Receding-Horizon Control of Distributed Generation to Correct Voltage or Thermal Violations and Track Desired Schedules

This paper presents a real-time, centralized control system acting on the active and reactive powers of distributed generators when the network experiences voltage and/or thermal limits violation. The control resorts on multi-step receding-horizon optimization. The objective is to minimize the deviations of Dispersed Generation Units (DGU) active and reactive powers from reference values. The reactive power corrections have priority over the active ones. Furthermore, the formulation is such that DGU powers are restored to their desired schedule as soon as operating conditions allow doing so. Three modes of operation of the proposed controller are presented, involving dispatchable units as well as DGUs operated to track maximum power output. The effectiveness of the proposed control is illustrated through detailed simulations of a 75-bus, 11-kV system hosting 22 DGUs.