Towards a voltage regulation market

In this work, we propose a possible voltage support or voltage regulation market in which voltage service providers (VSPs) will compete for an opportunity to provide voltage support or regulation by using voltage support devices. We assume that voltage regulation market is a separate but complementary market to existing energy markets (day-ahead and real time markets). An independent system operator (ISO) will decide when the voltage regulation market is to be launched. ISO will determine the required voltages (in p.u) at some nodes and clear the market based on the submitted bids and offers by the voltage service providers. ISO can anticipate the low-voltage situation ex-ante at some locations and can initiate the voltage regulation market. The voltage regulation market problem was formulated as nonlinear AC-OPF model and was solved using improved differential evolutionary algorithm. We used an IEEE 14 bus system as a test system in which the voltage regulation market clears. We showed that the development of voltage regulation market is of practically possible and can improve both social welfare and system condition.