Photovoltaic Inverter Controllers Seeking AC Optimal Power Flow Solutions

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · IEEE Transactions on Power Systems

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TPWRS.2015.2454856· OSTI ID:1252408

Dall'Anese, Emiliano; Dhople, Sairaj V.; Giannakis, Georgios B.

This paper considers future distribution networks featuring inverter-interfaced photovoltaic (PV) systems, and addresses the synthesis of feedback controllers that seek real- and reactive-power inverter setpoints corresponding to AC optimal power flow (OPF) solutions. The objective is to bridge the temporal gap between long-term system optimization and real-time inverter control, and enable seamless PV-owner participation without compromising system efficiency and stability. The design of the controllers is grounded on a dual ..epsilon..-subgradient method, while semidefinite programming relaxations are advocated to bypass the non-convexity of AC OPF formulations. Global convergence of inverter output powers is analytically established for diminishing stepsize rules for cases where: i) computational limits dictate asynchronous updates of the controller signals, and ii) inverter reference inputs may be updated at a faster rate than the power-output settling time.

• Research Organization: NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States))
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability; NREL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1252408
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-5D00-64664
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 31; ISSN 0885-8950
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
distributed optimization and control
distribution systems
optimal power flow
photovoltaic inverter control