Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Improving voltage prole of residential distribution systems using

rooftop PVs and Battery Energy Storage systems
M.N. Kabir a, Y. Mishra a, G. Ledwich a, Z. Xu b, R.C. Bansal c,
a

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane 4000, Australia
Department of Electrical Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic, Hunghom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
c
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa
b

h i g h l i g h t s
 Community based residential distribution grid reinforcement.
 Overvoltage problems due to large integration of rooftop PV.
 Probabilistic estimation of intermittent PV generation.
 Impact of feeder R/X ratio is analysed.
 Coordinated control of PVs and Battery Energy Storage systems to address the voltage violation.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 6 November 2013
Received in revised form 6 August 2014
Accepted 7 August 2014
Available online 27 August 2014
Keywords:
Distribution networks
Photovoltaic (PV)
Low Voltage (LV) line
Droop control
Battery Energy Storage (BES)

a b s t r a c t
Large number of rooftop Photovoltaics (PVs) have turned traditional passive networks into active networks with intermittent and bidirectional power ow. A community based distribution network grid
reinforcement process is proposed to address technical challenges associated with large integration of
rooftop PVs. Probabilistic estimation of intermittent PV generation is considered. Depending on the network parameters such as the R/X ratio of distribution feeder, either reactive control from PVs or coordinated control of PVs and Battery Energy Storage (BES) has been proposed. Determination of BES capacity
is one of the signicant outcomes from the proposed method and several factors such as variation in PV
installed capacity as well as participation from community members are analyzed. The proposed
approach is convenient for the community members providing them exibility of managing their integrated PV and BES systems.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Large scale renewable generation such as Photovoltaics (PVs),
wind, hydro, geothermal plants are usually installed in remote
locations from load centers which require reinforcements to transmission networks. Signicant research works have been carried for
transmission reinforcement in terms of optimization between cost
incurred with renewable generation and network expansion [13].
Various methods such as mixed integer linear programming,
dynamic programming, genetic algorithms and simulated annealing have been used in the past [48]. Studies related to distribution
network reinforcements, whereas, had attracted less attention in
the past due to simplistic radial passive networks [9,10].

Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 12 4205446; fax: +27 12 3625000.

E-mail address: rcbansal@ieee.org (R.C. Bansal).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.08.042
0306-2619/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In the recent years, renewable energy schemes have resulted in

increasing number of rooftop PVs installations in at residential premises [1115]. This has resulted in the active distribution
networks, where small-scale producers and consumers (prosumers) are distributed over a large community and may participate
in load management and day-ahead scheduling in cluster of
distributed generations including PVs [16,17]. There are two types
of PV systems available in the power grid namely: feed-in (producer) and net-metering (prosumers) based systems. The feedin or gross metering arrangement means all the solar electricity
produced is exported to the grid via an independent meter.
Customer will have the original meter to record the house energy
consumption. The net-metering arrangement, whereas, means that
only excess solar electricity is sent to the grid. The power is rst
consumed in the house and if produced in excess will be exported
to the outside electricity network. Either way, the residential customers reduce the overall energy bill by reducing the consumption

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M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

of electricity from the network and receiving the payments for the
exported energy into the grid.
Installation of rooftop PVs can be an alternative to cater increasing peak demand deferring the need for immediate grid reinforcement [18]. It is also capable of providing ancillary services such as
voltage regulation and reactive power compensation [19,20].
Although large integration of PVs in the distribution systems does
provide signicant benets to Distribution Network Service Providers (DNSPs) as well as end users, it does bring few technical
challenges. Active generation from PVs has degraded the voltage
prole of the feeder. Moreover, intermittent nature of PV generation due to irregular solar insolation makes it difcult to forecast
the generation leading to abnormal system operation. Proper distribution reinforcement technique is required to address these
issues.
Authors in [21] have determined the optimum position and
capacity of distributed generators in a radial feeder. Their objective
is to maximize the capacity considering the technical challenges
from DNSPs perspective. The network reconguration and minimizing the active power losses using optimization methods are
elaborated in [2225], which are deterministic in nature and do
not consider customer participation. The variable participation of
community members in the reinforcement process is important
for the reliable operation.
In this paper, a new community based grid reinforcement methodology is proposed to allow higher level of rooftop PV installations. The most prominent technical challenge associated with
high level penetration of PV, overvoltage problem, is also
addressed. To ensure acceptable voltage prole, Reactive Capability of PV Inverter (RCPVI) is used. However, RCPVI may not be
effective in highly resistive networks. Moreover, limiting the real
power generation or installation capacity of PV to prevent overvoltage problem may not be a cost effective option. Such capacity
limitation and/or real power sacrice will result in revenue loss for
customers and active power generation loss for DNSPs. Instead of
capacity limitation or power curtailment, distributed energy storage is proposed in this paper. The development of grid reinforcement approaches by introducing storage system is proposed in
[26] using capacitor banks [27] and super capacitors [28]. Super
capacitors have high power density and are suitable during intermittency caused by clouds transients. However, these capacitor
banks have fast charging-discharging cycles which, over a longer
period of time, would lead to high loss factors [29]. Battery Energy
Storage (BES) systems, whereas, is shown to have promising future
with increasing applications in distribution systems [30].
The proposed method aims to resolve both over voltage problems due to high penetration of PVs and low voltage problems
due to peak loading. RCPVI and Battery Energy Storage (BES) are
proposed as a way to improve the voltage prole. The effectiveness
of RCPVI alone for voltage improvement may be limited by the R/X
ratio of the feeder. Therefore, an Integrated PV and Battery Storage
(IPVBS) system is proposed for individual community member
depending on the feeder characteristic. In the community based
approach, decentralized storage is proposed and hence the
improvement in voltage prole is dependent on community participation. The intermittent characteristic of PV generation using
probabilistic analysis is considered. The efcacy of the proposed
methodology depends on the active participation of community
members (end users).
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the community based grid reinforcement approach. The analysis of two
decisive criteria is explained in Section 3. Section 4 describes the
test network and the associated simulation results are shown in
Section 5. Section 6 presents economic analysis followed by conclusion in Section 7.

