Agents for Smart Power Grids

The future of electricity systems will compose of small-scale generation and distribution where end-users will be active participants with localized energy management systems that are able to interact on a free energy market. Software agents will most likely control power assets and interact together to decide the best and safest configuration of the power grid system. This paper presents a design of agents that can be deployed in real-time with capabilities that include optimization of resources, intensive computation, and appropriate decision-making. Jordan 51-bus system has been used for simulation with a total generation capacity of 4050 MW of which 230 MW represents renewable energy. The economic analyses demonstrated the use of smart grid technologies with 2016 generation—load profiles for nominal liquified gas (NLG) prices and ±20% sensitivity analysis. The results have shown variations in the range of 1% in the price of MWh with smart grid technologies. These variations are mainly driven by the fact that agents shift power generation to renewable power plants to produce maximum power at peak hours. As a result, there is a positive economic impact in both NLG ± 20% sensitivity analysis, due to the fact that agents coordinate to better displace expensive thermal generation with renewable generation. It is evident that renewable resources compensate for power at peak times and provide economic benefits and savings.

Community Smart Grid Utilizing Dynamic Demand Response and Tidal Power for Grid Stabilization

Conventional electricity generation is one of the largest contributors to climate change. Renewable energy sources are a promising part of the solution but uncertainty combined with a lack of controllability prevents renewable sources of power from being direct substitutes of conventional energy sources. This shift towards a higher penetration of renewable energy into the electric grid can be realized with the implementation of a more sophisticated smart grid, which uses dynamic demand response to alter demand on following generation. Research on renewable energy penetration of the grid predominately focuses on wind and solar power resources but demand cannot always match availability from these sources and therefore greatly increases the need for energy storage. Tidal power differs from solar and wind. It’s a predictably renewable resource which makes it extremely valuable even on a relatively small scale. Introduction of tidal power in a high penetration micro-grid can serve to stabilize the grid and reduce the amount of storage required. Widely different time scale for wind, solar and tidal power availability results in low cross correlations and therefore increases stability. This research describes an incremental approach to migrating a grid-tie island towards the formation of a smart-micro grid. The system will include a high penetration of three distributed generation systems, wind, solar and tidal and utilize commercially available energy storage and a smart-home management controller. Dynamic demand response through load balancing is implemented to minimize interactions with the electric grid. A second component of this work is to determine the optimum tidal generation capacity for the micro grid such that needed storage capacity from batteries or the utility grid is minimized.

Smart Boilers: Grid Support Services from Non-Critical Loads

The aim of this paper is to present the concept of a simple and cheap upgrade for electric water boilers, allowing them to provide power quality services to the distribution grid. The upgrade requires only minimum additional hardware and it is easily installable. “Smart Boilers”, as the upgraded boilers are named, perform precise active and reactive power control, but most significantly mitigate line current harmonics. Αctive and reactive power control is implemented by appropriate regulation of the modulation sinewave amplitude and phase, respectively. This type of control is easily customizable in order to accommodate a variety of power quality targets, depending on the required level of services and available grid monitoring equipment. The method used for line current harmonic compensation is based on the injection of mirror harmonics created at the modulation stage of the converter. It is indifferent of harmonic source: it is equally successful at mitigating harmonics caused by the power electronic converter of the Smart Boiler, other sources of current harmonics or loads. The achieved grid services are clearly beyond the “on/off” operation of electric boilers, currently implemented by Demand Side Management (DSM) in order to shift load away from peak hours. It has been demonstrated through simulations, that Smart Boilers can assist voltage regulation at terminal buses, compensate reactive power and suppress harmonic currents at lines.

The Interaction between the Large-Scale EVs and the Power Grid

With the problem of global energy shortage and people’s awareness of energy saving, electric vehicles receive world-wide attention from government to business. Then the load of the power grid will rapidly increase in a short term, and a series of effects will bring to the power grid operation, management, production and planning. With the large-scale penetration of electric vehicles and distributed energy gradually increased, if they can be effectively controlled and regulated, they can play the roles of load shifting, stabling intermittent renewable energy sources, providing emergency power supply and so on. Otherwise they may have a negative impact, which calls for a good interaction of electric vehicles and power grid. Analyzed the status of the current study on the interaction between the electric vehicles and the power grid, this paper builds the material basis, information architecture and the corresponding control method for the interaction from the aspect of the energy and information exchanging, and then discusses the key issues, which makes a useful exploration for the further research.

