A New Centralized Active and Reactive Power Control Strategy for Voltage Regulation in Power Distribution Networks with High Penetration of Photovoltaic Generation

A centralized power control strategy for regulating the voltage level at secondary power distribution network under high photovoltaic penetration level is proposed. The voltage and active power levels are received by a Centralized Control Unit (CCU) at which the optimal operating condition for minimizing both the absorption of reactive power and, when necessary, the active power curtailment. The real-time optimization problem is formulated as a linear programming problem that is based on sensitivity coefficients determining from P&O techniques meaning that the implementation of the proposed strategy does not require the knowledge of the network parameters. Simulation results are used to demonstrate that by using the proposed centralized strategy, besides the reduction in the consumption of reactive power, it is also possible to maintain the voltage within prescribed limits.