2. Community based grid reinforcement

Network reinforcement and extension of existing lines and the
development of new lines and substations to cater for new and
increased demand by network users (consumers and producers)
is a traditional approach [21]. Such alternatives should be considered by DNSPs before resorting to sophisticated and advanced
options such as installing a multitude of storage facilities and
developing an entire smart-grid infrastructure. However, with
the increasing rooftop PV generation, the growth in the average
load may be much lower than that of peak load. Moreover, overvoltage caused by unity power injection of PVs is another challenge
facing DNSPs.
Network topology as well as technical details (including voltage
level, R/X ratio of feeders, etc.) would be different and hence the
outcome in terms of reactive power requirement and associated
communication details will be unique for each community. Network reinforcement process can be summarised in Fig. 1.
Step 1: Data Input: DNSP will take all the necessary network
information such as number of feeder, number of bus, R/X ratio
of the network, load prole and PV generation prole with seasonal variation and cloud transients.
Step 2: Net Generation Prole: Annual Net Generation prole (PV
generation load) is created by subtracting the load from PV
generation for every hour in a year. Intermittent nature of PV
generation will make the Net Generation Prole intermittent
and hence Probabilistic estimation should be performed
(described later in Section 3.1). This step will determine if additional voltage support is required in the form of RCPVI and/or
BES.
Step 3: Determining Critical R/X ratio: An overvoltage and/or low
voltage problem depends on the R/X ratio of the feeder. In this
paper, the critical R/X ratio (RXcri) is dened as the ratio beyond
which RCPVI alone is not sufcient for alleviating voltage violations in the feeder. Determination of RXcri is described later in
Section 3.2.

Start
Take all necessary network information (feeder no, bus
no, R/X ratio, load profile, PV generation profile) as input
Calculate Net Generation (PV generation-load)
for every hour for the particular year
Calculate Pr() using probabilistic estimation
Yes
Is Pr()0.5?

No

Additional voltage control is required (RCPVI

or combined RCPVI & droop based BES)
Determine RXcri
Is R/X
ratioRXcri?
Yes

No

Determine the co-efficient mvd, Vcri

Go for droop based energy storage in BES from PV

Use only
RCPVI

Select the worst case scenario from the PV generation and load
profile, run the load flow using mvd, Vcri to determine the BES sizing
Get the required BES sizing for all the houses
End

Fig. 1. Community based grid reinforcement.

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M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

Although, PV inverters may be required to operate at unity

Power Factor (PF), this paper proposes non-unity power factor
operation due to substantial benet that can be obtained from
the reactive capability of PV inverter. Depending on the R/X ratio
of the feeder, power factor can be adjusted appropriately. Here,
PV inverters are assumed to operate at not less than 0.8 PF. When
PV generation is available, maximum real (PPV generation) and reactive power available from inverter is a function of PF and rating
of the inverter. When there is no PV generation (during night),
inverter may supply maximum reactive power (QNo PV generation)
equal to the apparent power rating of the inverter. Inverter capacity is shown in Fig. 2.
Step 4: Using RXcri to determine RCPVI and BES support: If the R/X
ratio of the feeder is below RXcri, RCPVI alone is enough to keep
the house voltages within limits, whereas, droop based BES is
required if R/X ratio is higher than RXcri.
Step 5: Determination of droop co-efcient (mvd) and Critical Voltage (Vcri): BES sizing depends on the amount of real power
obtained from PV during the maximum generation time. It is
necessary to determine the droop co-efcient (mvd) and the critical voltage (Vcri) beyond which storage will start. As these values depend on the PV generation and peak load, to get the
maximum required size of BES, the worst case scenario is chosen from Net Generation prole (maximum difference between
PV generation and peak load in two extreme seasons-summer
and winter) and mvd as well as Vcri are determined.
Jacobian matrix is used for sensitivity analysis of voltage with
real and reactive power:

#1
 
"
J1 J2
DP Dd

DV
DQ
J3 J4
V

where J1, J2, J3, J4 are the elements of Jacobian matrix; Dd and DV
are the vectors of voltage-angle and voltage-magnitude corrections
respectively; DP and DQ are the vectors of real power and reactive
power mismatches respectively. Using Jacobian following sensitivity matrix is obtained:

0 jVj



J1 jVjJ2
J3 jVjJ4

" Dd

1

DP
DV
DP

Dd
DQ
DV
DQ

#
2

where Dd/DP and Dd/DQ represent variations in the voltage-angle

of the real and reactive power respectively. DV/DP and DV/DQ represent variations in the voltage-magnitudes due to variation in real
and reactive power respectively. In determining mvd and Vcri, among
all the four elements of the sensitivity matrix, the element DV/DP is
used.

