Alleviation of Voltage Regulators Operational Stress using Smart Inverter Functions

Abstract

The integration of photovoltaic generation into distribution networks faces several challenges, being voltage fluctuations due to variability of output power one of the most critical issues. In this paper is compared the performance of three smart inverter functions: volt-var control, volt-watt control, and fixed power factor, regarding the reduction of voltage fluctuations along a radial distribution feeder. The metric chosen for the comparative analysis is the total number of tap operations performed by the step-voltage regulators held by the distribution system during a day. Quasi Static Time Series simulations were performed on the IEEE 123 Node Test Feeder with three photovoltaic systems connected to different nodes, using the software OpenDSS and Python. Analysis of the simulations demonstrates the effectiveness of volt-var and volt-watt control approaches in significantly reducing the number of tap operations by more than half.