Assessing the Potential of Network Reconfiguration to Improve Distributed Generation Hosting Capacity in Active Distribution Systems

As the amount of distributed generation (DG) is
growing worldwide, the need to increase the hosting capacity of
distribution systems without reinforcements is becoming nowadays
a major concern. This paper explores how the DG hosting
capacity of active distribution systems can be increased by means
of network reconfiguration, both static, i.e., grid reconfiguration
at planning stage, and dynamic, i.e., grid reconfiguration using
remotely controlled switches as an active network management
(ANM) scheme. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer,
nonlinear, multi-period optimal power flow (MP-OPF) which
aims to maximize the DG hosting capacity under thermal and
voltage constraints. This work further proposes an algorithm to
break-down the large problem size when many periods have to be
considered. The effectiveness of the approach and the significant
benefits obtained by static and dynamic reconfiguration options in
terms of DG hosting capacity are demonstrated using a modified
benchmark distribution system.