Investigating the impact of protection system reinforcement cost on the consumers associated with renewable integrated distribution network

Conventional distribution network is a radial network with a single power source. Usually, overcurrent protection schemes are employed for such system protection for their simplicity and low cost. With the introduction of renewable generations, the existing protection coordination needs to be upgraded. Provision of directional feature and the requirement of high capacity circuit-breakers at certain points for the protection scheme demands considerable investment. The renovation cost required for upgrading the protection scheme will significantly impact the network cost requirement and consequently distribution use of system (DUoS) charges. This study aims to investigate the impact of renewable generations on the DUoS charges considering the cost associated in revamping the protection scheme. A power flow based MW + MVAr-miles DUoS charging method, that considers used capacity of the network, is proposed to carry out the DUoS charging calculations. The proposed charging mechanism appraise/penalise the users in accordance they are affecting system power factor. Accordingly, the proposed pricing algorithm may encourage users to act based on the economic signal generated at each location. The proposed charging algorithm has been tested on IEEE-33 and IEEE-69 bus distribution systems to examine the impact of renewable generations on the use of network costs.