Conservation Voltage Reduction

Abstract

The chapter presents the fundamental concepts of conservation voltage reduction (CVR). Starting from a historical overview and ending with the numerical assessment of its economic impact, the chapter discusses the implementation methods of CVR, the potential energy savings, and possible problems with undervoltage violations. A large set of household appliances, commercial and residential lighting devices, air conditioners, and motors under different operating conditions were tested in the laboratory to develop ZIP coefficients models. The ZIP coefficients for individual pieces of equipment are tabulated in a manner suitable for use in power flow simulations. The application of CVR on radial and meshed distribution systems is presented. Network‐wide field verification of the power flow models versus voltage reduction tests gives great confidence on the results. It is shown that CVR in meshed distribution systems yields energy savings of 0.5% per each 1% voltage reduction and economic savings to the customers of 0.25% per 1% voltage reduction. This is achieved at virtually no expense for the utility owing to the stiff nature of meshed networks. Radial systems perform very differently from one another and the degree of success is very much dependent on the system configuration and the necessary investment.