Cost-effective coordinated voltage control in active distribution networks with photovoltaics and mobile energy storage systems

Abstract

High penetration of intermittent renewable energy resources (RES) will impose great challenges on the conventional voltage control in distribution networks. This paper proposes a two-stage cost-effective coordinated voltage control strategy to mitigate fast voltage violations while minimizing the total voltage regulation cost. In the first stage, the optimal power flow (OPF) is performed to determine the day-ahead dispatch results of on-load tap changers (OLTC) and capacitor banks (CBs). The hourly charging schedule of mobile energy storage systems (MESS) is also obtained through a spatial-temporal decision model embedded in the optimization problem. In the second stage, the real-time voltage control strategy is implemented to regulate the power output of photovoltaics (PVs) and MESS with one minute resolution. A novel fine-tuning control method is proposed to adjust the power output, which can further reduce voltage regulation cost within a certain voltage dead band. To reserve more fast-response power resources for PVs and MESS, the voltage regulation cost curves are designed as a piecewise linear function with different per unit cost in each range. The proposed approach is tested on the IEEE 33-bus and 123-bus distribution systems and comparative simulation results show the enhanced control effect in mitigating voltage violations and saving costs.