Q PV generation

PPV generation=S*PF

Q
Qno PV generation

Fig. 2. PV inverter capacity.

The house towards the end of the radial distribution network

experiences maximum voltage violation. So, the amount of
reduced power from PV for each hth house (DPh,reduced) should be
designed so that the voltage violation of last house can be avoided.
Therefore, the maximum value is taken from the summation of
sub-matrix DV/DP, which is used for calculating the maximum
amount of reduced real power from PV (DPreduced,max). Droop coefcient is proportional to the amount of house voltage (Vbh)
increased from the nominated value (1 pu) at that particular time.
The equation for determining variable droop co-efcient (mvd) is:

V bh;max  1

DPreduced;max P
i1;...;H DV i
j1;...;H DP j

mv d

max

DPreduced;max
V bh 

DP reduced;max V bh 1

DV i
j1;...;H DPj

DPh;reduced mv d V bh  1

where H is total number of houses in that community.

The Droop signal, containing droop co-efcient (mvd) and
amount of reduced power from each PV (DPh,reduced), is sent from
substation controller to each IPVBS of that community during operation phase. Moreover, maximum droop-coefcient, DPreduced,max
and sub-matrix DV/DP are used to determine the critical voltage
(Vcri) when this droop based storage will kick-in. Vcri is determined
as follow:

V cri 1:06  mv d;max  DV=DPmax  DPreduced;max

Step 6: BES sizing: After obtaining the coefcients (mvd,

DPh,reduced, Vcri), the load ow study is performed for the worst
case (considering maximum PV generation for a clear and less
variable day) to nd the required BES sizing. The round trip efciency and State of Charge (SoC) are considered. Impact of feeder characteristics and participation of community members on
the BES sizing are also considered. The results are presented in
Section 5.3.
Moreover, the R/X ratio of the distribution feeder plays a significant role in determining the BES sizing. When the R/X ratio
becomes signicantly higher, a modication factor (mmf) is introduced and multiplied with the droop co-efcient mvd to get the
new drop factor. The modication factor (mmf) can be determined
as in (7) from the sensitivity matrix:

mmf

DV=DPmax
RX  RX cri

Two most signicant decisive steps, (i) determine under which

scenario additional voltage control is required and (ii) determine
RXcri, are described in Section 3.
After technical studies, the ndings are shared with all of the
community members to inform them of the various outcomes of
the technical study and to encourage them to participate. The
information of the BES sizing as well as associated cost is also
shared with the community members. DNSP rolls out a call for submitting Expression of Interest (EoI) from the community members
who are willing to participate in the grid reinforcement and stabilization. Participation of community members has signicant
impact on the overall voltage improvement of the feeder and BES
sizing. Based on the percentage of participation, the grid reinforcements are recalculated and the nal planning document is issued
for the approval from stakeholders. Results showing the impact
of variable participation are discussed in Section 5.3.

M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

3. Analysis of two decisive criteria

3.1. Requirement criteria for additional voltage support using
probabilistic analysis
The need of additional voltage support is investigated in Step 2,
which depends on the PV generation and load characteristics of
particular network. Solar irradiance and cloud transients are sporadic in nature and therefore PV generation is intermittent. As a
result, probabilistic analysis is necessary during planning. DNSP
uses hourly data for consecutive days of a specic season to perform the probabilistic analysis. PV generation can be dened as
an IID (Independent and Identically Distributed) random variable
if innite number of samples can be taken which is not possible
in practice. Rather, it is considered as Discrete Time Markov Chain
(DTMC) process. Usually, the weather forecast process is considered as Markov Chain, which is a memory less stochastic process
[3133]. DMTC assumes that the future state depends only on
the present state and independent of the past states. Each state
is dependent on the immediate past state, so all the past states
are considered for the future state in terms of conditional probability. Moreover, only discrete data (hourly generation) is considered in this research which makes DTMC suitable for this analysis.
For example, yearly prole of PV generation can be considered as a
process by {SPVt,n where t = 0, 1,. . ., 24; n = 1, 2,. . ., 365}, where SPVt,n
denotes the solar PV generation state at time t on a particular day
n in a year. The probability of transferring into another state at
time, t + 1, entirely depends on the state at present time t and
is independent of the past states at t  1, t  2, . . ., 1, 0. Here, for
simplicity, the Net Generation is considered as a DTMC process,
which is dened as the difference between PV generation and load
demand at a particular hour (t) of a particular day (n). NetGenN
(where N denotes the time for a specic set of values {n, t}) is a
state of the Net Generation process and can have nite number
of values.
The probability of the initial state NetGenN can be dened as in
(8)

aa PrfNetGenN ag

where N = 0, 1, 2, . . .., 24 * 365. The conditional probability of state

NetGenN+1, having value, say b at N + 1th time, given that the state
NetGenN has a particular value a at Nth time, is dened as Prab

