A Practical Controller-Aware LDC Parameter Design Method for SVRs Considering Bidirectional Power Flow

The increasing penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs), particularly photovoltaic (PV) ones, has introduced significant challenges in distribution system voltage regulation due to bidirectional power flows and rapid voltage fluctuations. Consequently, conventional step voltage regulator (SVR) control schemes based on static line drop compensation (LDC) parameters are no longer sufficient to maintain stable voltage profiles under such dynamic operating conditions. This paper proposes a method for deriving bidirectional LDC parameters that can be directly implemented in practical SVR controllers by incorporating the operational characteristics and parameter structure of real SVR devices in distribution feeders with high DER penetration. The proposed method determines forward and reverse LDC parameters separately by considering deadband characteristics of practical SVR controllers, depending on the direction of power flow. To incorporate a piecewise control structure corresponding to bidirectional power flow conditions, the LDC parameter optimization problem is formulated as a mixed-integer quadratic programming (MIQP) problem. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through MATLAB R2024b(MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA)-based simulations on a distribution feeder under various load conditions and PV penetration scenarios. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves superior voltage regulation performance compared to conventional single LDC methods and piecewise LDC approaches that do not explicitly consider SVR operational characteristics.