A comprehensive assessment of PV inverters operating with droop control for overvoltage mitigation in LV distribution networks

The rapid increase in the number of PV installations in current low voltage (LV) distribution networks brings many technical operational challenges. This claims for the deployment of control strategies to deal with these concerns, especially those related to overvoltage issues. Based on this, this paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the performance of PV inverters operating with droop control for overvoltage mitigation using a stochastic methodology based on a Monte Carlo approach. The uncertainty related to the PV generation and the users’ consumption behavior is fully considered through advanced statistical modeling techniques. Voltage magnitude and loading indexes are used as key metrics to assess the technical performance of the distribution network, simulated using OpenDSS, under two droop-based control strategies: Active Power Control (APC) and coordinated Reactive and Active Power Control (RPC-APC). The effects of curtailed energy on the PV users’ revenue is also analyzed. A case of study based on real smart meter data from The Netherlands is used. According to the obtained results, both control strategies are effective to mitigate voltage violations. Nevertheless, for the case of 100% PV penetration, the droop-based coordinated RPC-APC allowed an 18% more of exported energy than the droop-based APC control strategy.