Coordinated voltage control in medium and low voltage distribution networks with wind power and photovoltaics

Abstract

Distributed Generation (DG) installations have been increasing during the last years. Wind power and photovoltaics are two of the most common renewable energy sources for DG typically connected to the distribution network (DN) originally planned and built to supply loads. DG units connected to the DN impact the voltage where customers are connected. Network voltage is an important quality criterion in DN. Voltage rise caused by DG units may become one of the limiting factors for the hosting capacity of wind power and photovoltaics in DNs. Increasing the hosting capacity by network rebuilding is possible but it is expensive and time consuming. Coordinated voltage control has been proposed to increase network capacity without the need of reinforcement. Simulations based on an existing medium and low voltage DN with wind power and photovoltaics are presented. It is shown that coordinated voltage control can increase the hosting capacity and avoid network reinforcement.