Integrated Framework for Advanced Voltage Management in High Renewable Penetration Systems: From Reactive Power Coordination to Look-Ahead Optimization

This paper presents the Reactive Power Coordination System (RPCS): An Integrated

Framework for Advanced Voltage Management an Integrated Framework for Advanced

Voltage Management, consisting of two tightly coordinated optimization systems:

1. Real-Time Reactive Power Coordination System (RT-RPCS) – a real-time mixedinteger optimization engine that dispatches reactive power devices over a near-term horizon (e.g., 4–6 hours ahead) while enforcing contingency constraints to ensure voltage and reactive reserve adequacy under credible N-1 events.

2. Look-Ahead Voltage Optimization Tool (LA-RPCS) – a multi-hour, inter-temporal optimization layer that smooths voltage trajectories, enforces temporal constraints, and reduces control device wear.

The framework addresses deficiencies observed in recent blackout events — notably the

Spanish Peninsular blackout on 28 April 2025 and the Chile nationwide blackout on 25 February 2025 — where IBR-driven voltage instability escalated rapidly due to a lack of predictive, coordinated reactive power management.

Drawing from field-tested deployments (inspired by the All-Island Power System implementation of RPCS in Ireland/Northern Ireland) and large-scale simulations, we show that the proposed framework:

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• reduces voltage violation deviations and oscillations, mitigates MVAr flow violations, minimizes uncoordinated switching of reactive devices, enhances operational resilience in high-renewable conditions, and provides system operators with actionable, automated decision support. This work contributes to C2 PS1 by providing a complete, operator-oriented methodology combining real-time actionability with predictive situational awareness.