Contributions to thermal constraints management in radial active distribution systems

This paper deals with centralized thermal overload management in active radial distribution systems that host a significant amount of distributed generation (DG). We investigate the benefits of using remotely controlled switches to reduce the amount of curtailed DG to remove overload. To this end we extend an existing optimization model to the problem of minimizing the non-firm DG curtailment to remove overload. We discuss the pros and cons of the various overload management goals given the particular features of radial distribution grids and propose, wherever possible, the use of a power flow tracing based procedure to select the non-firm generators that should participate in overload removal. Although the approach focuses on overload removal it also inhibits violation of operational constraints such as voltage limits that may occur due to network reconfiguration. We prove the interest and feasibility of our approach in four distribution networks. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.