Page 157 - Decision Making Applications in Modern Power Systems

Chapter 5

Modeling and simulation

of active electrical distribution
systems using the OpenDSS

Luiz Carlos Ribeiro, Junior, Francinei Lucas Vieira,
Benedito Donizeti Bonatto, Antonio Carlos Zambroni de Souza and
Paulo Fernando Ribeiro
Institute of Electrical System and Energy, Federal University of Itajuba, UNIFEI, Itajub´ a, Brazil

5.1 Introduction
The passive nature of the distribution grid is changing; since the number of dis-
tributed generation (DG) units in the world has been increasing exponentially, it
is expected that this growth will continue for the next few years. New possibili-
ties arise with the structural changes of the electric system, such as the develop-
ment of smart grids with electric vehicles (EVs), storage systems, and a high
interaction between utilities and customers, which is already something real.
The main sources of DG in the distribution grid, such as photovoltaic
(PV) and wind power, have peculiar characteristics that bring to the planning
of the distribution system some technical challenges. Several problems are
reported in the literature, for example, overvoltage problems caused by
reverse power flow, possible failures in the protection system, and an
increase of harmonic distortion levels.
Some aspects not widely approached are the social issues caused by new
technologies, because they may impact, directly or indirectly, the people’s
lives. Thus the social impact should always be a topic to be considered in
the design of engineering projects.
How the modeling of the new distribution grids is treated has also been
changed in recent times. Powerful distribution system analysis tools with dis-
tributed source models have been developed. In order to analyze the beha-
viors of the new distribution grid system, a powerful distribution analysis
tool along with the distributed source models is essential for better accuracy
and reliability of power system planning and operation. The software used in

Decision Making Applications in Modern Power Systems. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816445-7.00005-0
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