A Mean-Field Voltage Control Approach for Active Distribution Networks With Uncertainties

A model-free distributed control scheme that implements active voltage control in low voltage distribution network (LVDN) is proposed. By solving an individual Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman-Flemming function with public information, users can compute a good approximation to their optimal control trajectory and take uncertainties into account in a distributed manner. A detailed mathematical framework is given, accompanied by a discussion on the different entries of uncertainties. The proposed control scheme uses a broadcast signal to indicate the probability distribution in mean field theory, and to streamline the demand on Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov PDE or Mc-Kean Vlasov SDE, which relieves the computational burden. A realistic semiurban distribution network is modified as the study case, with a benchmark of centralized ACOPF to study the performance of the proposed approach. Moreover, two special cases including communication latency and packet loss are given as well, in order to test the robustness of the proposed approach. The results prove that the proposed approach is able to deliver good approximation to the optimal control with uncertainty in a model-free and distributed manner.