Case Study: Arizona Public Service Solar Partnership Program and the Powerful SCADA Controller that Made it Work

摘要

Arizona ranks 4th in the nation in total installed solar capacity. Arizona Public Service Company (APS) is experiencing immense challenges due to high penetration of Photo Voltaic (PV) on its distribution feeders. They are taking proactive steps to combat these emerging inflection points. APS and its partners are researching new ways of harnessing solar energy for the benefit of all stakeholders while maintaining the highest levels of reliability and power quality on it's distribution system. The innovativ “APS Solar Partner Program (SPP)” is part of this overall initiative. In this program, APS is implementing a new business model of utility owned residential rooftop PV systems utilizing the latest advanced inverter technology. The program has designed and implemented a centralized control system for monitoring and control of the advanced inverters using different communication options. The objective of this program is to evaluate the various technologies, understand the challenges and perform extensive research on various use cases. This paper and presentation will discuss the provisions of the APS Solar Partner Program, its technical challenges in the area of SCADA requirements needed to make it successful and their research finding so far.