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Advanced Power Distribution System Conguration for Smart Grid

Jae-Chul Kim, Member, IEEE, Sung-Min Cho, Member, IEEE, and Hee-Sang Shin
AbstractPower distribution systems should meet demands such as high reliability, efciency, and penetration of renewable energy generators (REGs) in a smart grid. In general, power distribution systems are radial in nature. One-way power ow is the advantage of a radial system. However, the introduction of REGs causes bidirectional power ow. Furthermore, there are limits to improvements in reliability and efciency in a radial system. Therefore, the upgrading of primary feeders from a radial to a loop conguration has been considered in the Korea Smart Distribution Project. An advanced power distribution system (APDS), in which primary feeders operate in a loop conguration, has been explored in this paper. First, the design scheme of a conventional power distribution system conguration that adopts distribution automation is introduced. Subsequently, an upgrading scheme of loop conguration using normally opened tie switches and a tie switch selection algorithm for loss minimization are described. Finally, the advantages of the upgraded conguration are reported through case studies. It is observed that the APDS conguration can integrate more REGs from the viewpoint of voltage regulation. An advanced distribution system allowing greater use of REGs will be a major contribution to smart grid implementation. Index TermsPower distribution system conguration, renewable energy generation, smart distribution, voltage regulation.
TABLE I CAPACITY LIMITS OF DG [2]

I. INTRODUCTION ONCERNS about global climate change have increased the penetration of REGs, which are connected to power distribution systems. The Korean government announced a national objective to increase the share of REGs, which was 2.24% in 2006, to 11% by 2030. In general, power distribution systems are radial in nature. In addition, given their relatively late development, REGs were not considered in the design phase of current power distribution systems. For these reasons, connecting distributed generation units (i.e., REGs) to the distribution system may cause various interconnection problems including harmonic concerns, system overvoltage, fault coordination, increased fault currents, and islanding concerns. To mitigate these problems, the IEEE Std. 1547 for distributed generator (DG) interconnection was published in 2003 [1]. In Korea,
Manuscript received November 26, 2012; accepted December 09, 2012. Date of publication February 06, 2013; date of current version February 27, 2013. This work was supported by the Power Generation & Electricity Delivery of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government Ministry of Knowledge Economy (No. 2009T100200067). Paper no. TSG-00821-2012. S.-M. Cho (corresponding author) is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul 156-743, Korea (e-mail: dannyone@ssu.ac. kr). J.-C. Kim and H.-S. Shin are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul 156-743, Korea (e-mail: jckim@ssu.ac.kr; shs8828@ssu.ac.kr). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TSG.2012.2233771

KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Cooperation) also published a DG interconnection manual in 2005. In this manual, the capacity of a DG is limited by the voltage level and line conguration. Table I shows capacity limits of a DG [2]. The main goal of these DG installment limitations is to keep the distribution system voltage within a permissible range. In Korean power distribution systems, the distribution voltage is controlled by an on-load tap changer (OLTC) through the line drop compensation (LDC) method. In some cases, the high penetration of REGs may cause voltage regulation failures [3]. A fault occurrence in a feeder or lateral that is connected to an REG leads to its interruption. For stable reclosing operation and maintenance crew safety, the REGs must detect islanding operation and be disconnected within 0.5 s according to the KEPCO DG interconnecting manual. Furthermore, REGs should wait 5 min to re-connect after the distribution system becomes stable [1], [2]. Therefore, the reliability of the power distribution system is important for REGs as well as for customers. For several decades, the conguration of power distribution systems has been typically designed in a radial form for easy control [4], [5]. However, some power utilities such as Taipower, Florida Power Company, Hong Kong Electric Company, and Singapore Power have adopted normally closed loop congurations to serve their customers with high reliability [6][9]. Loop power distribution systems have the advantages of reliability and voltage regulation. To accommodate these strengths, an APDS including loop conguration is being developed in the Korea Smart Distribution System Project. In Korea, KEPCO has already adopted a distribution automation system (DAS) with many normally opened tie switches to improve reliability [10]. Therefore, without feeders or lateral extensions, the power distribution system can simply be upgraded to an APDS through tie switch closure. However, to operate in loop conguration, the protection system should be upgraded as well. All reclosers and circuit breakers (CBs) in the

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Fig. 1. Conventional power distribution conguration in KEPCO.

