An Effective Coordination Strategy for Voltage Regulation in Distribution System Containing High Intermittent Photovoltaic Penetrations

In recent years, with increasing the penetration of renewable-based distributed generations, voltage control plays a vital role in operating distribution systems. Furthermore, the traditional voltage control devices are not fast enough to regulate the voltage due to transient events and the intermittent characteristics of renewable energy sources. On the other hand, because of the fast response of power electronic components, the photovoltaic (PV) inverter can cope with the intermittent and uncertainty of power generation due to weather changes. Therefore, this paper proposes a cooperative voltage control scheme to solve the voltage problems associated with high PV penetration. The scheme is developed based on a multi-agent system (MAS) with a distributed control architecture using time coordination between voltage regulators and reactive power control of the PV inverters. The scheme’s objective is to minimize voltage deviations and reduce the stress on the traditional voltage control devices by utilizing the available reactive power of the PV inverters. Different simulations are carried out and analyzed for various operating conditions over 24 hours using the IEEE 34-bus and 123-bus test feeders. The simulation results show that the proposed control scheme can successfully reduce the total voltage deviation and decrease the number of tap operations of voltage regulators at different sun profiles.