Voltage regulation in distribution feeders with high DG penetration: From traditional to smart

Abstract

This paper addresses the negative impacts of distributed generations (DGs) on the utility voltage regulators and hence on the voltage profile of distribution feeders. These negative impacts have been verified through carrying out different simulations on an unbalanced distribution feeder. The results show that a significant regulation problem might arise due to the increased levels of DG penetration correlated with traditional utility voltage regulator's control practices. Consequently, DGs inevitably need to cooperate and communicate with distribution network voltage control devices. Smart grid generally aims to combine the existing utility grids with new digital technology to substantially improve the overall efficiency of the network. In this paper, a communication based multi-agent cooperative control structure has been proposed as a solution to mitigate the voltage regulation issues in distribution feeders with high DG penetration.