Towards Implementation of Smart Grid: An Updated Review on Electrical Energy Storage Systems

A smart grid will require, to greater or lesser degrees, advanced tools for planning and operation, broadly accepted communications platforms, smart sensors and controls, and real-time pricing. The smart grid has been described as something of an ecosystem with constantly communication, proactive, and virtually self-aware. The use of smart grid has a lot of economical and environmental advantages;however it has a downside of instability and unpredictability introduced by distributed generation (DG) from renewable energy into the public electric systems. Variable energies such as solar and wind power have a lack of stability and to avoid short-term fluctuations in power supplied to the grid, a local storage subsystem could be used to provide higher quality and stability in the fed energy. Energy storage systems (ESSs) would be a facilitator of smart grid deployment and a “small amount” of storage would have a “great impact” on the future power grid. The smart grid, with its various superior communications and control features, would make it possible to integrate the potential application of widely dispersed battery storage systems as well other ESSs. This work deals with a detailed updated review on available ESSs applications in future smart power grids. It also highlights latest projects carried out on different ESSs throughout all around the world.

Design of an Intelligent Self-Healing Smart Grid using a Hybrid Multi-Agent Framework

This paper discusses the applications of a hybrid multi-agent framework for self-healing applications in an intelligent smart grid system following catastrophic disturbances such as loss of generators or during system fault.The proposed hybrid multi-agent framework is a hybrid of both centralized and decentralized scheme to allow distributed intelligent agent in the smart grid system to make fast local decision while allowing the slower central controller to judge the effectiveness of the decision made by the local agents and to suggest more optimal solutions.

Integrating Renewable Energy and Smart Grid Technology into the Nigerian Electricity Grid System

The electricity situation in Nigeria can be described as epileptic with no sign in view of improvement. This epileptic power situation affects the manufacturing, service and residential sectors of the economy which in turn affects the country’s economic growth. Even with the recent reforms in the power sector, more than half of the country’s population still lack access to electricity. The epileptic condition of the power sector can be attributed to the inadequate and inefficient power plants, poor transmission and distribution facilities, and outdated metering system used by electricity consumers. This paper attempts to present the way forward for the Nigerian poor electricity situation by reviewing the power sector as a whole and the renewable energy potentials. We identified the problems in the national grid and then proposed a smart grid model for the Nigerian power sector which will include renewable energy source. We believe that the content of this review paper will solve the poor epileptic condition of the power sector in Nigeria and also enable the proper integration of smart grid technology into the national grid.

Voltage Control in Smart Grids: An Approach Based on Sensitivity Theory

Due to the development of Distributed Generation (DG), which is installed in Medium-Voltage Distribution Networks (MVDNs) such as generators based on renewable energy (e.g., wind energy or solar energy), voltage control is currently a very important issue. The voltage is now regulated at the MV busbars acting on the On-Load Tap Changer of the HV/MV transformer. This method does not guarantee the correct voltage value in the network nodes when the distributed generators deliver their power. In this paper an approach based on Sensitivity Theory is shown, in order to control the node voltages regulating the reactive power exchanged between the network and the dispersed generators. The automatic distributed voltage regulation is a particular topic of the Smart Grids.

Distribution System Reliability Analysis for Smart Grid Applications

Reliability of power systems is a key aspect in modern power system planning, design, and operation. The ascendance of the smart grid concept has provided high hopes of developing an intelligent network that is capable of being a self-healing grid, offering the ability to overcome the interruption problems that face the utility and cost it tens of millions in repair and loss. In this work, we will examine the effect of the smart grid applications in improving the reliability of the power distribution networks. The test system used in this paper is the IEEE 34 node test feeder, released in 2003 by the Distribution System Analysis Subcommittee of the IEEE Power Engineering Society. The objective is to analyze the feeder for the optimal placement of the automatic switching devices and quantify their proper installation based on the performance of the distribution system. The measures will be the changes in the reliability system indices including SAIDI, SAIFI, and EUE. In addition, the goal is to design and simulate the effect of the installation of the Distributed Generators (DGs) on the utility’s distribution system and measure the potential improvement of its reliability.