PrfNetGenN1 bjNetGenN ag Prab

The unconditional probability of state NetGenN+m, at say N + mth

time is denes as

PrfNetGenNm g

Nm
X

PrfNetGeni jNetGenN ag  PrfNetGenN ag

iN1

Nm
X

Prm
i  aa

10

iN1

where m = 1, . . ., 24 * 365  N and is based on present state at Nth

time is also required.
The value of NetGenN can vary from {max load, i.e. when PV
generation is zero} to {max PV generation, i.e. when the load is zero}.
Solar irradiation and Cloud Transient (CT) affect the PV generation
and hence affect the value of NetGenN.
Solar irradiance can be classied as Direct Normal Irradiation
(DNI), Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) and DIFfusion (DIF)
[34]. DNI dominates in Concentrated Solar Power plants and PV
tracking systems are designed to keep their surfaces perpendicular
to the suns direct rays. Also, the impact of DIF is negligible if the
residential PV panels are widely spaced (typical suburban or rural
scenario). In the residential PV systems, xed panels are used and

293

therefore the generation depends primarily on GHI. In this study,

variation of PV generation due to GHI alone is considered.
The effect of Cloud Transient (CT) on the solar generation can be
quantied using Clearness Index (CI) and Variability Index (VI). The
daily CI is the ratio of solar energy measured on a given surface to
the theoretical maximum energy on that same surface during a
clear sky day. The maximum value of CI is 1. Clear sky solar insolation is measured as normal distribution of the solar data for a
particular season. Peak of the distribution is taken from the mean
of solar data.

CI

measured Solar Insolation

Calculated Clear Sky Solar Insolation

11

On the other hand, VI is a ratio between the length of measured

irradiance plot (obtained from real time data) and clear sky irradiance plot (ideal normal distribution of solar irradiance) as given in
(12). The curve length between two consecutive points is measured using a line segment. VI index can vary from 1 to 25.

VI

Length of Measured Irradiance Plot

Length of Clear Sky Irradiance Plot

12

The normalized value of VI is calculated using (13). VI is divided

by the maximum VI for the season (VImax).

VInormalized

VI
VImax

13

CT can be modeled as inversely proportional to CI and proportional to VInormalized and can be represented as a linear combination
of CI inverse and VInormalized as shown in (14)

CT 0:5 

 
1
0:5  VInormalized
CI

14

Therefore, the effect of solar radiation (GHI alone) and CT will

reect in the value of NetGenN as shown in (15)

NetGenN

GHI
CT

15

Probability Density Function (PDF) is determined for the Net

Generation process using various NetGenN states for all N.
Although PV generation is considered as a normal distribution,
Net Generation process has a different characteristic. As peak
solar irradiation is available only for few hours in a day and load
demand is consistent throughout the day, the overall distribution
of Net Generation shows positive skewness and hence belongs
to the family of Pearson Distribution [30]. Depending on the higher
order moments (e.g. skewness, kurtosis), Pearson Distribution can
be of different types as shown in Table 1. PDF of a given Pearson
Distribution can be considered as F(x) = C0 + C1x + C2x2, with coefp
cients C0 = 4t2  3t1; C1 = t1 (t2 + 3) and C2 = 2t2  3t1  6,
where t1 is the square of skewness and t2 is kurtosis. Using t1,
t2 and x (another variable dened as C21/4C0C2), appropriate Pearson Distribution type can be determined. After determining the
p
mean (lNetGen), standard deviation (rNetGen), skewness ( m1 NetGen )
Table 1
Condition for different Pearson Distribution types.
Condition

Distribution type

t2 = 3
0<x<1
t2 < 3
x<0
t2 > 3

Standard normal distribution (Type 0)

Four parameter beta distribution (Type 1)
Symmetric four parameter beta distribution (Type 2)
Inverse Gamma Distribution with location scale (Type 5)
t-Distribution (Type 7)
Pearson IV distribution (Type 4) or F-distribution (Type 6)

Else

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M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

and kurtosis (m2 NetGen) of Net Generation process, the appropriate

distribution and hence the PDF is determined from the Pearson
family [35].
Using the net power generation from each bus, the mismatch
vector [DP; DQ], which is used to calculate voltage changes at each
bus using (16) [36].

 


DjVj
J1 J2 DP

J3 J4 DQ
Dd

spite of using maximum PV inverter capacity, loading level needs

to be decreased. Permitted loading level decreases from the maximum value (100%) with increasing R/X ratio. On the other hand,
higher resistive line (i.e. distribution line with high R/X ratio)
incurs higher losses. Incremental loss curve (increase in loss with
respect to unity R/X ratio) is also plotted against R/X ratio in the
same graph. This curve increases with R/X ratio. Intersection of
two curves, permitted loading curve and incremental loss
curve, gives RXcri on the X-axis. Overall process is graphically
explained for a test network in Simulation Results Section 5.

