Zonal Voltage Control Combined Day-Ahead Scheduling and Real-Time Control for Distribution Networks with High Proportion of PVs

Considering the possible overvoltage caused by the high proportion of photovoltaic systems (PVs) accessing distribution networks in the future, traditional centralized control methods will be too complex to satisfy the control response time demands. To solve this problem this paper presents a two-level voltage control method. At the day-ahead level, based on the PV-output and load-demand forecast, a community detection algorithm using an improved modularity index is introduced to divide the distribution network into clusters; a day-ahead optimal scheduling is drawn up on the basis of the network partition, and the objective is to minimize the operation costs of the distribution networks. At the real-time level, under the day-ahead optimal scheduling and network partition of the upper level, a real-time optimal voltage control algorithm is proposed based on the real-time operation data of the distribution networks, and the objective is to correct the day-ahead optimal scheduling through modifications. Thus, the algorithm realizes the combination of day-ahead scheduling and real-time control and achieves complete zonal voltage control for future distribution networks with high proportion of PVs. The proposed method can not only optimize the tap operation of an on-load tap changer (OLTC), improving the PV hosting capacity of the distribution network for a high proportion of PVs, but can also reduce the number of control nodes and simplify the control process to reduce the optimization time. The proposed approach is applied to a real, practical, 10 kV, 62-node feeder in Zhejiang Province of China to verify its feasibility and effectiveness.