Effect of P-Q Limits on Microgrid Reconfiguration: A Capability Curve Perspective

One of the proven approaches to achieve optimal operation in a microgrid is through network reconfiguration. The work presented in this article aims to carry out optimal reconfiguration on an islanded system. Optimal sizing and siting is generally done with an assumption of full availability of the apparent power of the distributed generator. However, the power available in a generator or inverter (for renewable energy sources) is lower than the apparent power. In this study, microgrid reconfiguration is revisited from the capability curve perspective. The limit imposed by four different curves for an inverter and a modified D curve for synchronous generator is used. Effect of reconfiguration on the system loss, radiality, voltage profile, reactive power reserves is investigated on a modified IEEE 33 bus system. It is observed that the system is found to have better voltage profile and less losses by incorporating reconfiguration feature using the capability curves.