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Source-grid-load-storage multi-terminal collaborative control technology for photovoltaic distribution network based on DQN

State Grid Gansu Electric Power Company Jiayuguan Power Supply Company, Jiayuguan 735100, China

Received: 16 Dec 2025; Revised: 17 Aug 2026; Accepted: 19 Oct 2026; Published: 1 Nov 2026.
Editor(s): H Hadiyanto
Open Access Copyright (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Centre of Biomass and Renewable Energy (CBIORE)
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

As the photovoltaic penetration rate continues to increase, the dynamic characteristics of the multi-dimensional coupling of source, grid, load and storage in the distribution network have become increasingly significant. Traditional control methods often face response lag and regulation instability in this multi-time-varying scenario. Therefore, the study proposes a source-grid-load-storage multi-terminal collaborative control strategy for photovoltaic distribution network. A centralized and distributed two-level collaborative architecture is established to enable deep reinforcement learning agents to learn the optimal power regulation strategy. The multi-time scale control of voltage regulator taps, photovoltaic, energy storage systems, and static reactive power compensation devices is coordinated to achieve voltage optimization and efficient energy allocation. A comparative test was conducted using the IEEE 33-node system as the simulation platform. The results showed that the proposed method could increase the peak photovoltaic output by about 20%-25% on the power generation side, and the average power generation utilization rate reached 93%. The load transfer rate increased to 26.2%, and the load balance dropped to 0.21. In terms of voltage stability, the system fluctuation was controlled within 0.15 p.u., and the steady-state error was less than 0.01 p.u. In typical operating scenarios, deep reinforcement learning control increased the energy storage utilization rate to 86.3%-88.9% and reduced the network loss rate to 3.1%-3.5%. The results show that this method is significantly better than the comparison strategy in terms of multi-source collaboration and dynamic stability, and provides an efficient and intelligent optimization solution for the safe and economical operation of high-penetration photovoltaic distribution networks.

Keywords: Photovoltaic distribution network; Deep reinforcement learning; Source-grid-load-storage collaborative control; Voltage control; Energy management

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