Assessment and Simulation of Strategies to Enhance Hosting Capacity and Reduce Power Losses in Distribution Networks

Distribution systems are increasingly experiencing the penetration of photovoltaic (PV) systems. Although PV penetration is beneficial up to a point, beyond that point, it begins to generate issues related to voltage levels and grid stability. In modern distribution system planning, it is essential to identify an optimal operational point where the integration of PV supports the voltage profile rather than causing any adverse effects. The purpose of this paper is to explore and evaluate strategies to enhance Hosting Capacity and reduce Power Losses in distribution systems through an optimization algorithm that iteratively uses power-flow simulations and a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm. Different strategies taking advantage of conventional distribution system assets are formulated to avoid new system reinforcement. The strategies include Network Reconfiguration, Capacitor Switching, On-Load Tap Changer Switching, Volt-VAR Control Settings and the Combination of all strategies. To evaluate the efficiency of each approach, a comprehensive simulation study is conducted on the IEEE 123 bus distribution system modeled in OpenDSS, with an algorithm created in Python to control the optimization process.