Closure to "Short-Term Reactive Power Planning to Minimize Cost of Energy Losses Considering PV Systems"

The authors would like to sincerely thank M. Khalid for his thoughtful discussion on our paper [1]. He raises important and excellent points regarding various critical issues encountered with the efficacy of utilizing the reactive power support (RPS) of photovoltaic (PV) inverters. There have been ongoing research works and updates on studying and analyzing PV inverters from different viewpoints: operation stage, planning stage, and the emerging smart inverters' functionalities and capabilities in the IEEE Standard 1547 [2]. The proposed planning model in [1] is conducted at the "planning stage", and aims to incorporate the investment decisions of utilizing RPS options from the existing/new inverters of utility/customer-owned PV installations, as alternative solutions to installing utility-specialized RPS assets (e.g., cheap capacitor banks (CBs) and expensive reactive power compensators). The conventional RPS planning studies aim to find the optimal size and location of utility-specialized assets (e.g., CBs) to achieve considerable technical-benefits for improving network performance and transfer capability (e.g., improving voltage profile and power factor, reducing network losses, relieving MVA-capacity of upstream transformers, increasing power transfer capability, etc.) and thus, deferring network upgrades to supply extra demand. As reported in [1], Section II, the proposed planning model provides utility planners with considerable advantages to achieve the aforementioned technical benefits of RPS, compared to the conventional approach, such as having short-term, cost-efficient and effective RPS solutions that are flexible and adaptable with the increasing connections of PV installations. Please, find our response to the raised comments.