Voltage control by tap-changing transformers for a radial distribution network M.R.Salem LA Talat HM. Soliman Indexing ters: Votog como, Tapchanging ansforers, Nonlinear constrain optimisation Abstract: Voltage control is of interest to many researchers, and is currently being considered by many utilities for implementation in their energy control centres, Transformers with tap-changing facilites constitute an important means of controlling voltage throughout the system at all voltage levels. A new method for determining the minimal changes in transformer taps to control voltage levels is presented. The problem to be solved is cast into a nonlinear constraint optimisation. The constraints are tackled in the minimisation algorithm by forming the Lagrangian, Necessary conditions for optimality are derived and solved using the Newton— Raphson method. 1 Introduction ‘The control of voltage has been identified as one of the ‘most important operational needs for the efficient and reliable operation of power systems [I]. This is due to the following points. (i) Both utility equipment and customer equipment are designed to operate at a cer- tain voltage rating. Prolonged operation of the equip- ment at voltages outside the allowable range could adversely affect their performance and may cause forced outages. Therefore, voltage at the terminals of all equipment in the system have to be kept within acceptable limits, (ji) System stability has to be enhanced to maximise utilisation of the transmission system. Voltage control has a significant impact on sy’ tem stability. The control of voltage levels is accomplished by con- trolling the generation, absorption and flow of reactive power at all levels in the system. The generating units provide the basic means of voltage control. The auto matic voltage regulators control field excitation 10 maintain a scheduled voltage level at the generators ter~ minals, Additional means are usually required to con- trol voltage throughout the system. The devices used for this purpose may be classified as follows OTB, 1997 IEE Proceedings online no. 1997430 Paper first rxsved 2h June 19% and in revised form 6th May 197 ‘he authors are with the Department of EER, Faculty of Enginesring Omar APMokhur Univers, PO Box 919, Al Bayda, Libya, (MLA Sila and LA Tabt are on lave from Hwan Unrest, Fey std FEM Solita on sve frm Caco Unversy, Eayp®) BE Proc Gener. Tranam. Distrib. Vl M4, No.6, November 1.1. Sources or sinks of reactive power 1.1.1 Shunt capacitors [2]: These are power factor correcting devices as they supply reactive power and can boost local voltages. The main disadvantage is that their reactive power output is proportional to the square of the voltage. Consequently, the reactive power output is reduced at low voltages when itis likely to be heeled most 1.1.2 Shunt reactors: These are used to compensate for the effects of line capacitance, particularly to limit voltage rise on open circuit or light load, 1.1.3 Synchronous condensers: 1.1.4 Static VAr compensators (SVCs) [3]: These are thyristor-switehed capacitors and/or reactors. SVCs are shunt-connected VAr generators or absorbers whose outputs are varied So as to control the voltage 1.2. Line reactance compensators These are series capacitors for increasing maximum power that can be transmitted. Although series capaci- tors are not usually installed for voltage control as such, they do contribute to improved voltage control 1.3 Regulating transformers These are tap-changing transformers [4] and boosters Conventional transformers with tap-changing facility perform two functions: voltage transformation and voltage control. Booster transformers perform only the latter function; that is, they buck or boost the voltage without changing the basic voltage level. Tap-changing transformers are the most popular method of voltage control (4]. Autotransformers, which are used to change voltage from one subsystem to another are often furnished with under load tap-chang- ing (ULTC) facilities. Co-ordinated control of the tap changers of all the transformers interconnecting the subsystems is required if the general level of voltage is 10 be controlled. Transformers with off-load tap-chang- ing facilities can also help to maintain satisfactory volt- age profiles. Although transformers with ULTC can be used to take care of daily, hourly, and minute-by- minute variations in system conditions, settings of off- load. tap-changing transformers have to be chosen depending on long-term variations due to load growth, ‘or seasonal changes. A method for appropriate tap set ting with cither type of tap-changing facility is given in 15, 6]. This paper will deal with schedule sclected busvoltages and minimise tap-changes. It will also satisfy the constraints of active and reactive power loading conditions. 2 Problem formulation The problem is defined as minimising a nonlinear abjective function subject to the power flow equality constraints (P, Q) at each bus. For the n bus radial sys- tem shown in Fig. 1, the problem is stated mathemati- aally as follows. YRosint Resp —3— BI ' 7 nfs eng THT Supe ow 4 FrereiQnes Peis Peel@p Pry Fig. Sistem nated Find the tap settings T = (7), Ts “objective function” -If so that the J=5{(V-1'A(V 1) + (P-1)'H(T-D} (1) is minimised. The matrices 4 and B are diagonal posi- tive definite weighting matrices to be selected by the designer, who bases the choice on the relative impor tance of the various bus voltage deviation and changes in taps from Ip.u. The vector 1 = [L, 1, .