Systematic Approaches to Solar Farm Integration into the Grid: An Engineering Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine systematic ways to integrate solar farms into current electrical distribution systems. The primary focus is the electrical engineering issues, and some solutions improving electrical stability and efficiency when implementing solar on electrical distribution circuits. The study synthesizes the most important results from numerous studies that focus on systematic approaches to measuring, rating, and integrating solar power into existing grid infrastructures from an engineering perspective. A critical review of recent literature and case studies was executed, summarizing various strategies of integration in specific geographical and regulatory environments. In an engineering-based review, if renewable solar farms are added or applied to existing grid infrastructures, reliability, stability, and energy management systems implemented to integrate solar farms will continue to be affected by the engineering principles underlining the deployment of solar farms on existing infrastructures. The collective understanding from the synthesized studies employed by this paper is that effective solar farm integration will require a systematic approach including advancements in energy storage technologies, smart grid technology, and all together with a renewed improvement in grid management practices. Based on the findings from this study, it is possible to identify specific areas influencing effective solar farm integration, such as grid flexibility, regulatory and sociopolitical acceptance and distributed energy resource applications. The study established that the application of more precise integration approaches such as using machine learning (ML) or artificial intelligence (AI) strategies will likely result in effectively mitigating intermittency, and load balancing problems.