Real-Time Power Regulation of Flexible User-Side Resources in Distribution Networks via Dual Ascent Method

Flexible user-side resources are of great potential in providing power regulation so as to effectively address the challenges of reverse power flow and overvoltage issues in distribution networks characterized by high photovoltaic (PV) penetration. However, existing distributed algorithms typically implement control signals after the convergence of the algorithms, making it difficult to track frequent and rapid fluctuations in PV power outputs in real time. Given this background, an online-distributed control algorithm for the real-time power regulation of flexible user-side resources is proposed in this paper. The objective of the established control model is to minimize network losses by dynamically adjusting active power outputs of flexible user-side resources and reactive power outputs of PV inverters while respecting branch power flow and voltage magnitude constraints. Furthermore, by deconstructing the centralized problem into a primal–dual one, a distributed control strategy based on the dual ascent method is implemented. With the proposed method, agents can achieve global optimality by exchanging limited information with their neighbors. The simulation results verify the good balance between economic efficiency and voltage control performance of the proposed method.