Development of Automatic Voltage Regulator for Low‐Voltage Distribution Systems

SUMMARY This paper presents the development of a new type of voltage regulator that can adequately maintain the voltage supplied to customers, dealing with the problem of voltage control that accompanies the widespread use of photovoltaic power generation systems. The newly developed device is a pole‐mounted voltage regulator consisting of a step‐down transformer that converts from high voltage to low voltage and a series transformer for voltage compensation. A demonstration test conducted at the CRIEPI Akagi Test Center confirmed that the voltage control function of the proposed voltage regulator is satisfactory, based on the proposed control algorithm. Simulation analysis, under the assumption of clustered installation of photovoltaic power generation systems, confirmed that the introduction of the proposed voltage regulator allows the system voltage to be adequately maintained and makes full photovoltaic power generation possible without suppressing the output. We anticipate that our proposed voltage regulator will be effective for adequately regulating the voltage in low‐voltage distribution systems and will effectively promote even more widespread photovoltaic power generation.