Optimal Dispatch of PV Inverters in Multi-Phase Low Voltage Active Distribution Networks

A novel optimal PhotoVoltaic (PV) inverter dispatch scheme is proposed in this paper which combines the active power curtailment and reactive power control schemes in order to simultaneously determine the optimal active and reactive power set points of residential PVs. The non-convexity of resultant AC optimal power flow model, caused by the inherent power balance constraints and selective inclusion of PV systems through binary variables, is handled by leveraging the cheap semi-definite-programming and sparsity-promoting-regularization approaches. The application of proposed methodology on a low-voltage test distribution network shows that recurrent technical issues of these networks such as voltage rise and voltage unbalance can be successfully mitigated as well as significant reduction in active power losses can also be achieved.