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High-voltage direct-current (HVDC) systems using voltage source converters (VSCs) have been developed to suppress voltage fluctuations in offshore grids due to the intermittent power generation of offshore wind farms (OWFs). This paper proposes a new strategy for the optimal secondary voltage control of HVDC-linked OWFs. In the proposed strategy, optimal coordinated control of an HVDC system and OWFs is achieved to minimize real-time voltage fluctuations throughout an offshore grid. A full-order dynamic model of HVDC-linked OWFs is implemented, and its unobservable and uncontrollable state variables are then eliminated using a model reduction algorithm. Given the dynamic model, a linear quadratic Gaussian regulator is designed for optimal coordinated control, and an eigenvalue analysis is conducted focusing on the effects of communication time delays on the stability of the proposed strategy. Simulation case studies are also carried out to verify that the proposed strategy more effectively improves real-time regulation of offshore grid voltages, compared to conventional strategies, while ensuring voltage stability even for relatively large delays in communications systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uncertain nature of renewable energy resources (RERs) and fast demand response lead to recurring voltage violations in the power systems, which causes frequent transformer tap shifting and capacitor switching. Therefore, this paper resorts to the static var compensators (SVCs) to manage the bus voltages based on the multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MA-DRL) algorithm. The proposed scheme includes several system agents and SVC agents to collaboratively adjust the injected reactive power to restrict the bus voltages within the normal range. All the agents are trained centrally and executed separately, which requires minimum communication cost. The IEEE 14-bus system, IEEE 300-bus system, and China 157-node urban power grid are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing integration of utility-scale renewable energy sources (RESs) brings emerging challenges to the classical problems of voltage control in transmission grids, including increased potential for voltage violations. To address this challenge, we present a novel measurement-based coordinated voltage control scheme that can enable fast participation of RESs. In this approach, RESs are coordinated with the traditional voltage control devices such as synchronous generators (SGs) and static var compensators (SVCs) to maintain all bus voltages within operational limits while respecting device power limits. The control scheme allows different priorities to be assigned to different control resources, and ensures that both voltage and reactive power constraints are met in steady-state whenever it is possible to do so. The controller design requires only an approximate model of the steady-state relationships between voltage and reactive power in the system, and in online operation, processes voltage and reactive power measurements to produce set-point updates for RESs, SVCs, and SGs; this feedback provides robustness against both model uncertainty and unmeasured disturbances. The feasibility and effectiveness of the controller is demonstrated via simulation case studies on a detailed power system model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As rooftop solar PVs installed by residential customers penetrate in low voltage distribution network (LVDN), some issues, e.g. over/under voltage and unbalances, which may undermine the network's operational performance, need to be adequately addressed. To mitigate unbalances in LVDN, phase-switching devices (PSDs) and static var compensator (SVC) are two equipment that is cost-effective and efficient. However, most existing research on operating PSDs is based on inflexible heuristic algorithms or without considering the network formulation, which may lead to strategies that violate operational requirements. Moreover, few pieces of literature have been reported on mitigating unbalances in LVDN via SVC and PSDs together. This paper formulates the decision-making process as a mixed-integer non-convex programming (MINCP) problem after developing an SVC model for dispatch purpose. Compared with existing work, the proposed method aims at minimizing current unbalance based on their phasor values and takes the network's operational requirements into account. To efficiently solve the challenging problem, the MINCP is reformulated as a mixed-integer second order-cone programming (MISOCP) problem based on either exact reformulations or accurate approximations, making it possible to employ efficient off-the-shelf solvers. Simulations based on two modified IEEE systems and a practical Australian LVDN demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed method in mitigating unbalances in LVDN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel day-and-night control of large PV solar farm as STATCOM, termed PV-STATCOM, for FIDVR alleviation. The proposed control involves dynamic modulation of both reactive and real power during day, and of reactive power during night. The active and reactive power output of solar farm are based on the sensitivity of solar plant voltage to active and reactive power injections. Enhanced voltage control up to utility Transient Overvoltage Limit is utilized. Eigenvalue analysis is done to study the sensitivity of proposed controller performance to various power system and PV plant parameters. Extensive PSCAD simulation studies of FIDVR are performed in a realistic power transmission system with large-scale PV plant and comprehensive IM loads. It is shown that the proposed PV-STATCOM control: (i) mitigates FIDVR even if solar farm is located more than 100 km from motor loads, (ii) is more effective than reactive power support required by German Grid Code, (iii) is equally effective as a STATCOM connected locally at motor loads, and (iv) stabilizes motors at night which is beyond Grid Code requirements. The PV-STATCOM potentially provides significant cost savings to utilities and new revenue stream for solar plants in providing 24/7 FIDVR mitigation service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a two-stage optimization framework is proposed for optimal placement and centralized real-time control of low-voltage static var compensators (LV-SVCs) in unbalanced distribution circuits to achieve feeder level benefits namely voltage regulation and energy loss minimization. The number, locations, and the optimal real-time reactive power injections