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Analysis of Conservation Voltage Reduction under Inverter-Based VAR-Support [Slides]

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1869506· OSTI ID:1869506
 [1];  [1]
  1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Conservation voltage reduction (CVR) is a common technique used by utilities to strategically reduce demand during peak periods. As penetration levels of distributed generation (DG) continue to rise and advanced inverter capabilities become more common, it is unclear how the effectiveness of CVR will be impacted and how CVR interacts with advanced inverter functions. In this work, we investigated the mutual impacts of CVR and DG from photovoltaic (PV) systems (with and without autonomous Volt-VAR enabled). The analysis was conducted on an actual utility dataset, including a feeder model, measurement data from smart meters and intelligent reclosers, and metadata for more than 30 CVR events triggered by the utility over the year. The installed capacity of the modeled PV systems represented 66% of peak load, but reached instantaneous penetrations reached up to 2.5x the load consumption over the year. While the objectives of CVR and autonomous Volt-VAR are opposed to one another, this study found that their interactions were mostly inconsequential since the CVR events occurred when total PV output was low.
Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
NA0003525
OSTI ID:
1869506
Report Number(s):
SAND2022-7030R; 706711
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English