Coordinated Dispatch of Virtual Energy Storage Systems in LV Grids for Voltage Regulation

The growth in installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity and the ever-increasing power demand due to the use of energy-hungry appliances have caused voltage issues. In this paper, a hierarchical dispatch strategy is proposed for coordinating multiple groups of virtual energy storage systems (VESSs), i.e., residential houses with air conditioners, to regulate voltage in low-voltage (LV) grids with high solar PV penetration. Specifically, the two levels of the proposed model are: 1) in the lower level, VESSs within each intelligent residential district are controlled locally by individual aggregator; 2) in the upper level, multiple aggregators are coordinated to achieve voltage regulation through a consensus control strategy. By exchanging information through sparse communication links, each aggregator shares the required active power adjustment among all participating groups, without compromising users’ thermal comfort. Simulation result demonstrates that the proposed control scheme can effectively regulate voltage in LV grids with greater robustness and scalability.