Co-optimising distribution network adequacy and security by simultaneous utilisation of network reconfiguration and distributed energy resources

With the evolution of smart grids, penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) in the distribution networks has become ever-increasing problem. To improve network reliability, the complexity of the two important aspects of adequacy and security must be well assessed. There is a trade-off between adequacy of DERs, and the distribution network security, i.e. improving the adequacy can reduce the security. In this study, enhancement of the distribution network adequacy and security is proposed. In this regard, capacity of simultaneous reconfiguration and DERs sizing are utilised to improve the adequacy and security of an active distribution network. In the reconfiguration process, graph theory concept is adopted to implement a fast reconfiguration method. Since DERs are active, a combined bus and line security index is used to overcome security concerns of their existence. The IEEE 33-bus distribution network as a widely used standard test system in reconfiguration studies, and a practical 83-bus distribution network of Taiwan Power Company (TPC) which is a part of a real distribution network, are used to test the performance of the proposed method. The simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed framework.