Harmonic modelling of PV systems for probabilistic harmonic load flow studies

Probabilistic harmonic load flow (HLF) is currently enjoying renewed popularity. This is not surprising since in the near future, thousands of photovoltaic (PV) systems will be integrated into distribution systems. However, as yet, there is no model capable of explaining PV harmonic current behaviour in probabilistic HLF studies. To fill this gap, the harmonic modelling of PV systems proposed in this paper has three key points. First, it provides an effective model of the relationship between PV harmonic current emission and background harmonic voltages. Second, it statistically characterises PV harmonic currents (relative magnitude and phase angle) at different fundamental‐frequency current output intervals using historical time‐series data. In this statistical characterisation, the first fifth moments of each PV harmonic current are used to accurately approximate the raw probability density function (PDF) by means of the Legendre series. Finally, the third key point of this harmonic modelling is a method capable of determining the distribution functions of PV harmonic currents (absolute magnitude and phase angle), based on the statistical characterisation and a fundamental‐frequency probabilistic PV model. The numerical results obtained confirm the effectiveness of this PV model. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.