Online Network Partition for Voltage Control in Power Systems with Large Penetration of Renewable Energy

Abstract

Network partition is the basis of voltage control, aiming at reducing load of communication devices and calculation modules, whilst solving var-voltage problems on the spot in larger and larger complex power networks. Power systems with large penetration of renewable energy such as solar or wind energy have time-variant operation characteristics and network partition in such networks requires efficiency and less running time to keep up with the changes. Generally, partition methods are mostly based electrical connection between buses and clustering methods, whose aim is to cluster buses that have similar voltage reaction characteristics into the same set. There are many ways to obtain electrical connection and partition networks, and their effects and efficiency vary from one to another. In this paper is proposed a practical method to do the computation of electrical connection while partitioning the power network into smaller sub-graphs online in less CPU time than traditional power network partitioning methods. Its aim is to optimize the index of partition, as well as to minimize inter-zone connection while maximizing intra-zone connection, fitting the partition results with different operation characteristics of renewable energy sources. The method to do the calculation of electrical connection matrix is based on a modified method of sensitivity while the partition method is based on the widely applied concept modularity and community detection algorithm.