In this paper, a comprehensive review of recent researches carried out in the area of optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) is presented. The literature review consists of a classification of ORPD problem, along with a survey on the strengths and weaknesses of different models proposed previously. Also, a stochastic multi‐objective ORPD (SMO‐ORPD) model is studied under load and wind power generation uncertainties. A two‐stage stochastic model is employed for dealing with the uncertainties. The considered objective functions are real power losses (PLs) and operation & maintenance (O&M) cost of wind farms (WFs). The proposed SMO‐ORPD problem is solved by considering voltage stability index (i.e. Lmax index). Besides, ɛ‐constraint technique and fuzzy satisfying approach are employed to pick up the best compromise solution. Two cases are considered as follows: (i) voltage stability relaxed SMO‐ORPD, and (ii) voltage stability constrained (VSC) SMO‐ORPD. In this study, reactive power compensation devices are modelled as discrete control variables. Hence, the proposed SMO‐ORPD problem is modelled as a mixed‐integer non‐linear programming optimisation problem. The SMO‐ORPD problem is implemented in GAMS environment, and it is examined on the IEEE 30 and 118‐bus test systems. The numerical results substantiate that in the case of VSC‐SMO‐ORPD, active PLs are higher than the other case, whereas O&M cost of WFs is not different considerably.

This paper summarizes the three-year technical activities of the IEEE Task Force (TF) on behind-the-meter (BTM) distributed energy resources (DERs): estimation, uncertainty quantification, and control. The potential grid services from BTM DERs are discussed in detail. The paper also reviews the state-of-the-art for BTM DERs visibility, uncertainty quantification, and, optimization and control. Furthermore, different aspects of the market structures associated with BTM DERs are covered, including emerging market and business models. Finally, needs and recommendations are provided for additional areas such as system protection, computing capabilities, algorithm development, market structure design, cyberinfrastructure and security, and hardware and software developments.