Due to the advent of distributed energy resources at distribution level, utility companies face new challenges in terms of voltage control. Existing works in the literature have proposed the use of demand side management (DSM) to provide ancillary services to the grid. Some works explored the use of thermal inertia of buildings to tackle the frequency regulation problem. Existing DSM strategies ignore the potential service loads can provide for the Volt/Var control (VVC) problem. The ability of smart buildings to provide reactive power support to the grid has not been exploited to date. In this paper, we present a finite control state model predictive control strategy for VVC in distribution networks. The robustness of this strategy is validated on a modified IEEE 13 bus system.

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