Effect of Individual Volt/var Control Strategies in <i>LINK</i>-Based Smart Grids with a High Photovoltaic Share

oleh: Daniel-Leon Schultis, Albana Ilo

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2021-09-01

Deskripsi

The increasing share of distributed energy resources aggravates voltage limit compliance within the electric power system. Nowadays, various inverter-based Volt/var control strategies, such as cos<i>φ</i>(<i>P</i>) and <i>Q</i>(<i>U</i>), for low voltage feeder connected <i>L</i>(<i>U</i>) local control and on-load tap changers in distribution substations are investigated to mitigate the voltage limit violations caused by the extensive integration of rooftop photovoltaics. This study extends the <i>L</i>(<i>U</i>) control strategy to <i>X</i>(<i>U</i>) to also cover the case of a significant load increase, e.g., related to e-mobility. Control ensembles, including the reactive power autarky of customer plants, are also considered. All Volt/var control strategies are compared by conducting load flow calculations in a test distribution grid. For the first time, they are embedded into the <i>LINK</i>-based Volt/var chain scheme to provide a holistic view of their behavior and to facilitate systematic analysis. Their effect is assessed by calculating the voltage limit distortion and reactive power flows at different Link-Grid boundaries, the corresponding active power losses, and the distribution transformer loadings. The results show that the control ensemble <i>X</i>(<i>U</i>) local control combined with reactive power self-sufficient customer plants performs better than the cos<i>φ</i>(<i>P</i>) and <i>Q</i>(<i>U</i>) local control strategies and the on-load tap changers in distribution substations.