Active Distribution Network Voltage Profile Optimization Using Mixed Integer Linear Programming

The quality of electrical energy delivered to the customers greatly depends on the voltage deviation. To avoid negative effects on equipment belonging to the distribution system operator or final customer, legal regulations and recommendations in different countries are enforced to ensure that the voltage level does not deviate from the prescribed tolerances. The operation of different voltage control devices is coordinated in such a way that the voltage delivered to medium/low voltage customers remains within the required limits, despite changes in voltage drop due to load variations, distributed generation (DG) production variations, and changes in network configuration. This paper presents a mixed-integer linear programming method for voltage profile optimization in active distribution networks through optimization of on/off load tap changers and DG reactive power support. The effectiveness of the proposed method in relation to other Volt-Var methods is tested on a benchmark network. The numerical results show advantages of the proposed approach which are manifested through voltage profile normalization and deviation reduction.