Optimal Voltage Control in Low-Observable Unbalanced Distribution Systems

• Published in: 2022 IEEE Power & Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (ISGT) pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Abujubbeh, Mohammad, Kumar R., James Ranjith, Pahwa, Anil, Natarajan, Balasubramaniam
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 24-04-2022
• Subjects: Control systems; Distributed Energy Resources; Distributed power generation; Distribution system; Prediction algorithms; Sensitivity; Sensitivity Analysis; Simulation; Smart grids; State Estimation; Voltage Control; Voltage fluctuations
• ISSN: 2472-8152
• DOI: 10.1109/ISGT50606.2022.9817471

The increased integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) in distribution systems brings both advantages and technical challenges. High levels of DERs can often cause over/under voltage problems. Classical voltage control algorithms are based on full knowledge of voltage states across all nodes in the system. However, this may not be a practical assumption since many locations in distribution systems are unobservable. Therefore, this paper proposes a new model predictive control (MPC) based control algorithm that accounts for system unobservability to efficiently eliminate voltage violations with as low as 50% fraction of observable nodes. Additionally, an analytical voltage sensitivity framework is employed to quickly determine the change in voltage states due to PV injections. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated via simulations on the unbalanced IEEE 37 node test system.