Abstract
In this paper, a novel version of the Optimal Distributed Generation Placement (ODGP) problem regarding the siting and sizing of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) units is presented, called Optimal RES placement (ORESP). Power losses constitute the objective function to be minimized, subject to operational constraints. The simultaneous installation of a mix of RESs is considered and the Capacity Factor (CF) ratio is used as an aid for taking into account: (a) the geographical characteristics of the area, in which the examined Distribution Network (DN) is placed, (b) the different weather conditions, and (c) the availability of RESs, all of that at the same time, while keeping the problem complexity at minimum. The contribution of this work is that the proposed methodology bypasses the weather uncertainties and, thus, the RESs’ power generation stochasticity and provides an adequate solution with minimum computational burden and time, since the proposed CF use allows solving the problem under a straightforward way. Unified Particle Swarm Optimization (uPSO) is used for solving ODGP and ORESP. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis regarding the CFs variations is performed and finally a comparison of the proposed method with a more realistic one is performed, to consolidate further the claims of this paper. The proposed method is evaluated on RES-region-modified 33- and 118 bus systems.
Highlights
The implementation of Distributed Generation (DG) has been considered as an efficient way to exploit the advantages provided by the dispersion of small and/or medium sized power units.Installation of such power units, mostly in distribution level, has proved to contribute to several grid-operation issues, such as: loss reduction, either alone [1], or in combination with capacitor banks [2]; considering reliability [3], or even improving it [4]; voltage stability [5], or other, such as improving DG, or Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) penetration [6], reducing the RESs’ integration issues in the Distribution Network (DN) [7] or applied to remote hybrid renewable energy systems [8]
In order to enable a direct comparison between the two problems (ODGP and Optimal RES placement (ORESP)) both Wind Power (WP) and Hydro Power plants (HD) units were assumed to produce only active power
It is apparent that the majority of the nodes (4 nodes in ORESP from 6 in Optimal Distributed Generation Placement (ODGP), respectively) that emerge as the critical ones for DG installation towards loss minimization are still the prevalent ones to host RESs
Summary
The implementation of Distributed Generation (DG) has been considered as an efficient way to exploit the advantages provided by the dispersion of small and/or medium sized power units. If an optimal mix is required, an investigation about the way the DGs affect power quality and reliability issues must be performed, since the DG penetration level could be limited by harmonic distortion caused by the inverter-based DG units, as well as by protection coordination constraints because of the variation in fault current caused by synchronous-based DG units [26] Another approach is to apply the Effective Load Factors (ELFs) concept for each bus and each technology of DG [27], but in this case the approach could just be considered a spare of computational effort while the solutions could rely on approximations.
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