as well as the influence of the adopted model for such generators are also investigated. The results have shown that the photovoltaic generation can significantly affect the voltage stability margin.

Integration of renewable energy sources into the electric grid in the domestic sector results in bidirectional energy flow from the supply side of the consumer to the grid. Traditional pricing methods are difficult to implement in such a situation of bidirectional energy flow and they face operational challenges on the application of price-based demand side management programme because of the intermittent characteristics of renewable energy sources. In this study, a dynamic pricing method using real-time data based on a cloud computing framework is proposed to address the aforementioned issues. The case study indicates that the dynamic pricing captures the variation of energy flow in the household. The dynamic renewable factor introduced in the model supports consumer oriented pricing. A new method is presented in this study to determine the appropriate level of photovoltaic (PV) penetration in the distribution system based on voltage stability aspect. The load flow study result for the electric grid in Kerala, India, indicates that the overvoltage caused by various PV penetration levels up to 33% is within the voltage limits defined for distribution feeders. The result justifies the selected level of penetration.