Impact of Renewable Generation on the harmonic distortion in distribution networks: Key Findings of the German research project NetzHarmonie

Abstract

With the increase of renewable energy resources, the share of power electronics increases in public grids. These power electronics produce harmonic currents and inject them into the grid. This causes distortion of voltage, which has significant influence on the power quality in the grid. Existing standards define harmonic current emission limits, which might be unnecessarily strict and consequently do not effectively utilize the hosting capacity of the grid in terms of harmonics. New and improved methods to evaluate harmonic emission in the grid have been developed within the framework of the research project “NetzHarmonie”, which was funded by the German government. In this paper, an overview of the research project its main goals is introduced. The main results and the key findings for the different work packages of the project are presented.