Distributed generation diversity level for optimal investment planning

The task of improving the supply quality and maintaining supply continuity during emergencies has become more feasible for a distribution company (DISCO), owing to new developments in Distributed Generation (DG) technologies. Even though the technical issues regarding DG interconnection to the main grid are of great importance and are being addressed by on-going research, it must be clearly placed in the context of on the financial performance of the utility. In this paper, a general approach to quantify the technical benefits of DG employment is proposed. The power system economic impact is assessed by evaluating supply quality, supply reliability, system power losses and capital investment. Moreover, the rationale for this research also includes the possibility of DG diversity level in contribution to the economical benefits from DG integration. The approach is tested by a system which is developed from a Tasmanian distribution example. Simulation results and discussion are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and usefulness of the method.