Optimal PV inverter reactive power control and real power curtailment to improve performance of unbalanced four-wire LV distribution networks

The rapid uptake of residential photovoltaic (PV) systems is causing serious power quality issues such as significant voltage fluctuation and unbalance that are restricting the ability of networks to accommodate further connections. Based on the latent reactive power capability and real power curtailment of single-phase inverters, this paper proposes a new comprehensive PV operational optimization strategy to improve the performance of significantly unbalanced three-phase four-wire low voltage (LV) distribution networks with high residential PV penetrations. A multi-objective optimal power flow (OPF) problem that can simultaneously improve voltage magnitude and balance profiles while minimizing network losses and generation costs is defined and then converted into an aggregated single-objective OPF problem using the weighted-sum method, which can be effectively solved by the global Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) approach with multiple starting points in Matlab. Detailed simulations are performed and analyzed for various operating scenarios over 24 hours on a real unbalanced four-wire LV distribution network in Perth Solar City trial, Australia. Finally, smart meter readings are used to justify the validity and accuracy of the proposed optimization model and considerations on the application of the proposed PV control strategy are also presented.