The future grid is evolving into a smart distribution network that integrates multiple distributed energy resources ensuring at the same time reliable operation and increased power quality. In recent years, many research papers have addressed the voltage violation problems that arise from the high penetration of distributed generation. In view of the transition to active network management and the increase in the quantity of collected data, distributed control schemes have been proposed that use pervasive communications to deal with the complexity of smart grid. This paper reviews the recent publications on distributed and decentralized voltage control of smart distribution networks, summarizes their control models, and classifies the solution methodologies. Moreover, it comments on issues that should be addressed in the future and the perspectives of industry applications.

The stochastic nature of renewable energy sources has increased the need for intraday trading in electricity markets. Intradaymarkets provide the possibility to the market participants to modify their market positions based on their updated forecasts. In this paper, we propose a multistage stochastic programming approach to model the trading of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP), comprising thermal, wind and hydro power plants, in the Continuous Intraday (CID) electricity market. The order clearing in the CID market is enabled by the two presented models, namely the Immediate Order Clearing (IOC) and the Partial Order Clearing (POC). We tackle the proposed problem with a modified version of Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming (SDDP) algorithm. The functionality of our model is demonstrated by performing illustrative and large scale case studies and comparing the performance with a benchmark model.

The increased complexity of the modern distribution system caused by the installation of a large number of distributed energy resources, dictates the necessity for novel, decentralised schemes for the grid operation. In this study, a fully distributed method for the economic dispatch (ED) problem is proposed that takes into account distribution losses. The solution is reached using only local computations and exchange of messages between adjacent nodes without the need of a central coordinating entity. The algorithm presents plug‐and‐play capabilities and is self‐triggered. More specifically, the ED is formulated as a resource allocation problem and a fully distributed algorithm is employed to acquire the solution that is based on the replicator equation model. It takes into account the technical constraints of the generators and it is extended in order to integrate the distributed calculation of active power losses using distributed estimation of the loss penalty factors. Guarantees for the convergence and optimality of the proposed algorithm are provided along with numerical results that demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithm.

The increased penetration of intermittent distributed generation in distribution grids causes occasional voltage variations. The ICT infrastructure can provide the appropriate means for novel techniques to handle this kind of problems. The proposed algorithm utilizes a power flow model of the distribution grid and integrates the detection and the solution of the voltage constraint violation into a distributed double layered framework. The optimal solution of the related resource allocation problem involves the control of flexible microgenerators and loads, which can assist the grid by providing ancillary services for voltage control. The method is based on a gradient descent and a consensus algorithm for the distributed calculation of the Lagrangian multipliers. The proposed algorithm is tested in different scenarios in order to demonstrate its effectiveness.