Fig. 2. Diagram of a conventional LDC voltage regulation method.

loop path should detect bi-directional fault currents. Thus, appropriate tie switches are selected to upgrade the radial conguration to a loop conguration with the minimum upgrading cost. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the advantages of the APDS, which is being studied in the Korea Smart Distribution Project, and to propose an algorithm for appropriate tie switch selection. In section two, the conventional power distribution system in Korea is described. The basic scheme of an APDS and the algorithm for tie switch selection are introduced in section three. In section four, the advantages of the APDS are examined through a case study.
Fig. 3. Diagram of a conventional LDC voltage regulation method.

II. CONVENTIONAL POWER DISTRIBUTION CONFIGURATION A. Design Scheme Which Considers Reliability The DAS is very useful for reliability enhancement. To minimize interruption time, KEPCO has adopted the DAS for determination of fault location, fault isolation, and service restoration. A conventional power distribution conguration adopting the DAS is shown in Fig. 1. In the gure, CB, RA, and GA are substation circuit breakers, automatic reclosers, and remote-controlled switches, respectively. Distribution feeders are normally divided into three sections. Each section has one or more normally opened tie switches for service restoration. For example, if a fault occurs in section two as illustrated in Fig. 2, automatic equipment devices which experience a fault current generate a fault indicator (FI) signal within 30 s. At the same time, RA1 is opened to clear the fault. Subsequently, by considering the FI message, the fault location is determined. Next, GA3 and GA4 are opened to isolate the fault. Finally, RA1 and GA10 or GA6 are closed for service restoration. As these processes are completed within 5 min, the DAS is very useful in improving reliability. However, because the REG interconnected in section three experiences momentary interruptions, it should be disconnected within 0.5 s by an anti-islanding detection function. Furthermore, the REGs should wait 5 min to re-connect after service restoration is complete [2], [10] . In the conventional power distribution system, a service restoration scheme using normally opened tie switches is useful for minimizing interruption time. However, REG operation is sensitive to momentary interruptions due to anti-islanding detection. Therefore, the service restoration process in an APDS should reduce momentary interruptions to assure continuous operation of REGs. B. Voltage Regulation Scheme Power utilities are required to keep customers voltage proles on feeders close to the rated value under all load conditions. In urban areas, the power transformer located in the substation with an under-load tap changer (ULTC) is the main voltage regulation equipment. Pole-mounted voltage regulators (PVRs) are additionally installed in rural feeders. A ULTC controlled by the LDC method is used to keep the voltage constant at a ctitious regulation point (FRP) regardless of the magnitude or power factor of the load. Sending currents and voltages , as shown in Fig. 3, are used to calculate the FRP voltage according to (1). The power distribution system operator should set up parameters such as dead band, time delay, reference voltage, resistance , and reactance for automatic voltage regulation [3][5]. (1) where Fictitious regulation point (FRP) voltage. Sending voltage. Sending current. Resistance of a feeder from ULTC to FRP. Reactance of a feeder from ULTC to FRP.

