An area-wise voltage control scheme suitable for setting up a Var ancillary market

Although the possibility of a competitive market for voltage control/reactive power ancillary service has been conceived in literature, electric power markets have so far only experimented with it. Usually the system operator obtains the right to some amount of reactive power capability and, with the assistance of analysis tools, determines what resources are needed and how to deploy them in an efficient manner. The optimal power flow (OPF) is often the main tool in such analysis. In this paper an area voltage control, to dynamically manage the reactive power available in a specific geographic region, is presented. This can be seen as an alternative, flexible tool to assist the system operator with the implementation of voltage control. The proposed scheme handles the issue as a localized problem and seems also suitable for the development of a local competitive marker for this ancillary service.