Nodal Sensitivity-Based Smart Inverter Control for Voltage Regulation in Distribution Feeder

Overvoltage is one of the issues in distribution grids with high penetration photovoltaics (PVs). Centralized or droop-based methods active power curtailment (APC) and/or reactive control PVs are viable solutions to prevent overvoltage. This article proposes two distributed PV inverters, which based on nodal sensitivities. Then, performance proposed compared commonly used methods, i.e., a method that follows IEEE-1547 but uses arbitrarily chosen droops and centralized optimal flow (OPF) method. Performance evaluated using 730-node feeder up 100% inverters. Based case studies, key findings are: first, local droop setting as per IEEE-1547, whether systematically calculated sensitivities, can eliminate overvoltage if APC coordinated, second, sensitivity-based approach yields best voltage index computed profile maximum allowed upper bound, third, OPF-based desirable communication infrastructure exists minimum energy sought.