Voltage control of active MV networks integrating RES and storage units: Advanced algorithm and lab tests

The contribution describes the algorithm to increase the hosting capacity of the distribution network by means of Voltage control of Medium Voltage feeders in presence of storage units and its application on a large MV network in the framework of the Italian demonstration of the FP EU project GRID4EU (www.grid4eu.eu). The distinctive feature of the proposed approach is the technical-economic optimization which represents the inner core of the controller: the system is conceived to compute the set-points of the distributed energy resources in real-time according to economic and technical objectives. The paper describes the definition of representative case studies to test the algorithm behaviour, to evaluate its performances, to tune the economic and technical parameters, and to highlight critical conditions hardly replicable in a real field. Finally a description about the challenging integration of the voltage controller block into the overall control architecture is included.