A Low-Order Steady-State Model of Electric Springs for Conservation Voltage Reduction in Active Distribution Networks with Renewables

Electric spring (ES), as a new type of power electronic device, can flexibly regulate the voltage of noncritical load (NL) and improve the voltage quality of critical load (CL). It can further increase the energy savings of conservation voltage reduction (CVR) in active distribution networks (ADNs). However, the high-order nonlinearity of ESs steady-state model brings the difficulty of solving the CVR optimization problem Therefore, this paper proposes a low-order steady-state model of ESs for CVR in ADNs. The operation modes of ESs are extended based on analysis of voltage regulation characteristics, firstly. The equivalent circuit of the bus with an ES is also derived, and a steady-state model with low-order nonlinearity is further proposed. Then, considering significant difference in response speeds among ESs, distributed generation (DGs) and discrete control devices (DCDs), a two-stage coordinated operation model of ESs, DGs and DCDs is established. By means of convex envelope and linearization, the nonconvex nonlinear constraints are transformed into linear constraints, which can improve the convergence and solving efficiency of the optimization model. Finally, the case studies demonstrate that ESs can increase the CVR energy savings, and the proposed low-order steady-state model can improve the solving efficiency of this CVR optimization problem.