Optimal Sizing of Voltage Control Devices for Distribution Circuit with Intermittent Load

Abstract: We consider joint control of a switchable capacitor and a D-STATCOM for voltage regulation in a distribution circuit with intermittent load. The control problem is formulated as a two-timescale optimal power flow problem with chance constraints, which minimizes power loss while limiting the probability of voltage violations due to fast changes in load. The control problem forms the basis of an optimization problem which determines the sizes of the control devices by minimizing sum of the expected power loss cost and the capital cost. We develop computationally efficient heuristics to solve the optimal sizing problem and implement real-time control. Numerical experiments on a circuit with high-performance computing (HPC) load show that the proposed sizing and control schemes significantly improve the reliability of voltage regulation on the expense of only a moderate increase in cost.