Distribution regulation involves a "regulation point": the point at which the eq

uipment tries to maintain constant

voltage. Customers further than this point observe an expected effect: higher vo
ltage at light load, and lower voltage at
high load. Customers closer than this point experience the opposite effect: high
er voltage at high load, and lower
voltage at light load.Electric utilities aim to provide service to customers at
a specific voltage level, for example, 220V or 240V.
However, due to Kirchhoff's Laws, the voltage magnitude and thus the service vol
tage to customers will in fact vary
along the length of a conductor such as a distribution feeder (see Electric pow
er distribution). Depending on law and
local practice, actual service voltage within a tolerance band such as 5% or 10% m
ay be considered acceptable. In order
to maintain voltage within tolerance under changing load conditions, various ty
pes of devices are traditionally employed:
[3]
a load tap changer (LTC) at the substation transformer, which changes the turns
ratio in response to load current and
thereby adjusts the voltage supplied at the sending end of the feeder;
voltage regulators, which are essentially transformers with tap changers to adju
st the voltage along the feeder, so as
to compensate for the voltage drop over distance; and
capacitors,
Another important application of capacitors is to improve the voltage regulation
of a power supply system. The regulation
of a power system at the receiving end is defined by % Regulation. Higher regul
ation will mean a higher voltage
fluctuation at the receiving end, resulting in poor stability of the system. Reg
ulation up to 3 5% may be considered
satisfactory. To improve the regulation of a system, power capacitors can be use
d in series at the receiving end of the
system.
capacitor reduce the voltage drop along the feeder by reducing current flow to l
oads consuming reactive power.
Application of capacitors to distribution systems affects the current flowing in
the feeder and the voltage profile of
the system. These capacitors can be connected in series with the feeder section
or as shunt with the load (or substation
bus) at a given node on the distribution system. The way that capacitors affect
the voltage and the current of the
distribution system depends on these capacitor connections to the system. These
effects are outlined below:
*Capacitors regulate the voltage and the reactive power flow at the bus they are
connected to.
* Shunt capacitors achieve that by changing the power factor of the load.
* Series capacitors achieve that by offsetting the inductive reactance of the ci
rcuit they are connected to.
*Shunt capacitors supply lagging kilovars to the system at the point where they
are connected. They are commonly used in
distribution systems.
*Series capacitors compensate for inductive reactance. They have very limited ra
nge of application in distribution
system.
* Series capacitors act as a voltage regulator which gives voltage boost proport
ional to the magnitude and power factor
of the through current. Shunt capacitors give constant voltage boost which is i
ndependent of the through current, as
long as the through current causes no appreciable voltage drop.
A new generation of devices for voltage regulation based on solid-state technolo
gy are in the early commercialization
stages.[4]

Transformers[edit]
One case of voltage regulation is in a transformer. The unideal components of th
e transformer cause a change in voltage
when current flows. Under no load, when no current flows through the secondary c
oils, Vnl is given by the ideal model,
where VS = VP*NS/NP. Looking at the equivalent circuit and neglecting the shunt
components, as is a reasonable
approximation, one can refer all resistance and reactance to the secondary side
and clearly see that the secondary
voltage at no load will indeed be given by the ideal model. In contrast, when th
e transformer delivers full load, a
voltage drop occurs over the winding resistance, causing the terminal voltage ac
ross the load to be lower than anticipated
. By the definition above, this leads to a nonzero voltage regulation which must
be considered in use of the transformer.