High levels of penetration of distributed generation and aggressive reactive
power compensation may result in the reversal of power flows in future
distribution grids. The voltage stability of these operating conditions may be
very different from the more traditional power consumption regime. This paper
focused on demonstration of multistability phenomenon in radial distribution
systems with reversed power flow, where multiple stable equilibria co-exist at
the given set of parameters. The system may experience transitions between
different equilibria after being subjected to disturbances such as short-term
losses of distributed generation or transient faults. Convergence to an
undesirable equilibrium places the system in an emergency or \textit{in
extremis} state. Traditional emergency control schemes are not capable of
restoring the system if it gets entrapped in one of the low voltage equilibria.
Moreover, undervoltage load shedding may have a reverse action on the system
and can induce voltage collapse. We propose a novel pulse emergency control
strategy that restores the system to the normal state without any interruption
of power delivery. The results are validated with dynamic simulations of IEEE
13-bus feeder performed with SystemModeler software. The dynamic models can
be also used for characterization of the solution branches via a novel approach
so-called the admittance homotopy power flow method.Comment: 13 pages, 22 figures. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 2015, in pres
