Data-Driven Control of Distributed Energy Resources Using Smart Meters Data

This paper proposes a novel data-driven model-free control framework for improving voltage regulation in distribution networks with distributed energy resources (DERs). In the proposed approach, first, a least squares method that estimates the active and reactive power sensitivity matrices from smart meter data is presented. Then, these matrices serve as an input for the proposed optimal power flow, which also takes into consideration the network constraints and fairness of prosumers in terms of generation curtailment. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on an unbalanced 49 bus three-phase four-wire network simulated in OpenDSS. The simulation results exhibit that the proposed control strategy can significantly resolve the over-voltage problems associated with DERs. Furthermore, compared to a case where the complete network model is available, the errors in voltage levels are negligible, with 1.1% being the worst recorded error.