Abstract
Four-wire low-voltage microgrids supply one-phase consumers with electricity, responding to a continuously changing demand. For addressing climate change concerns, national governments have implemented incentive schemes for residential consumers, encouraging the installation of home PV panels for covering self-consumption needs. In the absence of adequate storage capacities, the surplus is sold back by these entities, called prosumers, to the grid operator or, in local markets, to other consumers. While these initiatives encourage the proliferation of green energy resources, and ample research is dedicated to local market designs for prosumer–consumer trading, the main concern of distribution network operators is the influence of power flows generated by prosumers’ surplus injection on the operating states of microgrids. The change in power flow amount and direction can greatly influence the economic and technical operating conditions of radial grids. This paper proposes a metaheuristic algorithm for prosumer surplus management that optimizes the power surplus injections using the automated control of three-phase inverters, with the aim of reducing the active power losses over a typical day of operation. A case study was performed on two real distribution networks with distinct layouts and load profiles, and the algorithm resulted efficient in both scenarios. By optimally distributing the prosumer generation surplus on the three phases of the network, significant loss reductions were obtained, with the best results when the generated power was injected in an unbalanced, three-phase flow.
Highlights
Residential consumers that use photovoltaic (PV) panels for local generation can sell their generation surplus back to the grid, using one of two main trading options: reselling back to the network operator at regulated tariffs [1] or using local markets for trading to local consumers [2]
The prosumers’ microgrids are able to gradually gain independence from the grid and monopoly utilities. This advantage comes with a cost to the utilities, because, as long as the microgrid is still connected to the distribution network, it can influence its operating conditions
Taking into consideration all of the above, this paper focuses on optimizing the power injections of prosumers connected in three-phase low-voltage distribution networks, aiming for the minimization of active power losses over a typical day
Summary
Residential consumers that use photovoltaic (PV) panels for local generation can sell their generation surplus back to the grid, using one of two main trading options: reselling back to the network operator at regulated tariffs [1] or using local markets for trading to local consumers [2]. In this case, the power flows are reversed, with high changes in the operation conditions of the network, affecting both power losses and quality of supply. The simplest approach for reducing losses caused by prosumers is to minimize their interaction with the grid, by optimally using the local generation [5] Since this is difficult to achieve in most situations, the network operator must find other ways to manage the changes. The inverters of PV systems transform DC voltage into AC voltage, used by the prosumers to feed the surplus in the unbalanced LV microgrid They can be used for improving the operating conditions of the network. The use of PV prosumer inverters to regulate three-phase power flows to improve the operation state of the microgrid;.
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