Optimal coordination of PV smart inverter and traditional volt‐VAR control devices for energy cost savings and voltage regulation

Summary The rising demand for electrical energy and decreasing capital cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels led to rapid growth in large‐scale solar PV system penetration in many countries, including Turkey. This article focused on a cost‐effective and efficient decentralized voltage and reactive power (Volt/Var) control approach in distribution networks at the presence of high penetrated solar PV farms utilized as static synchronous compensator (PV‐STATCOM) which has been recently proposed. A proper coordinated control of large number of PV‐STATCOMs suggested to achieve optimal reactive power scheduling for the next day ahead. This article introduced implementation of a modified Lévy flight‐based firefly algorithm (MLFA) to multi‐objective Volt/Var optimization problem, which was employed for minimizing active power loss and cost of energy. The validity and applicability of the proposed method were confirmed by implementing it on a real megavolt (MV) Turkish distribution network for various loading conditions. Simulation results show that the results of MLFA to this problem outperform those of other methods. Furthermore, application of the proposed method offers opportunity to distribution system operators for a large amount of cost savings and loss reduction without compromising voltage regulatory limits.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techno‐economic management of daily Volt/Var planning considering reactive power contribution of high penetrated‐PV solar farms utilized as STATCOM : A case study in Istanbul, Turkey

Halacli

Demirören

2021

“…Hence, both SI and DR programs can be used to regulate the voltage. Papers 6,13‐18 have used only SI reactive power injection/absorption capability to control the distribution network voltage. Whereas papers 12,19‐26 have used only DR programs to control the voltage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Traditional inverters were designed to feed the active power available from PV array at unity power factor. However, the new emerging SI can inject or absorb reactive power to and from the grid replacing the conventional slow‐acting legacy devices 13 (capacitors, on‐load tap changing transformers, reactors, static var compensators [SVC]) to regulate voltage 14 . Many papers are reported on the use of SI for voltage control.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal coordination between PV smart inverters and different demand response programs for voltage regulation in distribution system

Gupta

Ghose

Chatterjee

2020

Summary With the increase in the number of renewable energy resources (RES) in the distribution network, the distribution system operators are facing several operational challenges to maintain network power quality and reliability. The stochastic nature of wind speed and solar irradiance may cause voltage sag and swell during high and light load conditions, respectively. Again, owing to low X/R ratio in the active distribution network, the voltage becomes more susceptible to change with the change in net real power injections in the bus, unlike high voltage networks. This article proposes an optimal framework for voltage regulation in active distribution system using the available flexibility of load reduction based on demand response programs, and reactive power injection capability of a smart inverter (SI) of the PV system, where the coordination between the two is considered. However, for adequate grid voltage support, the selection of buses for DR programs is based on voltage sensitivity analysis. This article proposes a simple and effective technique to determine the sensitivity of a DR bus on the voltage profile of the network. The decision for the optimal location for DR resource, DR magnitude, and SI reactive power is finalized using Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA‐II) in a bid to minimize the DR procurement cost, SI ageing cost and network loss. The work also incorporated DR modeling and probabilistic model for RES generation with the consideration of uncertainty involved in both the cases. The modified IEEE 33‐bus distribution system is chosen for authenticating the suggested technique.

“…The combined impact of smart grid‐enabled CVR with EV/PV on energy savings has been reported 21,22 . To overcome the voltage fluctuations occurring due to the intermittent nature of PV generation, Pamshetti et al 23 proposed optimal coordination of VV through PV inverters and conventional VVC devices. In Refs., 24,25 the combined impact of VVC and network reconfiguration on active distribution networks has studied in the presence of CVR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Substation demand reduction by CVR enabled intelligent PV inverter control functions in distribution systems

Arora

Satsangi²,

Kaur

et al. 2020

Summary This article proposes a combined scheme to reduce the substation demand with conservation voltage reduction (CVR) alongside intelligent photovoltaic (PV) inverter control functions. CVR maintains the power delivered to the customers in lower service voltage range (120‐114)V by not influencing electric devices' performance at the consumer premises. Since most of the loads are voltage‐dependent at the consumer side, proper voltage control can obtain substantial demand reduction and energy savings. In the proposed work, CVR is applied to both medium‐sized (IEEE‐123 node test feeder) and large‐sized (IEEE‐8500 node test feeder) unbalanced distribution feeders without PV and with intelligent PV inverter. In addition, the transient nature of PV output power is also examined during the movement of the clouds. The smart PV inverter utilizes various control functions (Volt‐VAr, Volt‐VAr [hysteresis], Volt‐Watt, and combi mode) to control the system's active and reactive power. Results reveal that operating CVR with intelligent PV inverter in the hysteresis Volt‐VAr mode helps achieve higher substation demand reduction than with only CVR operation. This combination reduces system losses and contributes to energy savings when better voltage regulation is provided. It also helps in maintaining the reliability and efficiency of the distribution network.