National Grid (NG) owns and operates 18 solar photovoltaic (PV) generation facilities under its phase II solar initiative. These facilities have been strategically located in areas that may provide unique benefits to the operation of the existing electric distribution system, including alleviating load constraints and deferring capital investments in new distribution assets. NG is employing advanced inverter control systems, called “smart inverters” at each of these facilities.

In this project, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) provided the phase II solar initiative with state-of-the-art inverter integration knowledge related to grid-support functions, applications, initial set ups, methods to optimize operation, and methods for analyzing field data for performance evaluation.