Transition of Power Distribution System Planning from Passive to Active Networks: A State-of-the-Art Review and a New Proposal

Abstract

The planning of electrical power distribution systems (DS) is a strategy to meet load demand and to expand the services economically and yet, reliably. The lower energy efficiency of DS, because of the high network power loss and voltage-drop problem, makes the DS planning problem more relevant, even today. Integration of distributed generation (DG) to DS is one of the solutions to improve energy efficiency. The inclusion of DG units in DS planning transformed the traditional passive distribution system (PDS) to active distribution system (ADS). The ADS planning includes the modern communication technique, active energy management technologies and distribution system automation technologies. There are various approaches on ADS planning including various features. These are classified into a three-level tree structure. The first level is based on the type of the planning. The second level is based on the types of load and generation models used. The third level of classification is based on the different types of solution strategies used. Among these approaches, the research gap is identified, and a planning model to optimally convert PDS to ADS is proposed. The model includes a novel strategy to integrate photovoltaic unit in DS along with unified power quality conditioner so as to get simultaneous improvements of power quality and energy efficiency. The proposed model is validated on a 69-bus radial distribution network.