Sigma Xi Public Talk
Behind-the-Meter Rooftop Solar Energy: Impacts to the Electric Power Grid
Presented by Matthew Reno.Senior Engineer Electric Power Systems Research Department Sandia National Laboratories
The number of rooftop solar photovoltaic systems has been increasing exponentially in the last decade due to the falling price of solar panels and the push towards green renewable power generation. The electric utility is responsible to ensure that these systems operate safely and reliably in a way that does not impact the overall electric grid and distribution system, but rooftop solar is generally installed on the customer premise behind the electric meter, giving the utility little insight into the operations or control of the generation. Rooftop solar transforms the way that the grid has operated traditionally with power flowing from the grid into customers' houses. In addition, solar energy on a cloudy day can be highly variable and intermittent. With penetration of solar panels on the distribution system continually increasing, it is necessary to model the time-varying nature of solar energy and the potential technical impacts of the equipment and operation of the distribution system. For the continued advancement of solar energy, we need to easily and accurately allow interconnections that will not cause issues, while at the same time not installing systems that will require costly upgrades in the future because the issues were not detected before the system was installed.
5:00 pm, Thursday, March 22, 2018
Room C, UNM Conference Center
Northeast corner of Indian School and University
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A schedule of talks within the Department of Physics and Astronomy is available on the P&A web site at http://physics.unm.edu/pandaweb/events/index.php