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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A1: Smart Grids and Microgrids".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 15277

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Pedro M. S. Carvalho

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: power systems planning and operation; power delivery and integration of distributed energy resources; risk assessment and grid design for reliability; data analytics and smart grids
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Dr. Hugo Morais

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INESC-ID, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico-IST, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: smart grids; electricity markets; energy resource management; distributed power generation; smart power grids; battery-powered vehicles; distribution networks; electric vehicle charging; power distribution economics; power distribution operational planning; power system management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The modernization of power distribution systems is key to facilitate the take-up of low carbon and energy-saving initiatives being fostered around the world. Modernization will encompass new planning and operational concepts, tools, and technologies needed to monitor, analyze, control, and protect the grid of the future. The distribution grid of the future will need to deal with the new electric vehicles and heat pump loads, a massive distributed generation in-feed, and the active response from prosumers with storage capabilities, among other possible interactions.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to bring together contributions from researchers and professionals involved in various grid modernization initiatives around the world, focusing on contributions that seize the opportunities provided by smart meters and future ICT deployment and make use of the new technologies available for automatic grid reconfiguration, active power-flow, and voltage control, self-healing, and advanced protections. Advances in new operational concepts and tools that make use of such technologies are also welcome contributions to this issue. Contributions may be both of fundamental and applied nature, including industrial case studies.

Prof. Dr. Pedro M. S. Carvalho
Dr. Hugo Morais
Guest Editors

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Keywords

automatic reconfiguration
active power flow control
decentralized voltage control
reactive power management
control of back-to-back VSC
DC distribution networks

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3401 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Underground MV Network Failures’ Waveform Characteristics—An Investigation

by Miguel Louro and Luís Ferreira

Energies 2021, 14(5), 1216; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en14051216 - 24 Feb 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1411

Abstract

The authors seek to investigate the characteristics of outage-causing faults that can be observed in a short time frame after their occurrence: waveform of the voltages and currents. The aim is to identify which characteristics can be used to estimate the failure type immediately after its occurrence. This paper lays the groundwork to determine which features display a stronger relation to four failure types with the aim of using this information in a later work, not presented in this paper, aimed at designing a reliable failure type estimator from readily available data. This paper focuses on the most common failures of the underground cable MV networks in Portugal: cable insulation; cable joint; secondary substation busbar; and excavation-motivated failures. A set of 206 waveform records of real underground MV network failures was available for analysis. After investigating the waveforms, the authors identified seven waveform characteristics which can be used for failure type estimation. Fault type characteristics can be used to distinguish secondary substation failures from the remaining failure types. Fault evolution does not yield relevant information. Fault self-extinction phenomenon was not observed in excavation-caused failures. There are differences for self-extinction characteristics between secondary substation busbar failures and the cable insulation and joint failures. Fault inception instant and arc voltage are two characteristics which are shown to have a promising merit to the identification process of failure types. Finally, fault intra-cycle repetitive extinction results have been found to be very similar for cable insulation failures and joint failures, but otherwise different regarding the remaining failure types. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Distribution Grids Modernization)

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15 pages, 2521 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improving PV Resilience by Dynamic Reconfiguration in Distribution Grids: Problem Complexity and Computation Requirements

by Filipe F. C. Silva, Pedro M. S. Carvalho and Luís A. F. M. Ferreira

Energies 2021, 14(4), 830; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en14040830 - 05 Feb 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1437

Abstract

The dissemination of low-carbon technologies, such as urban photovoltaic distributed generation, imposes new challenges to the operation of distribution grids. Distributed generation may introduce significant net-load asymmetries between feeders in the course of the day, resulting in higher losses. The dynamic reconfiguration of the grid could mitigate daily losses and be used to minimize or defer the need for network reinforcement. Yet, dynamic reconfiguration has to be carried out in near real-time in order to make use of the most updated load and generation forecast, this way maximizing operational benefits. Given the need to quickly find and update reconfiguration decisions, the computational complexity of the underlying optimal scheduling problem is studied in this paper. The problem is formulated and the impact of sub-optimal solutions is illustrated using a real medium-voltage distribution grid operated under a heavy generation scenario. The complexity of the scheduling problem is discussed to conclude that its optimal solution is infeasible in practical terms if relying upon classical computing. Quantum computing is finally proposed as a way to handle this kind of problem in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Distribution Grids Modernization)

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21 pages, 4349 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimal Placement of IoT-Based Fault Indicator to Shorten Outage Time in Integrated Cyber-Physical Medium-Voltage Distribution Network

by Jing Li, Jinrui Tang, Xinze Wang, Binyu Xiong, Shenjun Zhan, Zilong Zhao, Hui Hou, Wanying Qi and Zhenhai Li

Energies 2020, 13(18), 4928; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13184928 - 20 Sep 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2416

