Representation of Voltage-controlled Devices in Reduced Modeling of Distribution Networks

The number of distributed energy resources is continuously increasing, which makes the study of distribution systems increasingly demanding; a reduced yet accurate network modeling could be beneficial in terms of computational effort, and of information treatment burden as well. With a traditional approach, the presence of numerous voltage-controlled devices limits the possibility of obtaining a significantly reduced representation of the network, due to the need to keep the voltage of the nodes to which they are connected. In this paper, we propose two approaches for obtaining and solving the reduced model of a distribution network with numerous devices with voltage-controlled power injection. The application of the two approaches to four different sized test cases highlights the acceptability of the approximations introduced by the reduction of the model and the computational aspects of the solution of the reduced model. The results put in evidence the practicability of the proposed approaches, as well as the associated computational benefits.