Smart DER control for minimizing power losses in distribution feeders

Distributed energy resources, such as distributed generators and storage systems, are generally considered as active power sources. Indeed, they can also be used as reactive power resources, which contribute to reduce the power losses in a distribution feeder. Adopting a decentralized approach, in this paper an on-line Optimization Strategy is introduced to define the optimal set point of a classical reactive power control system for distributed energy resources so as to minimize the power losses along the feeder. Using only local measurements, firstly the actual operating conditions of the distribution system are estimated and, then, a constraint minimization problem is solved so as to calculate the optimal set point. A suitable change of coordinates yields to evaluate the optimal solution in an analytic closed form. Numerical simulation results are also presented to give evidence of the reduction of power losses and of the performance of the proposed smart control scheme. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.