The low‐voltage (LV) distribution network is the last stage of the power network, which is connected directly to the end‐user customers and supplies many dispersed small‐scale loads. To achieve environmental targets and to address the energy shortage issue, governments worldwide increase the renewable energy sources (RESs) into the electricity grid. In addition, different types of low carbon technologies (LCTs) such as electric vehicles are becoming widely used. A significant portion of RES and LCTs is penetrated into the LV distribution network, which poses a wide range of challenges. To address these challenges, there is a persistent need to develop traditional planning and operation frameworks to cope with these new technologies. In this context, this study provides a comprehensive review of planning, operation, and management of LV distribution networks. The characteristics, types, and topologies of LV distribution networks plus different aspects of operation and planning are investigated. An insightful investigation of the reasons impacts and mitigation of voltage and current unbalanced in LV networks is provided. Moreover, the main three‐phase power flow techniques used to analyse the LV networks are analysed.
This paper proposes a novel method for planning active distribution networks (ADNs) with the integration of an active network management (ANM) scheme using coordinated voltage control (CVC) through on-load tap changer (OLTC) transformers. The method was formulated as a security-constrained optimal power flow (SCOPF) problem to minimize total operational costs, which maximizes the utilization of renewable distributed generators (DGs) over a planning horizon. The ANM scheme was applied using OLTC to ensure safe operation and reduce voltage violations in the network. To analyse the impact of ANM, the planning problem was examined both with and without the ANM scheme. Moreover, SCOPF, considering the N-1 line contingency analysis and multi-DG configuration, was implemented to analyse the feasibility of the proposed method and the advantages of ANM under contingency situations. The method was validated on a weakly-meshed 16-bus UK generic distribution system (UKGDS). The results showed that ANM can lower operational costs and maintain network voltage for operation in feasible conditions even in the case of a contingency. Moreover, the ANM scheme mitigated the voltage rise effect caused by DGs and maximized their utilization.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.