Making the World More Sustainable: Enabling Localized Energy Generation and Distribution on Decentralized Smart Grid Systems

Smart grid is an idea of upgradation of the traditional electric grid infrastructure. The efficiency of the existing electrical grid can be automated by integrating with innovative technical equipment such as:?high-tech forecasting system, digital sensors, advanced two-way communication and two-way power flow systems. Smart grid establishes an interface between utility and consumer which helps to use energy, based on the preferences of price, eco-friendly and without technical system issues. It empowers the grid to be more secure, reliable and efficient. The peer-reviewed articles and published government reports have been reviewed, based on the analysis of technical characteristics of power generation systems, eco-friendly sources of power generations, cost reduction, functionality and design of traditional grid versus smart grid. Furthermore, the innovative technologies that enable the grid to integrate with decentralized power generation system efficiently have been considered. This paper claims that in this modern era, it is arduous for traditional grid to fulfill the rising demand of electricity, along with sustainable, eco-friendly and stable power supply, as it cannot be efficiently integrated with decentralized and localized power generation systems and renewable energy sources. The result of this paper shows that decentralized and localized power generation systems are located close to end-users which decrease the transmission and supply cost of electricity. Innovative technologies allow the decentralized and localized power generation systems to be integrated with renewable energy sources which help to reduce the cost of utility services and provide clean energy. Moreover, technological advancement played a decisive role in enabling the electrical system to be more efficient. Electrical reliability can be improved,?greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced, renewable energy sources can efficiently be integrated,?and?rising demand for electricity can be met by embedding advanced applications and technological equipment in the electrical grid.

Are the Current Smart Grid Concepts Likely to Offer a Complete Smart Grid Solution?

At present, the structure of power systems is greatly changing due to the penetration of decentralized generations. Although they encompass a high flexibility potential, their large-scale penetration interferes with the power system operation at all voltage levels. To get rid of this flaw and exploit their flexibility, different concepts like Virtual Power Plants, Microgrids and Cellular Approach have been introduced but still no solution is in sight. Under these conditions, it seems quite intriguing to find out whether these concepts are likely to offer a complete solution or not. This paper presents ten criteria to assess the complete Smart Grid solution and introduces a comprehensive evaluation system based on cloud-charts. The paper looks into the already existing solutions, which are respectively based on Virtual Power Plants, Microgrids and Cellular Approach concepts. The investigations have shown that none of these solutions meets all criteria necessary for a complete Smart Grid solution. Even a combination of different criteria fails to yield the desired results.

Electronic Controlled Energy Storage Devices and Applications in Future Smart Grid

This paper discusses the future power system consisting of distributed generations connected to local loads in the form of micro-grid systems.The benefits of having energy storage systems and the role of power electronics in micro-grid systems are presented.This paper also examines how micro-grids have a key role to play in the development of the smart grid.

Reliable Remote Relay Protection in Smart Grid

As the false trips of remote protection relays are among the main reasons behind cascading blackouts, it is critical to design reliable relay protection. Even though common protection schemes on traditional power systems have been investigated for a few decades, cascading failures in recent years indicate more research needed in this area. Consequently, researchers have proposed agent-based methods on the Smart Grid （SG） to address this issue. However, these existing agent-based methods simply use TCP protocol without considering real-time communication requirements （such as bandwidth and delay）. To deal with this issue, several methods for efficient network resource management are proposed. Furthermore, these existing methods do not consider the potential issues in practical communication networks, which may result in delay violation and trigger relay false trips. We have discussed simple backup solutions in the previous work. In this paper, in addition to network efficiency, we focus on improving the system reliability by exploring known power system information and minimizing the chances of false trips of important remote relays, e.g., defining power line priorities based on their importance. Moreover, to further improve the. system reliability, we also in- vestigate the peer-to-peer protection approaches to address the single point of failure of centralized control center.

Research and Practice of Smart Power Consumption

As a vital part of a smart grid, smart power consumption enables real-time interaction between consumers and the grid. With improved management of the demand side and energy efficiency, smart power consumption plays an important role in emission reduction as well as the economic operation of the power grid. Meanwhile, it enhances the power grid to a larger scale infrastructure by the two-way transmission of energy and information. This paper introduces the research, practice and vision of smart power consumption in China.

