Stakeholders last week agreed to develop technical standards for “smart” inverters that can allow solar PV and other renewables to provide reactive power.

The Markets and Reliability Committee approved a problem statement/issue charge directing the Planning Committee to develop standards and accompanying rule changes.

The increasing penetration of solar PV and other asynchronous generation resources, combined with the retirement of traditional generation, has made managing voltage more difficult in some regions. Smart or enhanced inverters allow such resources to provide reactive power support and increase their abilities to remain operating during frequency swings and low voltage. (See `Smart’ Inverters May Give Solar Reactive Capability.)

The new standards would apply to new sources of renewable generation, while allowing existing units to maintain the status quo, said PJM’s Frank Koza.

Many smart inverters are already installed on existing PV solar generators, but their enhanced capabilities have been disabled due to current conservative IEEE standards, which force generators to trip offline quickly to avoid islanding. Smart inverters are already being used successfully in Europe.

“These (regulations) could apply to any type of generation seeking interconnection,” said Koza, who noted that smart inverters could aid transmission and distribution projects, too.

Several stakeholders noted that the distribution system — where many inverters will be installed — is beyond the purview of PJM and urged the RTO to work with state regulators to determine jurisdictional boundaries and policy implications. This was added as a friendly amendment to the proposal, which passed without opposition.

PJM hopes to complete work on the issue in time for an August FERC filing.