Receding horizon voltage control in LV networks with energy storage

The ever-growing penetration of low carbon technologies is causing important modifications of standard power flow patterns in electricity distribution grids. As a consequence, low voltage networks are frequently experiencing over- and undervoltages, resulting in a poor voltage quality at customers' premises. In this context, energy storage is deemed a key technology to meet power quality requirements. In this paper, a voltage control algorithm based on a receding horizon scheme is developed to operate the energy storage systems deployed in a low voltage network. The proposed procedure requires few measurements to forecast the future state of the network and anticipate possible voltage problems. The algorithm is applied to real data from an Italian low voltage network, consisting of demand and generation profiles which determine over- and undervoltages in the absence of voltage control. The obtained results highlight the potential of the proposed approach to reduce the amount of voltage violations over time.