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.

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.