English

Distributed Online Feedback Optimization for Real-time Distribution System Voltage Regulation

Systems and Control 2025-07-16 v4 Systems and Control

Abstract

We investigate the real-time voltage regulation problem in distribution systems employing online feedback optimization (OFO) with short-range communication between physical neighbours. OFO does not need an accurate grid model nor estimated consumption of non-controllable loads, affords fast calculations, and demonstrates robustness to uncertainties and disturbances, which render it particularly suitable for real-time distribution system applications. However, many OFO controllers require centralized communication, making them susceptible to single-point failures. This paper proposes a distributed OFO design based on a nested feedback optimization strategy and analyzes its convergence. The strategy preserves end-users' privacy by keeping voltage data local. Numerical study results demonstrate that the proposed design achieves effective voltage regulation and outperforms other distributed and local approaches.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.02487,
  title  = {Distributed Online Feedback Optimization for Real-time Distribution System Voltage Regulation},
  author = {Sen Zhan and Nikolaos G. Paterakis and Wouter van den Akker and Anne van der Molen and Johan Morren and Han Slootweg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.02487},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2025

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:16:13.104Z