A Consensus-Based Cooperative Control of PEV Battery and PV Active Power Curtailment for Voltage Regulation in Distribution Networks

The rapid growth of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) arrays installed in residential houses leads to serious voltage quality problems in low voltage distribution networks (LVDNs). In this paper, a combined method using the battery energy management of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and the active power curtailment of PV arrays is proposed to regulate voltage in LVDNs with high penetration level of PV resources. A distributed control strategy composed of two consensus algorithms is used to reach an effective utilization of limited storage capacity of PEV battery considering its power/capacity and state of charge. A consensus control algorithm is also developed to fairly share the required power curtailment among PVs during overvoltage periods. The main objective is to mitigate the voltage rise due to the reverse power flow and to compensate the voltage drop resulting from the peak load. Overall, the proposed algorithm contributes to a coordinated charging/discharging control of PEVs battery which provides a maximum utilization of available storage capacity throughout the network. In addition, the coordinated operation minimizes the required active power which is going to be curtailed from PV arrays. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is investigated on a typical three-phase four-wire LVDN in presence of PV resources and PEVs.