16

Considering n to be the set of states where bus voltages remain

within acceptable limit (6% of base value), whenever the voltages
are violated, states enter into a different state, say n. Additional
voltage control approach is required to take the process back into
the set n. If the voltage is violated at Kth time, then

K minfN : NetGenN 2 ng

4. Test network description

The proposed community based grid reinforcement is veried
using a test network consisting of an overhead residential feeder
supplying electricity to 12 houses in the community. Distance
between two consecutive buses (Fd) and distance between each
house and respective bus (d) is shown in Fig. 3. Different set of values are taken for these distances (d, Fd) and R/X ratio of the network
depending on the type of network (urban, rural). Usually for an
urban case, as houses are relatively close to each other, the distances (d, Fd) are considered to be 20 m and R/X ratio is considered
unity. In rural scenario, however Fd is 20 m and d is 100 m due to
widely spaced houses. R/X ratio is considered 2.8 in the backbone
feeder and that in the distribution line between each house and
respective bus is varied from 5 to 15.
Every house has rooftop of 6 kVA PV installed capacity. Actual
24 h PV generation prole (taken the day with maximum generation in year 2012) of two extreme seasons, summer and winter,
are shown in Fig. 4. The effect of cloud transients of PV generation
prole is considered in Section 5. During summer, peak load occurs
at 8 pm with a maximum load of 3 kW at a lagging Power Factor
(PF) of 0.8. On the other hand, two peaks i.e. morning peak and
evening peak, are observed in 24 h load prole during winter. At
evening peak, which is the highest between two peaks, load
reaches at 2.8 kW at 0.8 lagging PF. These typical data are collected
from an Australian Distribution Companys annual report [37].
Same prole is considered for all of the houses of that community.
Two houses connected with single bus posses the same characteristics. As a result, for calculation and plotting only six houses are
shown in the graphs.
In normal situation (without considering any kind of voltage
control), considering the load prole and PV generation (from
Fig. 4, considering maximum PV generation and peak demand of
summer proles only), voltage prole in each of the houses for
urban and rural cases are shown in Fig. 5. It is evident that the

17

The probability of recurrence in state n is calculated; where

again voltage control approach is required. Let us say k, an event
when voltage violation occurs at a particular time N. Total occurrences of voltage violation, i.e. total occurrences of change of stage
from n to n is determined and then probability of k is calculated as
below:

Prk PrfNetGenN 2 njNetGenK 2 ng for all K

18

Pr(k) indicates the percentage of time when voltage violation occurs

and hence requires additional voltage control. If Pr(k) is greater than
0.5, i.e. voltage violation occurs more than 50% of the time, then
additional voltage control methods such as RCPVI or the combination of RCPVI and droop based BES are required to keep the voltages
within the acceptable range. Even if Pr(k) is less than 0.5, voltage
violation still occurs and utilities may choose additional voltage
control methods. The cutoff value of Pr(k), say 0.5 in this study,
depends on the network parameters, PV generation and load prole.
The value can be determined by the DNSPs in a particular system
and may require extensive load ow studies.
3.2. Determination of RXcri
The key focus of this section is to determine a limit of R/X ratio
for which PV inverter reactive power capability is not sufcient to
improve the voltage dip during peak loading. To consider the worst
case scenario, peak demand period is chosen. Considering the
inverter capacity when sunlight is present (which is less than the
capacity when sunlight is absent) to cater the voltage dip gives
the worst possible scenario. Under this situation RXcri is determined graphically. If voltage is not within the acceptable limit in

Fd 2
Controller

11 kV/240 V

Fd 4

Fd

Fd

Signal from substation controller to PV system

Signal from PV system to substation controller
Fig. 3. Network model of the LV system.

Fd 6

5
d

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M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

Power (kW)

12

18

24

100

Percentage of days in a year (2012)

Load Profile (summer)

PVgen Profile (summer)
PVgen Profile (winter)
Load Profile (winter)

90

High variability (VI>12)

Moderate variability (3<VI<12)
Overcast (VI<3, CI<0.4)
Clear (VI<3, CI>0.4)

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

1 minute

Time (Hour)

Urban Voltage (pu)

Fig. 4. PV generation prole and load prole for 24 h.

1 hour

Fig. 6. Percentage of different types of days using CI and VI using 1 min, 15 min and
1 h solar data.

1.12
House 1/2
House 11/12

1.06

tion factor from the community members and variation in the

installed PV capacity among the community members.

5.1. Probabilistic estimation of PV generation

0.94
0.88
1

13

19

Time (Hour)
Rural Voltage (pu)

15 minute

Simulation time interval

1.12
1.06
1
0.94
0.88
1

13

19

Time (Hour)
Fig. 5. 24 Hour voltage prole for urban (top) and rural (bottom) case in normal
situation during summer.

voltage at house 11/12 at 12 noon is 1.11 pu and 1.125 pu, which is

well above the allowable range is 6% of the base value (as per Australian standards [37]). All the houses (except rst two houses for
both the cases) exceed their voltages from the highest allowable
range of 1.06 pu at 12 noon when load (1.875 kW) is much lower
than the peak generation (6 kW). At 8 pm when load peaks, PV
generation goes down and therefore there are low voltage problems. All houses (except three houses for the urban case and rst
two houses for the rural case) cross the lower limit. However, in
Fig. 5, the voltage prole of only rst and the last house of the network is shown.

