Investigating the effects of Conservation Voltage Reduction on UK-type residential networks

In the smart grid era, utilities need to achieve a more secure, sustainable and efficient power system network. Load management techniques have been used to achieve this, to reduce peak demand and which may also defer the need for building extra generating capacity. One such technique performed by the utility for peak demand reduction is Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR). This paper investigates the effects of carrying out CVR (open-loop) on UK-type residential feeders via OLTCs (On Load Tap Changers). The effects were analyzed in the context of peakdemand reduction, overall network efficiency and transformer losses. Load profiles of residential consumers were modeled considering two load scenarios (with different ZIP parameters) and the networks used which were of different length and topology were modeled with OpenDSS. Time-step simulations were performed using MATLAB and the results obtained show that the amount of demand savings achievable is dependent on load composition, the time of day and the season effected. This research shows the CVR factor as a dynamic factor indicating how it varies throughout a day which is an improvement of previous works showing a single value.