Local voltage regulation in a low voltage feeder considering IEEE 1547 and NBR 16149 standards

The high penetration of DG in distribution systems creates, among other problems, a violation of the voltage limits on the system's buses. As a result, several methods have been proposed in the literature to promote voltage regulation in conditions of high penetration, including methods based on the reactive energy absorption by the smart inverters of the DG. Many standards currently regulate the application of this kind of methods, including the IEEE 1547:2018 and NBR 16149:2013 standards. In this context, this article presents the Watt-VAr and Volt-VAr voltage regulation methods as proposed by the aforementioned standards. A low-voltage network with high DG penetration was modeled in the OpenDSS software, then each of the methods was applied. Finally, a comparison was made between the results of each method, considering not only the ability to mitigate voltage violations, but also losses and reactive absorption levels. The simulations showed that although all the methods are capable of regulating the network voltage, they differ significantly when other performance parameters are taken into account.