5. Simulation results
Simulation results after applying Community Based Grid Reinforcement approach in the test network are demonstrated in this
section. This section includes the probabilistic estimation of PV
generation considering the indexes associated with cloud transient
and determination of the RXcri. After these analyses, required BES
sizing are determined considering several factors such as participa-

To simulate the worst case scenario, summer PV generation and

load proles are considered for the test network described in Section 4. To consider the impact of cloud transient on PV generation,
real data is taken from University of Queensland (UQ) [38]. CI and
VI are determined for the whole year 2012 using (11) and (12).
Using both the indices, four types of days are classied as (i)
High variability (with VI > 12), (ii) moderate variability
(3 6 VI 6 12), (iii) overcast (VI < 3 and CI < 0.4) and (iv) clear
(VI < 3 and CI > 0.4). CI and VI are calculated for 1 min, 15 min
and 1 h data and are shown in Fig. 6. It is seen that the variability
due to cloud transient is negligible while taking the hourly data.
For the determination of BES sizing, hourly data is considered as
BES does not need to charge/discharge every 15 min or so.
Using the hourly data, the probability distribution analysis is
performed as discussed in Section 3 above. It is found that the
Net Generation process satises the conditions for Pearson Type
5 distribution (Inverse Gamma Distribution with location parameter) with a Skewness and kurtosis of 0.833 and 2.81 respectively.
The actual hourly data is also plotted as a histogram to verify the
accuracy of the probability analysis. Fig. 7 shows the histogram
and the corresponding Pearson 5 distribution (a = 6.866,
b = 28.763, c = 5.28, the detailed equation for the Pearson 5 distribution is mentioned in Appendix A). The goodness of t for the
distribution is 0.07215 using KolmogorovSmirnov test, which
reassures that the Pearson 5 PDF is a good representation of the
actual solar generation and load prole.
The Pearson 5 PDF is used for the Net Generation process and
a nite set of states n is obtained. Using this data, the probability of
occurrence of voltage violations, Pr(k) is found to be 0.7. Therefore,
additional voltage control methods such as RCPVI alone or the
combination of RCPVI and BES is required to improve the voltage
prole.
5.2. Determination of RXcri
Fig. 8 shows the percentage of feeder loading level with increase
in R/X ratio for maximum reactive power injection and zero
reactive power injection. Also, with higher R/X ratio (higher than

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M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

Probability Density Function

0.2
0.18

BES sizing (kWh)

0.16

f (x)

0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06

0.04
2

0.02
0
-2

4
1

x
Histogram

90

60

Permitted Loading (%)

80

50

70
40

60
50

30

40
Loading at maximum Q injection
Loading at zero Q injection
Incremental Loss

20

20
10
10
0

0
3

R/X ratio
Fig. 8. Permitted loading and incremental loss variation with R/X ratio.

4.55), loading should be reduced to 70% of peak value to keep the

voltages in acceptable range. Moreover, same reactive injection
incurs higher losses in higher resistive lines. Plotting incremental
loss (increase in loss with respect to unity R/X) with R/X ratio variation is also shown in Fig. 8. After certain R/X ratio (above 4.55)
losses are too high (50% increase). Therefore it can be concluded
that, the effectiveness of PV inverters for voltage control is limited
if the R/X ratio of the feeder is higher than 4.55. Critical voltage
(Vcri) is determined as 1.03 pu using (6).
Also, considering 0.8 PF operation, 6 kVA inverter can deliver
4.8 kW of real power and 3.6 kVAR of reactive power (QPV max)
when solar radiation is present. During the absence of sunlight,
there is no real power and hence 6 kVAR can be used for reactive
compensation. QPV max is dened as:

Q PV

max

6 kVAR;

13

15

14
3.46

15
4.25

Table 2
Modication factor value for different R/X ratio.

Incremental Loss (%)

65

11

Fig. 9. BES sizing with R/X ratio.

100

R/X ratio

Fig. 7. Histogram and Pearson 5 distribution for Net Generation.

30

Pearson 5 (3P)

when solar irradiance is zero

3:6 kVAR; when solar irradiance is not zero

19

5.3. Determination of BES sizing

The BES sizing is determined using the process described above.
Required BES sizing is shown for all the R/X ratios higher than RXcri in
Fig. 9 (considering the BES round trip efciency of 0.9). Tremendous

R/X ratio
mmf

11
1.56

12
2.12

13
2.75

increase in the BES sizing in observed for feeders with R/X ratio
beyond 10. High R/X lines have higher losses and hence worst voltage prole. A modication factor (mmf) is multiplied with the droop
coefcient (mvd) to calculate the required BES sizing. mmf for higher
R/X ratio is listed in Table 2.
Required BES sizing depends on the participation of the community members as well. If some of the community members do
not wish to participate in the grid reinforcement process, other
members will need to install higher capacity of BES. This capacity
of BES increases with the decreased participation from the community members as shown in Fig. 10.
BES capacity also varies with the position of the non-participating houses. Fig. 11 shows the required BES capacity in the network
if the position of two non-participating houses changes from bus 1
to bus 6 (end of the feeder). With the increase in distance along the
feeder, BES capacity from other houses increases. If the houses
towards the end of the feeder choose not to participate in the grid
reinforcement process, the network would require higher BES
capacity from rest of the houses to maintain the acceptable voltage
prole. R/X ratio beyond 10 requires mmf.
The effect of different capacity of PV inverters on the required
BES capacity for each house is summarized in Table 3.
With the decrease in the total generation, BES capacity also
decreases. The total generation of 72 kW from the residential PV
(6 kW * 12 houses) require total BES capacity of 22.4 kW h
(1.87 kW h * 12 houses).