Smart Grid Functionalities Evaluation

In the last years, with the advent of Smart Grids, many research and demonstration projects have seen the light in order to involve electric system in the implementation of advances in information and communication technologies, in order to improve network efficiency, reliability, security and quality of service. Before new implementations are performed, previous results have to be studied, and taken into account. In this line, this work presents the methodology, results and conclusions of the evaluation of the Smart Grid functionalities developed by 5 different DSOs during DISCERN project in order to select the optimal, cost-effective and most replicable solutions for the strategic development of the intelligence at medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) networks.

Forecasting-Based Adaptive Optimized Dispatch in Smart Grid Online

The power grid is a fusion of technologies in energy systems, and how to adjust and control the output power of each generator to balance the load of the grid is a crucial issue. As a platform, the smart grid is for the convenience of the implementation of adaptive control generators using advanced technologies. In this paper, we are introducing a new approach, the Central Lower Configuration Table, which optimizes dispatch of the generating capacity in a smart grid power system. The dispatch strategy of each generator in the grid is presented in the configuration table, and the scenario consists of two-level agents. A central agent optimizes dispatch calculation to get the configuration table, and a lower agent controls generators according to the tasks of the central level and the work states during generation. The central level is major optimization and adjustment. We used machine learning to predict the power load and address the best optimize cost function to deal with a different control strategy. We designed the items of the cost function, such as operations, maintenances and the effects on the environment. Then, according to the total cost, we got a new second-rank-sort table. As a result, we can resolve generator’s task based on the table, which can also be updated on-line based on the environmental situation. The signs of the driving generator’s controller include active power and system’s f. The lower control level agent carries out the generator control to track f along with the best optimized cost function. Our approach makes optimized dispatch algorithm more convenient to realize, and the numerical simulation indicates the strategy of machine learning forecast of optimized power dispatch is effective.

Sensing the Nation: Smart Grid’s Risks and Vulnerabilities

This paper presents issues and trepidations associated with transferring from conventional methods of electricity monitoring and distribution to the cyberspace, especially in developing countries like Nigeria where current approaches have failed to provide regular, reliable electric power. The Smart Power Grid is a developing concept already put to test, successfully, in very advanced countries. The implementation of the Smart Grid will include the deployment of many new technologies and multiple communication infrastructures. Connecting the electricity grid to the Internet can provide a lot of advantages in terms of control, data viewing and generation. However, in Nigeria, the proposal to transfer conventional methods to the Smart Grid has perhaps not hit the deck yet because of excessive focus on power generation, and because of the annotated reservations associated with the Internet, as the Smart Grid involves circulation and dispersal via inter-networking structures. This paper describes the key technologies that support Power Grid substation automation, summarizes the mode of implementation into the existing Nigerian electrical infrastructure and brings fore issues and mitigating approaches to provide a seamless and securitised transfer of the current power grid to the Smart Grid.

A Study on Quantitative Methodology to Assess Cyber Security Risk of Smart Grid

This paper aims to identify and clarify the cyber security risks and their interaction with the power system in Smart Grid. The SCADA system and other communication networks interact with the power system on a real time basis, so it is important to understand the interaction between two layers to protect the power system from potential cyber threats. This paper has shown the risks of the open architecture SCADA in a quantitative method and proposed effective security measures through case studies.

Wireless Sensor Networks Based Control Strategies for the Enhancement of Reliability in Smart Grids

The rapid increase in the demand for electricity necessitates the power quality improvement for achieving better reliability in smart grids. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is the proven technology for reliable monitoring. This paper proposes a system model for the development and implementation of WSN based communication system for the monitoring of distributed generation, loads and transmission lines in the electrical grid and a controller system for automated control on the electrical grid. This work also aims to reduce the carbon footprints by reducing the dependency of electrical grid through the enhancement of distributed generation and grid sharing for avoiding voltage rise problem. To achieve this, a smarter electrical grid has been developed for the validation of smart grid considering a generation substation, a transmission substation and a distributed generation with loads. The occurrence of power quality issue and voltage rise has been controlled by active power control strategy. The communication network and controller has been modeled and tested for the performance of monitoring system and data communication capability on smart grid.