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In Korean power distribution systems, a power transformer bank has 6 to 8 feeders. The voltage of the feeders depends on the ULTC at the power transformer. If the load imbalance between feeders exceeds an acceptable range, voltage regulation using only ULTC may fail. Furthermore, if many REGs are connected to the feeders, LDC detects sending currents that are less than the actual values. The output of REGs depends on weather conditions such as wind, solar radiation, and temperature, and is therefore uncontrollable. For this reason, it becomes more difcult for the distribution system operator to predict the load balance in advance as the penetration of REGs increases. Therefore, high penetration of REGs may cause voltage regulation failures [3]. III. ADVANCED POWER DISTRIBUTION CONFIGURATION A. Basic Scheme The conguration of a conventional power distribution system is radial because of its simplicity. However, as mentioned above, the upgrading of primary feeders is needed because there are numerous problems for a radial structure to accommodate many REGs. In Korea, primary feeders have at least three normally opened tie switches. By closing the opened tie switches, the radial distribution conguration can be upgraded to a loop structure without installing additional electric power lines. Fig. 3 shows the upgrading scheme of an ADPS, which includes a loop feeder structure as an example. If tie switch GA4 is closed, feeder1 and feeder2 form a loop structure. In this case, other tie switches should be opened to avoid a mesh structure. Although additional electric power lines do not need to be installed, the protection devices should be upgraded to operate the power distribution system in a loop structure. Therefore, the optimum tie switches should be selected to maximize the prots of ADPS upgrading for the loop structure. B. Loop Conguration Selection Algorithm for Loss Minimization Load imbalance between feeders increases loss in the power distribution system. In a radial structure, network reconguration is used for load imbalance alleviation, loss minimization and others [11]. However, in a loop structure, a loop path connecting a heavily loaded feeder and a lightly loaded feeder can alleviate the load imbalance to minimize loss. The voltage drop in a heavily loaded feeder is larger than that in lightly loaded feeders. Therefore, by considering the voltage across the opened tie switch, we can infer which side of the tie switch is the heavily loaded feeder. If the voltage across an opened tie switch is high, loop operation using the tie switch is more effective for loss minimization. Therefore, we present a loop path selection algorithm using the voltage across open tie switches. The loop path selection algorithm considers a 24 h load prole because the output is for representing stable rather than temporary states. A owchart of the loop path selection algorithm for loss minimization is shown in Fig. 4. The loop path selection algorithm is as follows. Step 1) Generate tie switch cases for loop conguration.

Fig. 4. Flowchart of loop path selection algorithm for loss minimization.

Step 2) Carry out power ow analysis for 24 h. Step 3) Calculate accumulated switch voltage (ASV) for all tie switches according to (2). (2) where Tie switch number. Hours. Open voltage of switch n at hour h. Step 4) If all ASV calculations for tie switches are completed, calculate the total ASV according to (3) for each case. (3) Step 5) Select the case with the maximum total ASV for loss minimization. IV. CASE STUDY In this section, we compared the conventional radial structure and the APDS loop structure to explore the advantages of the APDS from the perspective of loss reduction and voltage prole. The conventional Korean power distribution system adopting the DAS, which is shown in Fig. 5, is used as the test distribution system model [12]. In the test model, there are four feeders and six normally opened tie switches. There are three available cases for upgrading the primary feeder from a radial to a loop conguration. All test cases are summarized in Table II. Case 1

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Fig. 5. Conventional Korea power distribution system adopting DAS. TABLE II TEST CASES FOR CASE STUDY

Fig. 7. Losses during 24 h in the test distribution system model.

A. Loss Reduction Study Power ow analysis was performed for loss analysis using the cases summarized in Table II. Fig. 7 shows the losses accumulated during 24 h for each case. Upgrading to case 3, in which the loss is reduced from 6.74 to 6.42 MWh, is the best solution for loss minimization. However, to compare loss reduction between cases, power ow analysis should be conducted for each case. Yet if there are more tie switches, the processing time will increase. Therefore, to compare loss reduction more efciently, we applied the proposed loop path selection algorithm to test the power distribution system model. In the radial case, the ASVs for each tie switch calculated by (2) are shown in Fig. 8. The total ASVs for each case are summarized in Table III. The total ASV is highest in case 3. Therefore, this case is the best loop-upgrading solution for loss minimization. This shows that we can select a loop-upgrading path without conducting power ow analysis for each case. B. Voltage Control Study Voltage regulation in the test power distribution system model mainly depends on ULTC control by the LDC method.

Fig. 6. Load prole of each feeder in the test distribution system model.

involves a radial structure and cases 2, 3, and 4 involve a loop structure. Each feeder supports electric power of various loads for residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Most load proles depend on the type of customer. Fig. 6 shows feeder load proles in the test model. Feeder 3 shows a relatively light load throughout the day. Alternatively, feeders 1 and 2 show a heavy load. The load proles are derived from actual load patterns in Korea.

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Fig. 8. ASV for each tie switch. TABLE III CALCULATED TOTAL ASV

Fig. 10. Maximum and minimum voltages with REGs of case 1 and case 3.

