Synthetic Assessment of the Centralized Voltage Control Impact on the Radial Network Operation

The analysis of the electrical distribution systems is typically carried out by considering multiple time steps and the corresponding variations of the load and generation. This is required especially in the case of non-negligible share of non-dispatchable and dispersed renewable energy sources (NDD-RES), which have a high impact on the node net power and hence on the current and voltage values, as well as on the energy losses. To improve the voltage profile, a deeper understanding is needed of the effects of the centralized voltage control and of new distributed solutions aimed to support the diffusion of NDD-RES. This paper is focused on the role of the centralized voltage control in the present context of deep NDD-RES penetration. The grid operation is characterized by different indicators based on the network voltages and currents, by investigating the conflicting nature among these indicators by taking the slack voltage magnitude as a parameter. The results show that the proper use of these indicators can drive the setting of the centralized voltage control during the different time steps, by including only values leading to the Pareto optimality based on the considered grid performance indicators.