Incentive Control Signals to Support Resilient Distribution System Operations

Reconfiguring power distribution after an outage is commonly performed to restore service to the maximum number of end-use customers. However, the ability to reconfigure the system can be constrained due to voltage and thermal limits on equipment. This paper presents two transactive approaches that can be deployed to increase operational flexibility through mitigation of local constraints (voltage and thermal) by engaging the reactive-power capabilities of non-utility resources to increase the number of switching options and load restoration. The first approach enables energizing additional line segments, and the second approach enables reducing the voltage differential across reclosers enabling additional switching options. The developed methods are demonstrated on a model of an operational 12.47-kV distribution system with four distribution circuits and 3000+ electrical nodes. Simulations are conducted using the Hierarchical Engine for Large-scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation (HELICS)-based framework to evaluate the effectiveness of the two methods to improve system reconfiguration. The performance of the developed transactive algorithms is evaluated under a range of operating conditions, including both normal and outage conditions. The proposed transactive approaches resulted in additional switching options for the distribution system operator, which, in-turn, yielded to an increase in additional load restored thereby improving the resiliency of the distribution system.