-» 1} ‘Under normal loading conditions, voltage control sequirements will be maintained within transformer tap limits, Hence the weighting mateies 4 and B could be chosen with equal weight, On the other hand, under extreme heavy loading conditions adjusting the voltage Tovels to their desirable levels could call up taps outside their physical limits, The algorithm could avoid such tap violation by choosing the elements of the matrix B much larger than those of {Ge. the control is penal ised). Of course, this will result in relaxed voltage pro- file. Minimising J means that we are controlling the bus voltages as near as possible to Ip. using the mink mum changes in taps. In addition to minimise the objective function J, the following Toad flow con- straints must also be Satisfied RPtMa Gy Dh mm © The last equation represents the voltage drop in the first line section [4]. Similarly, for other sections — BoP + Pa) + Xo(Qi + Qa) Tea - Ti TsVe— TeV = Va ~ Ta¥a ne a “iN; ® and for the last line section TaVq — TaaVn — Rona(P, +++ Pact) + Xnai(Qs bs Qnai) - TatVo-t *TeaMea 2 The losses Pug, and Qj have been neglected in the sections due to the following factors: (i) section lengths ‘are not so long; (ii) underground cable capacitance of these sections generate reactive power; and (ii) the solution obtained is approximated to the nearest larger tap settings (discrete taps). Eqns. 2-4 can be cast into a compact vector form. Thus, B= [9192-00191] =O (5) Another way of stating the problem given by eqns. I and 5 is that we wish to minimise 1 J=5{(V- AV -1) + (P-1)'B(T-} subject to the constraint g=0 3. Problem solution This is a standard constrained minimisation problem which can be solved using the method of Lagrange multipliers. There will be a Lagrange multiplier vector, which we will call 2, Forming the Lagrangian L, we obtain L=J+X-g (6) and find the minimum of L with respect to V, T and A. Note that for an optimal tap-seting vector T, the wo objective functions J and Z are identical Necessary conditions for optimality lead to aL a w AV -1)+DA=0 a aL , _ FET BT-Y+EA=0 8) OL ce ag=o 9) where the matrices D and E are given by Ts + 1b Pola Tau + ep Tae (10) Yt fi Ve 1+ Based on the above derived necessary condi optimality (eqns. 7-9), the following Newton-Raphson algorithm is proposed for their solution. Eqns. 7-9 are ‘combined into the nonlinear algebraic vectorial equa- tion: AV -1)+D.2 £(X) = | BIT-1) + BA (a2) g where the augmented vector X is X= [VTS] (as) ‘The iterative solution of eqn. 12 by the Newton-Raph- son method is as follows: Xnew =X— GME (4) {TBE Proc Gone, Tram. Dis, Vo. 145, No.6, Nowe 1997where the Jacobian matrix, G, is given by AtH M = D e M B+N H (as) D if and for which the matrices H, M and N are Len ms -(afi) a] tons ‘The Jacobian matrix G, eqn. 15, is symmetric and sparse. It requires, therefore, low’ storage and small ‘computation time to invert [7]. The iteration (eqn. 14) should start near the sought solution 4 Test example ‘The proposed method is tested on the system of Fig. 1, with n = 4. The low (high) voltage side of all trans: formers is 11kV (132k). The impedance of each line section and the loading at each bus are given in Table 1 Table 1: System data (p.u.) ‘The weighting matrices and B are chosen as Asai Bai where i is the unity matrix. The iterative algorithm is started with the augmented vector X = [1,1.1,1.05,0.95, 1.0,0.95,1.05, 1.02,1.0,0.1,0.3]¢ Many runs are carried out for different values of the - matrix (a = 1, 50, 10%, 10°, 10%, 105). The algorithm is always convergent as shown in Table 2, where lle. maximum norm of the error vector = maxyy [é| [7 During the iterative solution, the error vector between two consecutive iterations is given by Voew ~ Vota Xnew — Kota = | Trew — Toa Anew — Aota Fig. 2 shows the «norm of the error vector against the iteration number. It is seen that the algorithm con- verges faster for large ‘a’. 2 iteration number norm of against eration monde Remarks: (@ It is seen that when the weighting factor ‘a’ is large, the algorithm converges faster. (i) For larger a, tighter control on the bus voltages is ‘obtained (see V/in Table 2. ° 7 7 7.8, 1 035,016 2 0.08,0.195 0.4,0.19 30.065, 0.184 037, 0.15, Table 2 50 Tei oes 1.11770 led. 0.00035 0.00008, Interaction no, 5 3 » 093587 0.98765, 0.98878 0.99866 1.02076 1.00183 111145 1.00835 wy 0.93587 0.86509, oges7a 092792 1.01078 1.07152 sates 1.22021 u 0.07381 -0.14598 0.12895 -0.25912 0.10027 _-0.21904 eee Taare 10866 1.17505 112899 6.00002 0.00004 0.00003 0.00004 3 3 3 3 0.99882 0.99988 0.99989 1.00000 0.99932 0.99993 0.99999 1.00000 1.0007 1.00008 1.00001 1.00000 1.00272 1.00028 1.00003 1.00000 0.86349 0.86201 0.86186 o.a6tas 0.92676 0.92567 0.92556 0.92555, yo7i@s 107218 1.07221 1.06222 1zr301 1.20582 1.22569 1.22591, 0.18756 0.10902 -0.14916 0.14918 0.26738 0.26541 -0.26571 -0.26574 0.22280 -0.22556 -0.22568 -0.22591 ‘Subscripts = inal value and Fe final vi BE Proc-Genr. Promo, Drs, Vol 1, Na. 0, Novem 1897