A unified control strategy for voltage regulation and congestion management in active distribution networks

Abstract

The advent of distributed renewable energy sources (DRESs) has led to a series of technical issues affecting the secure and reliable operation of active distribution networks. Among them, under-/overvoltages, current overload, and voltage unbalance can be considered as the most important problems limiting the increase of DRES penetration. In this paper, a new control architecture is proposed to overcome these issues using the reactive power of DRESs and the active/reactive power of distributed battery energy storage systems (DBESSs). Its distinct feature is the implementation in the symmetrical components domain, allowing the efficient decoupling between under-/overvoltage and voltage unbalance mitigation techniques. Furthermore, a central controller is introduced to improve the system performance in terms of reduced network losses and effective DBESS utilization by coordinating the response of DRESs and DBESSs. The validity of the proposed control strategy is evaluated by performing time-domain and time-series simulations on the IEEE European LV test feeder. • Unified control strategy for unbalanced low voltage distribution grids. • Voltage regulation, voltage unbalance mitigation and congestion management control. • Distributed generation and energy storage are used as the main control units. • Implementation of the control schemes in the symmetrical components domain. • Performance evaluation by conducting time-domain and quasi-static simulations.