Mitigating distribution network congestion due to high DG penetration

The increased penetration of Renewable Energy Resources (RESs) and Distribution Generation (DG) units in Distribution Networks (DGs) is expected to cause operational states subject to downstream power flow violations. The branches with upstream power flow could undergo high loading levels and thus, their carrying current could increase towards their ampacity level. Moreover, some nodes could experience over voltages; hence the Distribution System Operator (DSO) would probably proceed in forcing the dispersed generators to reduce their power injection into the grid or even in cutting of specific producers for as long it is needed. In this paper, two factors are proposed in order to describe and quantify the congestion level for DNs. Moreover, the problem is proposed to be solved via the technique of network reconfigurations in order to mitigate the congestion level. Numerous tests show that limited switching operations under simple heuristic rules could efficiently deal with the congestion problem.