Abstract
The penetration of photovoltaic (PV) outputs brings great challenges to optimal operation of active distribution networks (ADNs), especially leading to more serious overvoltage problems. This study proposes a zonal voltage control scheme based on multiple spatiotemporal characteristics for highly penetrated PVs in ADNs. In the spatial domain, a community detection algorithm using a reactive/ active power quality function was introduced to partition an ADN into sub-networks. In the time domain, short-term zonal scheduling (SZS) with 1 h granularity was drawn up based on a cluster. The objective was to minimize the supported reactive power and the curtailed active power in reactive and active power sub-networks. Additionally, a real-time zonal voltage control scheme (RZVC) with 1 min granularity was proposed to correct the SZS rapidly by choosing and controlling the key PV inverter to regulate the supported reactive power and the curtailed active power of the inverters to prevent the overvoltage in each sub-network. With the time domain cooperation, the proposed method could achieve economic control and avoid overvoltage caused by errors in the forecast data of the PVs. For the spatial domain, zonal scheduling and zonal voltage control were carried out in each cluster, and the short-term scheduling and voltage controlling problem of the ADN could then be decomposed into several sub-problems. This could simplify the optimization and control which can reduce the computing time. Finally, an actual 10kV, 103-node network in Zhejiang Province of China is employed to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed approach.