5.4. Improvement of voltage prole with coordinated control of PV and

BES systems
The hourly load ow simulations on the given test network are
performed and shown in Fig. 12. The improvement in the voltage
prole of the distribution feeder can be observed. For simplicity,
the voltage prole of rst and the last house in the network is
shown. The voltages of all the houses are within the acceptable
limit, which coordinated control of PV and BES is used.

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M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

Urban Voltage (pu)

4
3.5

2.5

R/X=5
R/X=6
R/X=7
R/X=8
R/X=9
R/X=10

2
1.5

0.5

25

35

45

55

65

House 11/12

0.94
7

13

19

Time (Hour)

0
15

House 1/2

75

85

Not Participating members (Percentage)

Rural Voltage (pu)

BES Capacity (kWh)

1.06

1.06

0.94
1

Fig. 10. BES capacity with percentage of non-participating members.

13

19

Time (Hour)
Fig. 12. 24 Hour voltage prole for urban (top) and rural (bottom) case with PV and
BES system.

6
5.5

R/X=5
R/X=6
R/X=7
R/X=8
R/X=9
R/X=10

BES Capacity (kWh)

4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Bus 1

Bus 2

Bus 3

Bus 4

Bus 5

Bus 6

Position of Non Participating members

Fig. 11. BES capacity with the position of non-participating houses.

distance i.e. nearly 75% of feeder [39]) in Fig 3. For the given network, 65 kVAR is required, which requires investment of $3500
3750 from the DNSP (assuming $5055/kVAR [40]). Whereas, considering ZnBr based BES system were to be used with PV systems,
each house holder will have to invest $670, requiring a total of
$8040 for a given test network (Flow batteries are the most appropriate batteries to be used for these purposes due to their continual
efciency with deep discharging and costs around US $335/kW h
[41]) .
Hence, although one time investment in D-STATCOM is less
when compared with total investment in BES ($8040), however,
BES provides long term technical benets in terms of peak shaving.
D-STATCOM can regulate voltage variation with reactive compensation only and cannot supply real power during peak demand.
Moreover, new technological innovation in the batteries may bring
down cost signicantly, making the proposed scheme economically attractive.
7. Simulation results with real network data

Table 3
BES capacity with different set of PV generations for all the houses.
House

H 1/2

H 3/4

H 5/6

H 7/8

H 9/10

H 11/12

Total

PV gen (kW)
BES (kW h)
PV gen (kW)
BES (kW h)
PV gen (kW)
BES (kW h)
PV gen (kW)
BES (kW h)
PV gen (kW)
BES (kW h)

5.48
1
5.21
0.9
2.66
0.8
0.09
0.4
2.34
0.3

0.91
1
2.51
0.9
0.64
0.8
0.26
0.4
1.45
0.3

4.95
1
2.4
0.9
5.77
0.8
1.01
0.4
2.42
0.3

3.23
1
1.56
0.9
0.03
0.8
3.89
0.4
0.58
0.3

5.98
1
4.8
0.9
4.65
0.8
4.39
0.4
0.79
0.3

0.47
1
2.59
0.9
4.9
0.8
3.89
0.4
5.65
0.3

42.05
12
38.13
10.8
37.3
9.6
27.07
4.8
26.47
3.6

6. Economic perspective
Selection of a suitable battery type plays an important role to
justify the economic benet of integrating PV with BES system
for voltage control purposes over conventional techniques such
as D-STATCOM.
The optimum reactive power requirement to eliminate voltage
violations for the test network is determined iteratively using load
ow studies by placing D-STATCOM at the 5th bus (two third the

The developed algorithm during the research is applied in an

Australian DNSP network to reect its validity. Although the algorithm is tested with a simplied network, DNSP network with variable distance and R/X ratio will give better validation of the
developed algorithm. A portion of rural network is chosen from
an Australian DNSP in South-East Queensland region (Shown in
Fig. 13). Detail network information is given in Table 4. Detail network data shows different route length, resistance (R) reactance
(X) values and R/X ratio for different line segments depending on
the type of conductors.
PV generation prole and load prole is considered the same
shown in Fig. 4 with randomness associated with them. Though
simulation is run for all busses, the far most bus (P6134-H) is considered during plotting for voltages. Voltage violation is more
prominent towards the end of the feeder; hence this bus is facing
the worst voltage violation problem. In Fig. 14, three plots are
shown after applying the algorithm in the DNSP network. These
plots show the voltages, reactive power absorption/supply and
accumulated stored energy in the integrated BES. The voltages
are excellent maintaining the acceptable limit (within 6% of
nominal voltage i.e. 1.060.94 pu). From the 2nd and 3rd plot, it
is also evident that as soon as the voltage reaches Vcri (around

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M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

Fig. 13. Rural network (collected from an Australian DNSP in South-East Queensland region).

