Impact of connecting a CSP plant in the upington distribution network on voltage dip performance

The Upington area within South Africa is well-endowed with solar resources, with relatively high annual solar radiation recorded compared to other parts of the country. The distribution network in the area comprises very long lines, has very low fault levels, and is very prone to voltage dips. Previous studies [1] have investigated the feasibility and network considerations of connecting concentrating solar power (CSP) plants of sizes 50 MW, 100 MW and 150 MW at Upington substation. In this paper, the previous work is extended to assess the impact of connecting the plant sizes described above on the voltage dip performance of this weak network. The studies show that embedding a CSP plant in such a weak network, apart from capacity-related benefits, can have positive on quality of supply of such a system by reducing the severity of dips due to disturbances.