Voltage Control in Active Distribution Grids: A Review and a New Set-Up Procedure for Local Control Laws

Planning, operation and control of active distribution grids by increasing the number of dispersed generators is becoming more important but also more complex. Hence, the importance of controlling the voltage is highlighted in many research papers. Traditionally, in passive distribution networks the voltage rise has been mitigated by network reinforcement. Nowadays, local voltage control, coordinated voltage control and centralized voltage control have been discussed for active networks in research papers. Although all the approaches have been proven to solve the problem of voltage rise in distribution grids, using plenty of sensors to gather huge number of measurement could cause complexity. This paper represents a literature review of different voltage control approaches in active distribution grids and proposes a new procedure to set up a local voltage control law devoted to properly manage the voltage profile (e.g. minimizing losses on MV feeders).