Robust Operation of Soft Open Points in Active Distribution Networks with High Penetration of Photovoltaic Integration

Distributed generators including photovoltaic (PV) panels have been integrated dramatically in active distribution networks (ADNs). Due to the strong volatility and uncertainty, the high penetration of PV generation immensely exacerbates the conditions of voltage violation in ADNs. However, the emerging flexible interconnection technology based on soft open points (SOPs) provides increased controllability and flexibility to the system operation. For fully exploiting the regulation ability of SOPs to address the problems caused by PV, this paper proposes a robust optimization method to achieve the robust optimal operation of SOPs in ADNs. A two-stage adjustable robust optimization model is built to tackle the uncertainties of PV outputs, in which robust operation strategies of SOPs are generated to eliminate the voltage violations and reduce the power losses of ADNs. A column-and-constraint generation algorithm is developed to solve the proposed robust optimization model, which are formulated as second-order cone program to facilitate the accuracy and computation efficiency. Case studies on the modified IEEE 33-node system and comparisons with the deterministic optimization approach are conducted to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.