The investigation of the maximum effect of the Volt/Var control of distributed generation on voltage regulation

An amendment to the IEEE standard on interconnecting distributed resources (DRs) with electric power systems (EPSs) permits reactive power control upon mutual approval by EPS and DR operators and their agreed-upon coordination [1]. Therefore, this study investigates the maximum effect of reactive power control such as the Volt/Var control of distributed generation on the voltage regulation of practical distribution networks. For this purpose, this study, using OpenDSS, models a practical distribution system with more than 1,000 nodes and designs a genetic algorithm that determines optimal set points for the reactive power control of photovoltaic (PV) systems to minimize the voltage variations of buses when PV systems inject active and reactive power during a day in hourly intervals. Finally, it calculates the time-series power flow of a distribution network enhanced by such PV systems and finds the maximum effect of the Volt/Var control of PV systems on voltage regulation.