Challenges of Developing Situational Awareness in Active Distribution Systems

Abstract

The increasing penetration of distributed generation poses significant challenges for the ideal and safe operation of distribution systems, adding variability and uncertainty to modern networks. New methodologies need to be developed to reduce the negative impacts of distributed generation on the distribution system and to improve operators’ situational awareness in the control center. Hence, this paper presents a critical review of the main challenges that operators face in developing situational awareness in the operation of active distribution systems. Besides technological limitations, the bibliography review shows that the lack of standard features regarding operational requirements for security, quality, and performance cause inadequate situational awareness of the network. In this context, the performance of eight indexes representing the system’s operational criteria is analyzed in the IEEE 34-bus test system through the variation of the penetration level of distributed generation, changes in system loading, and network reconfiguration. The results highlight the importance of a complete picture of the system for situational awareness to help the operator’s decision-making during the dynamic network operation.