Estimation of customer voltages for planning of conservation voltage reduction

Abstract

Conservation voltage reduction (CVR) is a technique for lowering energy consumption by reducing customer voltages while remaining within specified service voltage ranges. It is widely used by utilities and advocated by some regulatory bodies. However, in order to lower customer voltages while keeping them within standard ranges, it is important to know where the voltage starts. Available models of many feeder circuits focus on the medium voltage (MV) layout and do not include any details of the low voltage (LV) service level. This can make estimation of customer voltages for CVR programs difficult. For purposes of estimating the benefits and costs associated with a CVR program, it is sufficient to know how many customer sites may require mitigation, without specific information on where mitigation may be required. This can be found by using predictions about the average customer voltage drop and the modeled MV primary voltage levels. This yields a prediction of how many customers may require voltage mitigation for a particular CVR program.