Feasible Region for DERs in Unbalanced Distribution Networks with Uncertain Line Impedances

TL;DR

This paper develops a method to calculate the feasible operational region for distributed energy resources in unbalanced distribution networks, accounting for uncertainties in line impedances, using a robust optimization approach.

Contribution

It introduces a novel algorithm to compute the robust feasible region for DERs considering impedance uncertainties in unbalanced networks, based on a linear power flow model.

Findings

Effective calculation of robust feasible regions demonstrated on test cases.

Algorithm converges to a solution for both small and large networks.

Provides a practical tool for DER operation planning under uncertainty.

Abstract

The rapid development of distributed energy resources (DERs) has brought many challenges to the operation of distribution networks in recent years, where operating envelopes (OEs), as a key enabler to facilitate DER integration via virtual power plants, have attracted increasing attention. Geometrically, OEs are inherently linked to the feasible region (FR) concept, which depicts an area that quantifies the permissible operational ranges for all DERs. This paper studies how to calculate FR for DERs based on a linear unbalanced three-phase power flow model while considering uncertainties from measured/estimated network impedances, leading to the robust feasible region (RFR). With an initialised FR, the proposed solution algorithm aims to seek the RFR by solving a non-convex bilinear problem, formulated based on Motzkin Transposition Theorem, and updating the RFR alternatively until reaching convergence. Two cases, including a 2-bus illustrative network and a representative Australian network, have been tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.