Table 4
Network parameter list for the selected rural network.
To site

Conductors

P17074-F
P6130-J
P64240-D
P17072-H
P14509-E
P17071-G
P6138-G
P6139-F
P13848-G
P6137-I
P42377-C
P6135-J
P7248-H
P6134-H

P17075-F
P17074-F
P6130-J
P64240-D
P17072-H
P14509-E
P17071-G
P6138-G
P6139-F
P13848-G
P6137-I
P42377-C
P6135-J
P7248-H

7/.080 COPPER (7/14)

WASP 7/.173 AAC LV
WASP 7/.173 AAC LV
WASP 7/.173 AAC LV
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)
WASP 7/.173 AAC LV
7/.080 COPPER (7/14)

1.06
1.02
0.98
0.94

Stored kWh

Supplied kVAR

Voltage (pu)

From site

LV

LV
LV
LV
LV
LV
LV
LV
LV
LV

Route length (m)

Pos seq R (X/km)

Pos seq X (X/km)

R/X ratio

62
18
38
38
76
64
54
94
50
72
104
78
38
78

0.90
0.34
0.34
0.34
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.34
0.90

0.23
0.31
0.31
0.31
0.23
0.23
0.23
0.23
0.23
0.23
0.23
0.23
0.31
0.23

0.0555
0.0060
0.0128
0.0128
0.0681
0.0573
0.0484
0.0842
0.0448
0.0645
0.0931
0.0699
0.0128
0.0699

0.0140
0.0056
0.0117
0.0117
0.0171
0.0144
0.0122
0.0212
0.0113
0.0162
0.0234
0.0176
0.0117
0.0176

3.98
1.09
1.09
1.09
3.98
3.98
3.98
3.98
3.98
3.98
3.98
3.98
1.09
3.98

House connected to P6134-H

12

18

24

12

18

24

12

18

24

6
1
-4
10
5
0

Time (Hour)
Fig. 14. Voltage prole (for connected to bus P6134-H), supplied reactive power
prole and stored energy prole.

9.0010.00 h), excess generation from PV is started to store in corresponding BES. In parallel, reactive power is absorbed by PV inverter in a coordinated way to limit the voltage in peak generation (12
noon). This stored energy is supplied to the corresponding house in
coordination with reactive power supply from PV inverter to keep
the voltage within lower acceptable limit during peak demand
time (19.00 h). Different houses have different requirement of
reactive power absorption/supply (shown in 2nd plot, Fig. 14),
however the accumulated energy stored plot is almost same for
all the houses (shown in 3rd plot, Fig. 14) to ensure same BES
sizing.
On the other hand, Fig. 15 has two plots showing the hourly
stored energy (between 9.00 and 16.00 h) and hourly supplied
energy (between 17.00 and 23.00 h) for the BES connected with
bus P6134-H. The plots show that all the stored energies are supplied back to corresponding hour on daily basis.
From all these gures the conclusion can be made that, voltage
prole is perfectly maintained for a rural network with signicant

M.N. Kabir et al. / Applied Energy 134 (2014) 290300

Hourly Supplied
Energy (kWh)

f x; a; b

expb=x  c
bCax  c=ba1

References

1
0

12

18

24

18

24

Time (Hour)

Hourly Supplied
Energy (kWh)

299

12

Time (Hour)
Fig. 15. Hourly stored energy and hourly supplied energy prole.

variability in network data even for the worst voltage scenario

using the developed algorithm.
8. Conclusion
This paper presents a novel community based grid reinforcement approach, which is a comprehensive planning framework
for distribution grids with increased penetration of rooftop PV generations that impose both uncertainties and risks in system operation. Probabilistic analysis is incorporated to take into account the
intermittencies of PV generations. Impacts of non-participation
from community members and variation in installed PV generation
are also investigated. Outcomes from community based grid reinforcement methodology are, (i) to identify the scenarios where
additional voltage control is required, (ii) to determine critical R/
X ratio to introduce droop based BES with the use of RCPVI, (iii)
to determine required BES sizing. The novelty of the proposed
methodology is the active participation of community members
which gives mutual benets to community members as well as
DNSP. Choice of the appropriate control depends on the network
parameters, PV generation and load prole. Higher resistive feeders require the combination of RCPVI and droop based BES for
effective voltage control. Economic benet of having BES is also
described in the paper. This study proposed a solution to the problem caused by excess penetration of rooftop PVs, which has grown
tremendously in the last few years due to government subsidies
and declining cost of PVs. Community Based Grid reinforcement
methodology encourages network operators to seek active participation of community members to resolve the problem.
Appendix A
The PDF for Inverse Gamma Distribution is dened over the
support x > 0 as,

f x; a; b

expb=x
bCax=ba1

where a and b are shape parameter and scale parameter respectively. Ca is the gamma distribution of a. The location parameter
(c) needs to be incorporated in this distribution to take care of
the skewness. Thus the distribution becomes the Pearson 5 distribution (Inverse Gamma Distribution with location parameter).
The PDF is now dened over the range c < x<+1 as,

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