Voltage Regulation of Active Distribution Networks Considering Dynamic Control Zones

This paper presents a new voltage control scheme that defines the bus voltages that distributed generation units are responsible for. The zones are defined in real-time based on the current capability of the units to inject or consume reactive power and the influence that each generator has on its neighboring buses. Each voltage regulator makes sure that the pilot bus of the corresponding control zone remains within limits. The proposed control scheme was tested in a large-scale distribution circuit model extracted from the Geographical Information System of a Costa Rican power utility. The tests show that the proposed scheme performs better than the traditional voltage control at generator's terminal. In addition, the proposed scheme increases the cooperation between distributed generators to regulate network voltages. This is achieved without any communication between units or a central coordinator.