2) The robustness of voltage regulation in the loop structure allows the APDS to accommodate more REGs than the radial structure. 3) The proposed loop path selection algorithm gives the best solution for loss minimization using only a power ow analysis of the radial system. Coordination of protection using communication technology may permit the upgrading of primary feeders from radial to loop congurations. We expect the APDS presented here to support a more suitable environment for high penetration of REGs in smart grids. APPENDIX The line impedance and load proles of the test power distribution system used in the case study are listed in Tables IV and V, respectively. All per units are based on 22.9 kV and 100 MVA. All power factors are 0.9.
TABLE IV LINE IMPEDANCE

Fig. 9. Maximum and minimum voltage proles for case 1 and case 3.

Maximum and minimum voltage proles for cases 1 and 3 are compared in Fig. 9. The difference between the maximum and minimum voltages for case 3 is narrower than that for case 1 (radial). Therefore, voltage regulation is easier in case 3. The voltage regulation of power distribution systems in which many REGs are interconnected may fail. Therefore, we compared the robustness of voltage regulation between cases 1 and 3. The REGs were interconnected at line sections F25, F36, and F414, respectively. Subsequently, we changed the generation capacity from 1 to 10 MW. The maximum and minimum voltages in the test power distribution system are shown in Fig. 10. In case 1, undervoltage occurred because the LDC method failed as a result of the 24 MW generated by the REGs. In contrast, in case 3, the power distribution system could accommodate the 30 MW generated by the REGs within a permissible voltage range. V. CONCLUSION In this paper, we analyzed the advantages of an APDS loop structure from the perspective of loss reduction and voltage regulation. In addition, we presented a loop path selection algorithm for loss minimization. The results of case studies using the test power distribution system are summarized as follows: 1) Appropriate upgrading of primary feeders from a radial to a loop conguration reduces loss in the power distribution system

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TABLE V AVERAGE LOAD AT END OF LINE SECTION

[7] T. C. Yu, Principles and Design of Low Voltage Systems. Singapore: Byte Power Publ., 1996, pp. 1314. [8] W. T. Huang, T. H. Chen, G. C. Pu, Y. F. Hsu, and T. Y. Guo, Assessment of upgrading existing primary feeders from radial to normally closed loop arrangement, in Proc. 2002 IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Transm. Distrib. Conf., pp. 21232128. [9] T. H. Chen, W. T. Huang, J. C. Gu, G. C. Pu, Y. F. Hsu, and T. Y. Guo, Feasibility study of upgrading primary feeders from radial and openloop to normally closed-loop arrangement, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 13081316, 2004. [10] N.-G. James, Robert Wilson, Control and Automation of Electrical Power Distribution Systems. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC, 2006. [11] S. M. Cho, H. S. Shin, J. H. Park, and J. C. Kim, Distribution system reconguration considering customer and DG reliability cost, J. Elect. Eng. Technol., vol. 7, no. 4, Jul. 2012. [12] H. T. Lee, A study on the reliability analysis of loop power distribution systems with microgrid structure, Ph.D. dissertation, Dept Electr. Eng., Soongsil Univ., Seoul, Korea, 2009. Jae-Chul Kim (M84) received the B.S. degree from Soongsil University, Korea, in 1979, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1983 and 1987, respectively. He has been a professor of Electrical Engineering at Soongsil University since 1988. His research interests include power system reliability, smart distribution systems, and smart grids.

REFERENCES
[1] IEEE Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources With Electric Power Systems, IEEE Std. 1547-2003. [2] Korea Electric Power Co., A Guide to the Distributed Generation Interconnection to Distribution System 2005. [3] J.-H. Choi and J.-C. Kim, Advanced voltage regulation method of power distribution systems interconnected with dispersed storage and generation systems (Revised), IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 329334, Apr. 2001. [4] T. A. Short, Electric Power Distribution Handbook. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC, 2004. [5] T. Gonen, Electric Power Distribution System. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill, 1986. [6] B. Pagel, Energizing international drive, Transm. Distrib. World, pp. 1834, Apr. 2000. Sung-Min Cho (S08M13) received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Soongsil University, Korea, in 2003, 2008 and 2012, respectively. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Researcher with Soongsil University. His research interests include power system reliability, smart distribution systems, and distributed generation interconnection.

Hee-Sang Shin received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Soongsil University, Korea, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Currently, he is working toward the Ph.D. degree at Soongsil University Graduate School. His research interests include smart distribution systems, and electric railways.