Ravidutt Sharma of DIgSILENT PACIFIC

In the past few years, Australia’s power system has seen unprecedented change with the integration of RE. With many utility-scale solar farms getting connected to the grid, the requirement to comply with the National Electricity Rule is getting stricter and the interpretation of the rule is evolving. The requirement of reactive power capability of solar farms as per section S5.2.5.1 of the NER will be discussed in this presentation. Impact of S5.2.5.4 ‘continuous uninterrupted operation’ (CUO) and its interaction with S5.2.5.1 on the solar farm design will also be discussed. Various factors affecting the solar farm performance like, tap change control of the solar farm transformer, normal operating voltage at the point of connection, interaction of AC voltage with the DC voltage of the inverter and cloud shading will be discussed. Impact on the solar energy yield to comply with S5.2.5.1 and S5.2.5.4 for all the above factors will be presented.

Biography:

Ravidutt Sharma has been working in the power industry for 10+ years. Starting as a project engineer in 2007 working on construction and commissioning of thermal power plants. After initial on-site work for about 3 years, he worked on the protection system design and commissioning with expertise on designing special grid protection schemes. In 2015, he moved to Australia and completed his Master's degree in Power Systems from the University of Queensland. Since 2016 he is working with DIgSILENT Pacific Limited (Power System Engineering and Software consultants), working mainly on grid connection studies for solar farms and generator performance testing along with other power system studies like arc flash assessment, protection coordination studies, power quality studies etc.