Voltage regulation for off-peak and peak conditions in distribution networks with the high penetration of PV units

The conventional distribution networks are designed for mitigating the voltage drop and unbalance problems at peak times through voltage regulation by using shunt capacitors. With the integration of photovoltaic (PV) units in these networks, the voltage rise at off–peak period is considered as growing concerns. This paper proposes a dump load as an added low-cost voltage regulator in the distribution network to moderate voltage rise and unbalance problems in distribution networks. The performance of the proposed method is compared with that of a distributed static synchronous compensator (dSTATCOM) by finding the optimal location and size of voltage regulators in the distribution network for both off-peak and peak load conditions. The designed voltage regulators consist of capacitors, dump loads and a dSTATCOM. A case study and numerical results are considered and compared in term of voltage unbalance factor, the voltage deviation, and power losses.