Coordinated voltage control in distribution systems under the smart grid concept

The deployment of the smart grid concept requires more automation and control in electrical distribution systems in order to be able to accommodate Distributed Energy Resources (DER), particularly those based on Renewable Energy Sources (RES). This paper presents a hierarchical control architecture designed for electrical distribution system comprising two main control layers. This structure enables the implementation of advanced functionalities such as coordinated voltage control between the MV and LV levels, exploiting Distributed Generation (DG) capabilities together with traditional voltage control techniques. The performance of the proposed voltage control algorithm is illustrated based on simulation results using real distribution networks.