A Distributed MPC to Exploit Reactive Power V2G for Real-Time Voltage Regulation in Distribution Networks

It has been demonstrated theoretically and experimentally that the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) enabled electric vehicle (EV) charger is of a reactive power compensation ability with a battery or capacitor connected. To exploit the aggregated reactive power V2G abilities of massively dispersed EV chargers, a distributed model predictive control (DMPC) strategy applying to both balanced and unbalanced distribution networks (DNs) is proposed to integrate them into real-time DN voltage regulation. Firstly, based on the instantaneous power theory and voltage sensitivity matrices, a voltage regulation model considering the reactive response of EV chargers is established without violating the normal EV active charging demands. Then, a completely distributed framework is achieved by DMPC, in which prediction information and calculation results are shared in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) way to realize the asynchronous broadcast. The proposed model and techniques are validated by numerical results obtained from the IEEE European low voltage test feeder system. The case studies indicate that the proposed DMPC is robust to communication latency (CML) and works effectively in both balanced and unbalanced DNs without any control center, which is a significant advantage for the promotion of real-time reactive power V2G in DNs with irregular user integration and relatively poor communication infrastructure.