Distributed VAR Optimization of an Active Distribution Network with a High Proportion of Distributed Generation Based on Network Equalization Partitioning

In a large-scale active distribution network with high distributed-energy-resource penetration, the storage and computing resources of a centralized control model face great pressure in voltage/VAR control, and traditional distributed control also faces problems such as a long computation time and insufficient guarantee of convergence due to unreasonable partition settings. Therefore, a distributed VAR optimization algorithm based on network equalization partitioning (DVO-NEP) is proposed in this paper to reduce communication pressure and achieve fast VAR optimization. First, a complex network partition evaluation index based on electrical distance and problem complexity is established by comprehensively considering the regional coupling and equilibrium. Then, virtual boundary interaction information is introduced to establish local parallel distributed optimization models. Next, the ADMM algorithm based on piecewise penalty parameters is used to achieve a fast distributed solution. Finally, numerical simulations based on the modified IEEE 33 bus test systems verify the effectiveness of the proposed method compared with traditional methods.