Mitigating the impact of high-capacity dispatchable distributed generation on reconfigurable distribution networks with step voltage regulators: A real case study on voltage issues

Abstract

This paper investigates and discusses voltage issues currently faced by engineers from a Brazilian utility in the high-capacity dispatchable distributed generation (DG) interconnection planning study on a real reconfigurable distribution network with cascaded step voltage regulators (SVRs). Based on this investigation, this paper proposes an optimal rescheduling approach applied to high-capacity dispatchable DG considering two additional technical constraints to the optimization problem for mitigating voltage issues, such as over/undervoltage violations and SVR runaway, while still allowing network reconfiguration schemes and benefiting the independent power producer (IPP). With this approach, the active power supplied by the IPP's DG is adjusted throughout the day with respect to the feeder load forecast, avoiding reverse power flow situations on SVRs and ensuring suitable control operation on reconfigurable distribution networks. The problem is formulated as a constrained optimization and solved through the primal-dual interior point technique. Simulation results on a real Brazilian reconfigurable distribution network demonstrate that the proposed method is effective to mitigate the identified voltage issues without affecting network reconfiguration operations and the weekly average active power injected by the DG.