A Power Fluctuation Smoothing Method for Distribution Networks considering Flexible Loads Hierarchical Dispatch

As the installation capacity of distributed renewable energy sources has been growing rapidly in recent years, it significantly increases the difficulties in smoothing power fluctuation for distribution networks due to the intermittence and fluctuation of renewable energy. Although tapping the dispatch potential of flexible loads participating in the power regulation in distribution networks is an effective measure to solve the problem, massive number and small individual capacity of flexible loads have made it difficult to implement in a collaborative way. In this paper, based on smoothing power fluctuation scenario, the massive dispersed heterogeneous flexible loads are clustered at first to realize the decision variables degradation and resources hierarchical dispatch. Based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, a smoothing power fluctuation control method is then proposed considering the hierarchical dispatch of flexible loads with economic optimization as the objective and power fluctuation rate as the coupling constraint for distribution networks. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively reduce the dimensionality of the flexible load variables and the difficulty of solving the problem, and improves the interaction capability between sources and loads and flexible controllability of distribution networks.