A Local Control Approach to Voltage Regulation in Distribution Networks

TL;DR

This paper proposes a local control algorithm for voltage regulation in distribution networks with high DER penetration, eliminating the need for communication between buses and ensuring convergence under certain conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel local control method for voltage regulation that guarantees convergence and is applicable to large, heavily loaded networks without explicit communication.

Findings

Algorithm converges under specified conditions.

Longer, heavily loaded networks are more challenging to control.

Case studies demonstrate effectiveness on various network sizes.

Abstract

This paper address the problem of voltage regulation in power distribution networks with deep penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) without any explicit communication between the buses in the network. We cast the problem as an optimization problem with the objective of minimizing the distance between the bus voltage magnitudes and some reference voltage profile. We present an iterative algorithm where each bus updates the reactive power injection provided by their DER. The update at a bus only depends on the voltage magnitude at that bus, and for this reason, we call the algorithm a local control algorithm. We provide sufficient conditions that guarantee the convergence of the algorithm and these conditions can be checked a priori for a set of feasible power injections. We also provide necessary conditions establishing that longer and more heavily loaded networks are inherently more difficult to control. We illustrate the operation of the algorithm through case studies involving 8-,34- and 123-bus test distribution systems.