Coordinated Control of Distributed Energy Storage System With Tap Changer Transformers for Voltage Rise Mitigation Under High Photovoltaic Penetration

This paper proposes a coordinated control of distributed energy storage system (ESS) with traditional voltage regulators including the on-load tap changer transformers (OLTC) and step voltage regulators (SVR) to solve the voltage rise problem caused by the high photovoltaic (PV) penetration in the low-voltage distribution network. The main objective of this coordinated control is to relieve the tap changer transformer operation stress, shave the distribution network peak load and decrease the transmission and distribution resistive power losses under high solar power penetration. The proposed control method limits the energy storage depth of discharge in order to meet a more than ten-year cycle life. A benchmark distribution network model was developed in the Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) and the simulation results from the studied cases verified the proposed coordinated control strategy. The experimental implementation of proposed control algorithms were developed based on a power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) test bed with a 22 kWh ESS, a smart meter, Labview controller, and RTDS. The experimental results were consistent with those obtained from simulation study.