TSO-DSO Coordinated Reactive Power Dispatch for Smart Inverters with Multiple Control Modes Real-Time Implementation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a real-time, hierarchical optimization framework for coordinated reactive power dispatch of smart inverters, improving voltage regulation and reducing power curtailment in distribution networks.

Contribution

It develops a sensitivity-aware MILP formulation with SOS1 and RLS techniques for efficient, real-time TSO-DSO coordination of inverter control modes.

Findings

Effective voltage regulation demonstrated on IEEE test systems.

Reduced power curtailment through coordinated dispatch.

Feasible real-time implementation in simulated environments.

Abstract

This paper presents TSO-DSO coordinated reactive power dispatch, with a focus on real-time implementation. A sensitivity-aware, mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation is developed to model the IEEE 1547-compliant droop-based control modes Volt VAR (VV), Volt Watt (VW), and Watt VAR (WV) of smart inverters. The algorithm employs a hierarchical optimization strategy using Special Ordered Sets (SOS1) to enhance computational efficiency and supports limited measurement scenarios through Recursive Least Squares (RLS) estimation. The proposed method is tested on the IEEE 13-bus and 123-bus distribution networks, which are connected to a 9-bus transmission system. Results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the real-time dispatch framework in improving voltage regulation and minimizing power curtailment.