improving the resiliency of electrical distribution networks by optimal embedding switchable capacitor banks in microgrids based on a convex model

The importance of durability and sustainability in electrical energy, particularly in emergency conditions, has led to the development of operational techniques aimed at improving the serviceability of electrical distribution networks (edns). operating the electrical distribution network as a smaller, islanded system in the form of a microgrid (mg) is one of the key enhancement methods that has gained attention. each microgrid is subject to specific constraints that must be addressed. moreover, the increasing penetration of renewable distributed generation (dg) units introduces additional limitations. the limited reactive power generation by synchronous dgs within each mg leads to higher levels of load shedding. this paper investigates the resiliency of edns with a focus on microgrid formation strategies. to achieve this, the limitations of mg formation, including the use of wind turbines, photovoltaic units as renewable dgs, and energy storage systems, are considered. the application of switchable capacitor banks (scbs) is proposed and formulated to meet these requirements. all equations are convex and formulated within the gams environment using mixed-integer quadratically-constrained programming (miqcp). the proposed framework is evaluated using the ieee 69-node test system, considering various case studies. the results show that the economic deployment of scbs in the mg formation of the studied edn leads to a reduction of the objective function by approximately 13.6%, a loss reduction of about 26.1%, and a significant increase in the penetration of renewable resources by 285.6%.