A Topology Assisted Optimal CVR Strategy for Unbalanced EDNs Having Spatio-Temporal Loads

Conservation voltage reduction (CVR) is a utility practice that reduces load demand by strategically lowering voltage magnitudes across voltage-dependent loads. This work presents a topology-assisted integrated voltage control scheme for effective CVR implementation in three-phase active electric distribution networks (EDNs) with increased spatio-temporal load variations. The proposed formulation finds suitable network configuration and voltage control devices’ settings corresponding to reduced energy demand, loss, and unbalances. The EDNs have state-of-the-art voltage regulating devices, such as, capacitor banks, onload tap changer, and voltage regulators (VRs), along with smart inverters. The inverters facilitate bidirectional power flow by interfacing battery energy storage systems and solar PV installations to the grid. The proposed formulation is solved using multiobjective particle swarm optimization on the modified IEEE 34-bus system. The results for various cases show that the proposed load-variation-driven instantaneous topology adaptations with localized voltage management significantly improve the system performance under practical operating conditions. A comparison with a previous method, based on the results for a 13-bus real-life distribution system, proves the efficacy of the proposed method.