from the LV-SVCs are determined from a proposed three-phase unbalanced ac optimal power flow (ACOPF). The ACOPF is formulated as a multi-objective optimization with operating constraints written in rectangular coordinates. The resulting nonlinear nonconvex problem is solved using the predictor-corrector primal-dual interior point method. The proposed approach is scalable for application to large distribution circuits, treats the constraints of physical space limitations effectively, and can take advantage of communication capabilities of LV-SVCs for centralized real-time control. The benefits of the proposed real-time control of LV-SVCs as compared to their operation with local autonomous voltage-based distributed control is demonstrated. The results show that, the proposed approach addresses the LV-SVC placement and control problem effectively to minimize energy losses while maintaining the voltage regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a decentralized control based on static var compensator (SVC) devices to improve the frequency control of high voltage transmission systems. For a realistic structure preserving power system with voltage dependent loads, we propose a sufficient condition based on a strict Lyapunov energy function, which is utilized to design a nonlinear adaptive SVC controller. This controller only requires local bus measures and parameters. Furthermore, we also present an SVC with a conventional frequency droop controller. The performance of the two considered SVC control systems are evaluated on the well known IEEE New England 39-bus 10-machine power system and compared with conventional SVC controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an integrated approach to partition similarity graphs, the task that arises in various contexts in power system studies. The approach is based on orthogonal transformation of row-normalized eigenvectors obtained from spectral clustering to closely fit the axes of the canonical coordinate system. We select the number of clusters as the number of eigenvectors that allows the best alignment with the canonical coordinate axes, which is a more informative approach than the popular spectral eigengap heuristic. We show a link between the two relevant methods from the literature and on their basis construct a robust and time-efficient algorithm for eigenvector alignment. Furthermore, a graph partitioning algorithm based on the use of aligned eigenvector columns is proposed, and its efficiency is evaluated by comparison with three other methods. Finally, the proposed integrated approach is applied to the adaptive reconfiguration of secondary voltage control helping to achieve demonstrable improvements in control performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-objective reactive power coordination control model was presented in this paper to overcome the drawback that reactive power compensation devices lack in coordination and have high active power loss. In this model, the minimum bus voltage deviation and total power loss of reactive power compensation devices are taken as objective functions, by bringing the lower voltage reactors and capacitors into the static var compensator control system and considering the reactive power compensation devices interaction between different transformer substations. Due to the different sensitivity of control variables in control model and lack of the local search ability, control variables are divided into sensitive variables and non-sensitive variables. Then, the improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) with secondary search ability is used to search the Pareto optimal solution set. Two substations in large power grid with strong voltage coupling are coordinated in different load level. The results obtained by proposed NSGA-II algorithm can provide a variety of optimal control strategies. Compared to the conventional NSGA-II algorithm and normal boundary intersection method, the improved NSGA-II algorithm has better convergence curve and distribution of the Pareto solution sets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This letter presents a new enhanced approach to the worst-case design (WCD) of secondary voltage control (SVC) using wide-area measurement system. The design of SVC in transmission grids is posed as a maximum likelihood (ML) problem involving erroneous measured data and an interior-point algorithm is adopted for solving the robust ML optimization problem. In contrast with some existing WCD-based SVC methods, the proposed one has distinct advantages in terms of efficiency and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a two-stage approach for solving the optimal voltage regulation problem in unbalanced radial distribution system in the presence of photovoltaic (PV) generation. The on-load tap changer (OLTC) and static VAr compensator (SVC) have been considered as the voltage control devices in this work. The formulated voltage control problem is a mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem which remains unsolved even after 8 h due to its computational burden. However, the proposed two-stage approach can solve this problem in less than 10 min. The feasibility of the proposed approach has been demonstrated on a modified IEEE 123-bus radial distribution system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The power industry in China has grown significantly over the past decade, spurring the adoption of system-wide automatic voltage control (AVC) technology to meet stricter requirements for security and economical power system operation. To cope with the rapidly developing and frequently changing Chinese power grid, an AVC scheme based on adaptive zone division is introduced in this paper. Logically, this type of system has a three-level hierarchical structure, but, here, both secondary voltage control (SVC) and tertiary voltage control (TVC) are implemented via software at the same control center. The control zones are no longer fixed but are reconfigured online and updated in accordance with variations in the grid structure. The technical details of these procedures are presented here. The implementation of TVC (which is based on an online reactive optimal power flow) and SVC are also discussed, together with some technical details on improvements to their reliability and robustness. Some results obtained from field-site applications based on similar-days testing rather than simulations are employed to evaluate the performance and improvements of the AVC system. This system has been installed at over 20 control centers in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]