End-user participation in a collaborative distributed voltage control and demand response programme

A new generation of electric appliances with controllable reactive power creates an opportunity for operators in distribution systems to be used as a resource for reactive power support. On the other hand, implementing demand response (DR) programmes as an alternative resource to manage the active power demand may also affect the reactive power balance. Collaborative effect of reactive power support devices and the DR programme is investigated in order to control voltage problem in a distribution network. In the first step, distributed voltage (DV) control and DR methods are considered as individual control actions; then, the hybrid DV control with DR (DVDR) method is proposed to improve the voltage profile. The IEEE 33-bus distribution standard test system is chosen for validating the novel method, in which the optimum reactive power injection in the candidate buses and demand curtailment in each area are calculated. The proposed DVDR method can better mitigate the voltage problem and the results showed far desirable performance compared with using just DR or DV methods. The proposed method can also curtail less demand in comparison to the DR method.