Coordinated Voltage Regulation by On-Load Tap Changer Operation and Demand Response Based on Voltage Ranking Search Algorithm

The growing penetration of photovoltaic (PV) systems may cause an over-voltage problem in power distribution systems. Meanwhile, charging of massive electric vehicles may cause an under-voltage problem. The over- and under-voltage problems make the voltage regulation become more challenging in future power distribution systems. Due to the development of smart grid and demand response, flexible resources such as PV inverters and controllable loads can be utilized for voltage regulation in distribution systems. However, the voltage regulation needs to calculate the nonlinear power flow; as a result, utilizing flexible resources for voltage regulation is a nonlinear scheduling problem requiring heavy computational resources. This study proposes an intelligent search algorithm called voltage ranking search algorithm (VRSA) to solve the optimization of flexible resource scheduling for voltage regulation. The VRSA is built based on the features of radial power distribution systems. A numerical simulation test is carried out on typical power distribution systems. The VRSA is compared with the genetic algorithm and voltage sensitivity method. The results show that the VRSA has the best optimization effect among the three algorithms. By utilizing flexible resources through demand response, the tap operation times of on-load tap changers can be reduced.