Evaluation of conservation voltage reduction with analytic hierarchy process: A decision support framework in grid operations planning

This paper presents a systematic framework to evaluate the performance of conservation voltage reduction (CVR) by determining suitable substations for CVR in operations planning. Existing CVR planning practice generally only focuses on the energy saving aspect without taking other underlying attributes into account, i.e., network topology and reduced voltage effects on other substations. To secure the desired operating reserve and avoid any adverse impacts, these attributes should be considered for implementing CVR more effectively. This research develops a practical decision-making framework based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to quantify several of the aforementioned attributes. Candidate substations for CVR deployment are prioritized such that performances are compared in terms of power transfer distribution factor (PTDF), voltage sensitivity factor (VSF), and CVR factor. In addition, to meet a specified reserve requirement, an integer programming approach is adopted to select potential substations for CVR implementations. Case studies for a Korean electric power system under diverse operating conditions are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. © 2016 by the authors.