A Coordinated Volt-VAr Control for Optimal Operation of Renewables-Rich Smart Distribution Systems through Hourly Reconfiguration, SCBs, and OLTC

Voltage and reactive power control, known as Volt-VAr control (VVC), is an essential issue in distribution systems to provide better power quality for the customers and make efficient operation of the electric grid. At the presence of renewable energy sources (RESs), VVC becomes more important to tackle with variability of RESs. In this paper, a coordinated Volt-VAr control scheme is proposed for optimal operation of smart distribution system at the presence of renewable energy sources. The developed model incorporates hourly reconfiguration of feeders, hourly switching of switchable capacitor banks (SCBs), and hourly adjustment of on-load tap changing (OLTC) transformers. The objective function of the problem includes maximization of renewable energies utilization along with considering AC power flow and the related constraints. The proposed problem, in the form of a mixed-integer non-linear programing (MINLP) model is programmed in GAMS and implemented on the IEEE 33-bus system in different experiments. The simulations verify effectiveness of the presented model.