Voltage Control Areas in Transmission Systems with Distributed Generation

Abstract

Transmission systems’ main function is to transport active power from the generation source to the consumers. The presence of reactive power in a transmission system, on the other hand, is not desirable. Since the reactive power problem is characteristically local, its adjustment may be determined using devices placed near the consuming centers. Therefore, the system can be separated into regions and the reactive power problem be treated locally. This paper presents a computational tool for determining the voltage control areas (VCAs) in transmission systems based on the concept of electrical distance and the decoupled power flow method, which allows the treatment of the active and reactive power problems separately, reducing computational efforts. The presented tool also considers distributed generation and its influence on the voltage control areas. The tests have been conducted with IEEE 14 and 30 bus systems and proper conclusions are derived.