Coordinated Control of Distributed Energy Resources Using Features of Voltage Disturbances

Distributed energy resources (DERs) often rely on renewable sources whose random power fluctuations bring about voltage disturbances in distribution networks. Under such circumstances, voltage regulation through centralized control of DERs requires reliable detection and coordination mechanisms. This article proposes a new data-driven approach for event-triggered and coordinated control of DERs based on features of voltage disturbances. Synchrophasor datasets are processed to construct disturbance matrices that quantify spatio-temporal features of voltage disturbances. The estimated features are employed in clustering and control of DERs to suppress incipient events before exceeding a critical time. The proposed approach is tested in the IEEE 123-bus network, which has 15 solar photovoltaic sources with battery energy storage systems. The simulation results validate reliability and efficiency of the proposed method, and confirm that feature extraction combined with coordination of DERs can improve reliable and economic operation of distribution grids with renewables.