Local Reactive Power Control Method for Overvoltage Mitigation in Low-Voltage Grids

The main objective of this paper is to present a more efficient method for reactive power control in low-voltage grids with high share of photovoltaic (PV) power generation. Today solar inverters already incorporate different local control methods like Q(V) or cosφ(P), but these methods have drawbacks regarding efficiency compared with optimal solutions generated with optimal power flow (OPF) or reactive power control methods with communication between inverters. This paper proposes a new local reactive power control method which can reduce the added grid losses by more than 60% compared to existing Q(V)-control while maintaining identical efficacy regarding voltage levels. The costs associated with grid losses are also reduced.