Reactive Power Management of PV Systems by Distributed Cooperative Control in Low Voltage Distribution Networks

This paper presents a decentralized control method for photovoltaic (PV) systems to improve voltage regulation and reactive power management in low voltage (LV) distribution system with high penetration of PV systems. Drawbacks of existing reactive power strategies for PV systems are analyzed in this paper. The proposed method obviates these disadvantages by incorporating a local reactive power control method in the distributed cooperative control. This approach improves the voltage profile of buses, prevents PV systems from active power curtailment, and manages reactive power sharing among PVs based on their reactive power ratings. A radial LV distribution system with 7 PV systems is modeled to explore this method. Simulation results are presented to validate the control method's effectiveness for mitigating voltage deviation and accurate reactive power sharing in the distribution network with the PV system.