Abstract

Traditional fault indicators based on 3G and 4G cannot send out fault-generated information if the distribution lines are located in the system across remote mountainous or forest areas. Hence, power distribution systems in rural areas only rely on patrol to find faults currently, which wastes time and lacks efficiency. With the development of the Internet of things (IoT) technology, some studies have suggested combining the long-range (LoRa) and the narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technologies to increase the data transmission distance and reduce the self-built communication system operating cost. In this paper, we propose an optimal configuration scheme for novel intelligent IoT-based fault indicators. The proposed fault indicator combines LoRa and NB-IoT communication technologies with a long communication distance to achieve minimum power consumption and high-efficiency maintenance. Under this given cyber network and physical power distribution network, the whole fault location process depends on the fault indicator placement and the deployment of the communication network. The overall framework and the working principle of the fault indicators based on LoRa and NB-IoT are first illustrated to establish the optimization placement model of the proposed novel IoT-based fault indicator. Secondly, an optimization placement method has been proposed to obtain the optimal number of the acquisition and collection units of the fault indicators, as well as their locations. In the proposed method, the attenuation of the communication network and the power-supply reliability have been specially considered in the fault location process under the investment restrictions of the fault indicators. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been validated by the analysis results in an IEEE Roy Billinton Test System (IEEE-RBTS) typical system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Distribution Grids Modernization)

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16 pages, 8386 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of a DC-Side Direct Current Controlled Active Ripple Filter for Eliminating the Double-Line-Frequency Current Ripple in a Single-Phase DC/AC Conversion System

by Ying-Chieh Chen, Liang-Rui Chen, Ching-Ming Lai, Yuan-Chih Lin and Ting-Jung Kuo

Energies 2020, 13(18), 4772; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13184772 - 12 Sep 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2591

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to propose an active ripple filter (ARF) using the patented DC-side direct current control for eliminating the double-line-frequency current ripple in a single-phase DC/AC conversion system. The proposed ARF and its control strategies can not only prolong the usage life of the DC energy source but also improve the DC/AC system performance. At first, the phenomena of double-line-frequency current ripple and the operation principle of the ARF are illustrated. Then, steady-state analysis, small-signal model, and control loop design of the ARF architecture are derived. The proposed control system includes: (1) a DC current control loop to provide the excellent ripple eliminating performance on the output of the DC energy source; (2) a voltage control loop for the high-side DC-bus voltage of the ARF to achieve good steady-state and transient-state responses; (3) a voltage feedforward loop for the low-side voltage of the ARF to cancel the voltage fluctuation caused by the instability of the DC energy source. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed concept can be verified by the system simulation, and the experimental results show that the nearly zero double-line-frequency current ripple on the DC-side in a single-phase DC/AC conversion system can be achieved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Distribution Grids Modernization)

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16 pages, 2315 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reliability and Network Performance Enhancement by Reconfiguring Underground Distribution Systems

by Praveen Agrawal, Neeraj Kanwar, Nikhil Gupta, Khaleequr Rehman Niazi, Anil Swarnkar, Nand K. Meena and Jin Yang

Energies 2020, 13(18), 4719; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13184719 - 10 Sep 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2193

Abstract

Contemporary distributions are now going to underground their overhead distribution lines due to techno-social reasons. Reliability and loss reduction are the two prime objectives for distribution system operation. Since failure rates of ungrounded cables are the function of Joules heating besides their physical lengths, the reliability evaluation of undergrounded distribution systems needs to be reviewed. This paper suggested a suitable modification in existing reliability indices in order to make them more appropriate for underground distribution systems. A multi-objective network reconfiguration problem is formulated to enhance the reliability and performance of distribution systems while duly addressing the variability and uncertainty in load demand and power generation from renewables. The application results on a standard test bench shift the paradigm of the well-known conflicting nature of reliability and network performance indices defined for overhead distribution systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Distribution Grids Modernization)

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22 pages, 407 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming Model for Optimal Reconfiguration of DC Distribution Feeders

by O. D. Montoya, W. Gil-González, J. C. Hernández, D. A. Giral-Ramírez and A. Medina-Quesada

Energies 2020, 13(17), 4440; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13174440 - 27 Aug 2020

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2315

Abstract

This paper deals with the optimal reconfiguration problem of DC distribution networks by proposing a new mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) formulation. This MINLP model focuses on minimising the power losses in the distribution lines by reformulating the classical power balance equations through a branch-to-node incidence matrix. The general algebraic modelling system (GAMS) is chosen as a solution tool, showing in tutorial form the implementation of the proposed MINLP model in a 6-nodes test feeder with 10 candidate lines. The validation of the MINLP formulation is performed in two classical 10-nodes DC test feeders. These are typically used for power flow and optimal power flow analyses. Numerical results demonstrate that power losses are reduced by about

16 %

when the optimal reconfiguration plan is found. The numerical validations are made in the GAMS software licensed by Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Distribution Grids Modernization)

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18 pages, 494 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Disturbance Observer-Based Offset-Free Global Tracking Control for Input-Constrained LTI Systems with DC/DC Buck Converter Applications

by Kyunghwan Choi, Dong Soo Kim and Seok-Kyoon Kim

Energies 2020, 13(16), 4079; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13164079 - 06 Aug 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1939

Abstract

This paper presents an offset-free global tracking control algorithm for the input-constrained plants modeled as controllable and open-loop strictly stable linear time invariant (LTI) systems. The contribution of this study is two-fold: First, a global tracking control law is devised in such a way that it not only leads to offset-free reference tracking but also handles the input constraints using the invariance property of a projection operator embedded in the proposed disturbance observer (DOB). Second, the offset-free tracking property is guaranteed against uncertainties caused by plant-model mismatch using the DOB’s integral action for the state estimation error. Simulation results are given in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by applying it to a DC/DC buck converter. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Distribution Grids Modernization)

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