Online Reconfiguration of Active Distribution Networks for Maximum Integration of Distributed Generation

Abstract

This paper proposes the online reconfiguration of active distribution networks. The control of the active/reactive output power of distributed generation (DG) units combined with the control of remote controlled switches are employed in order to minimize DG curtailment, alleviate lines congestion, and mitigate voltage rise issues due to DG integration. Convex relaxations of the ac power flow equations and mixed integer linear disjunctive formulations are adopted to the optimization model in order to obtain fast and optimal solutions using standard branch and bound solvers. The computation burden of the optimization procedure is drastically reduced by exploiting the assessment of switching actions, which is performed using multiple load/generation scenarios. The effectiveness of the proposed optimization model is verified using different distribution test systems.