Impacts of PV penetration into LV Distribution Network: Case study for Southeast Region of Tunisia, Sfax

The penetration of photovoltaic (PV) system into the low-voltage distribution networks (LV-DNs) has become, in the few last years, a main international trend, encouraged by the sinking prices of PVs. However, this integration may impact the normal operation of the DNs in both beneficial and detrimental ways. In this context, this paper is an attempt in order to investigate the effects of the PV integration on the LV-DNs. This study has been carried out for a portion of a real LV-DN in the region of Sfax, Tunisia. Different scenarios of demand level and PV production are presented and carefully discussed so as to assess the technical impacts occurred by the PV systems integration. For the load-flow analysis, a Backward/Forward sweep algorithm was used.