Real time Volt/Var control using advance metering infrastructure system in FAHAM project

Voltage regulation is an important subject in electrical distribution engineering. It is the utilities´ responsibility to keep the customers voltage within specified tolerances. Recently, the concept of smart grid adds some new-features to Volt/Var Control (VVC) of distribution system. Smart grid technologies will improve control and monitoring-process of distribution system. The smart grid project in Iran has been started with implementing smart meters for about one million customers. This project is called FAHAM and is a large pilot-project that pursues some determined goals. This paper presents the communication architecture of this project with focus on daily VVC in Iran smart distribution system. In the proposed model, all devices such as tap changer of transformer, switched capacitors, and distributed generation were considered. This paper shows that the real time voltage control being possible with AMI system has a better capability to maintain the voltage in specified range.