Investigação do potencial de utilização de equipamentos modernos em sistemas de distribuição com alta penetração de microgeração distribuída baseada em energia fotovoltaica

Abstract

The increase in installations of solar photovoltaic microgenerators in electric power distribution systems has resulted in technical challenges associated with voltage and reactive power (Volt-var) control, such as: steady state voltage limits violation, percentage technical loss increase, power factor limits violation, increased frequency of actuation of voltage regulators and capacitor banks due to miscoordination and cloud transients. On the other hand, for traditional networks, without the inclusion of emerging technologies such as distributed generators, electric vehicles and energy storage, modern technologies have been developed, or adaptations of existing technologies for the use with a lower voltage magnitude, in an attempt to complement the performance of traditional voltage and reactive power control equipment, they are the low voltage regulator, dynamic reactive power compensator, and Static Var Generator (SVG). Considering these two scenarios, the present work proposes to investigate the potential use of those modern technologies and the low voltage reactors aiming to mitigate the technical challenges in networks with level of penetration of photovoltaic microgeneration that results in power system regulatory limits violation and its components. This work investigates the performance of such technologies through a comparative analysis, before and after their installation, based on the results of time-series power flow simulations employing OpenDSS software and a control algorithm written in Python. The focus of these analyses is the contribution of each equipment in the control of the steady-state voltage magnitude, in the power factor, in the percentage of technical losses, and in the reduction of the voltage magnitude variability due to voltage transients caused by cloud transients. The investigated technologies are modeled based on real operating principles. Technical modifications and the reverse power flow treatment are suggested for low voltage technologies (low voltage regulator and low voltage reactor). Although those modern technologies have communication modules, during the simulations, they use only local measurement for decision making.The results show that if properly allocated, dimensioned and adjusted, the evaluated equipment can be used to mitigate problems due to the increased penetration of photovoltaic microgeneration. For solving the problems associated with cloud transients, only the SVG is able to reduce sudden voltage variations.