Voltage control integrated in distribution management system

Abstract The voltage control in distribution networks is established as a centralized analytical function in this paper. It is integrated in the Distribution Management System. Control devices consist of under-load and off-voltage tap changing transformers, feeder voltage regulators and buck/boost transformers. On the basis of areas whose voltages are influenced by these control devices and their action speeds, the voltage control problem is decomposed in space and time. The space decomposition enables a solution of the distribution voltage control problem for the medium voltage (MV) network of each supply transformer (substation) separately. As well, the time decomposition enables a solution in the operation planning mode and the real time mode separately. The voltage control is each time stated as a constrained optimization problem. The network voltage profile quality is quantified by the damage (inconvenience) that electric consumers sustain due to steady state voltage deviations. Therefore, this damage is used as the optimization objective. The effectiveness of the voltage control is demonstrated on a real-life DN.