Photovoltaic Power Converter Management in Unbalanced Low Voltage Networks with Ancillary Services Support

The proliferation of residential photovoltaic (PV) prosumers leads to detrimental impacts on the low-voltage (LV) distribution network operation such as reverse power flow, voltage fluctuations and voltage imbalances. This is due to the fact that the strategies for the PV inverters are usually designed to obtain the maximum energy from the panels. The most recent approach to these issues involves new inverter-based solutions. This paper proposes a novel comprehensive control strategy for the power electronic converters associated with PV installations to improve the operational performance of a four-wire LV distribution network. The objectives are to try to balance the currents demanded by consumers and to compensate the reactive power demanded by them at the expense of the remaining converters’ capacity. The strategy is implemented in each consumer installation, constituting a decentralized or distributed control and allowing its practical implementation based on local measurements. The algorithms were tested, in a yearly simulation horizon, on a typical Portuguese LV network to verify the impact of the high integration of the renewable energy sources in the network and the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed approach.