A state-based potential game approach for distributed voltage regulation in distribution networks

Abstract

With the increasing penetration rate of renewable energy sources over recent years, voltage fluctuations and violations due to the inherent intermittency of renewable energy sources pose a great challenge to the safe and steady operation of distribution networks. To tackle this problem, the voltage regulation problem in distribution networks is formulated as a state-based potential game and then solved in a distributed manner in this paper. Specifically, the power flow model of radial distribution networks is linearized at first. Then, based on the linearized power flow model, a voltage regulation problem in distribution networks is modeled, whose objective function is the sum of voltage profile deviations and reactive power generation costs. Next, the subproblems for each bus is designed based on the state-based potential game theory, in the solving of which only its local and neighbor information are required, facilitating the design of the distributed voltage regulation algorithm. Further, the proposed algorithm is improved by freezing the states of isolated buses during each iteration, increasing its resilience against random link failures. Simulation results show that the proposed distributed voltage regulation algorithm can achieve fast and effective voltage profile regulation in distribution networks while preserving the privacy of distributed generators, even in the presence of random communication link failures. In addition, compared to other distributed voltage regulation algorithms, the proposed algorithm exhibits a faster convergence rate and better voltage regulation performance.

Keywords

• distribution networks
• distributed optimization
• voltage regulation
• nash equilibrium
• state-based potential game
• random link failures