Local Adaptive Control of Solar Photovoltaics and Electric Water Heaters for Real-time Grid Support

Overvoltage (OV) in a low voltage distribution network is one of the foremost issues observed even under moderate penetration of rooftop solar photovoltaics (PVs). Similarly, grid under-voltage (UV) is foreseen as a potential issue resulting from increased integration of large flexible loads, such as electric vehicles, electric water heaters (EWHs) etc. An adaptive control using only local measurements for the EWHs and PVs is proposed in this study to alleviate OV as well as UV issues. The adaptive control is designed such that it monitors the voltage at the point of connection and adjusts active and reactive power injection/consumptions of the EWHs and PVs following the voltage violations. To effectively support the network in real-time, the controller allows EWHs to operate prior to PVs in OV and after the PVs in UV violations. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is demonstrated by time-sweep simulations performed in a typical 0.4 kV distribution network. The proposed method serves as a potential resource for real-time voltage support to distribution grids.