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Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2022) | Viewed by 28263

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Inga Zicmane

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Electrical and Environmental Engineering, Riga Technical University, 1048 Riga, Latvia
Interests: power energy; renewables; power system stability

Dr. Gatis Junghans

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Co-Guest Editor

Faculty of Electrical and Environmental Engineering, Riga Technical University, 1048 Riga, Latvia
Interests: power system management; electricity markets; renewable energies; energy security

Dr. Svetlana Beryozkina

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Co-Guest Editor

College of Engineering and Technology, American University of the Middle East, Egaila, Kuwait
Interests: power systems; renewable energy; energy efficiency; smart grids

Dr. Sergey Kovalenko

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Co-Guest Editor

Faculty of Electrical and Environmental Engineering, Riga Technical University, 1048 Riga, Latvia
Interests: electrical engineering and design; protective relays; mathematical modeling; power systems; renewable energy; simulations; automation; data analysis; power distribution

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Currently, the energy sector is undergoing a transformation which is leading to significant structural changes on both global and local scales. To ensure a smooth transformation process, a key challenge is the integration of an increasingly larger share of intermittent, less controllable renewable energy sources and decreasing share of centralized, controllable conventional thermal power plants. The goal is to ensure availability of affordable, sustainable, and modern energy supply without compromising the reliability and security of supply.

Renewable energy sources provide a wide range of benefits, including great potential for mitigating the effects of climate change, such as reducing both environmental pollution and negative impacts on human health. In addition, the continuous use of renewable sources will contribute to socioeconomic development, the availability of additional energy sources, resource conservation, and energy security. Despite the above advantages, the implementation phase of renewable energy still faces various obstacles, the most important of which are:

In many cases still, renewable energy sources are more expensive than traditional energy sources, since their development and implementation depends on various forms of direct and indirect investments. As a result, market distortion of goods and resources could lead to ineffective use of limited economic resources;
Another important issue is the unpredictable and intermittent character of energy generation, leading to electricity balancing challenges and more volatile and less predictable physical flows in the power grid. The increased volatility requires substantial improvements in regional coordination among transmission system operations as well as increased coordination between transmission and distribution system operators in grid development planning and system operation;
Additionally, a variety of target indicators of energy efficiency challenge monitoring and assessment mechanisms—for example, insufficiently organized systems of statistical data collection, missing mechanisms for both updating and achieving medium-term objectives, insufficiently developed systems of regulations and standards, as well as missing mechanisms to stimulate investments in energy efficiency;
Frequency regulation and decreasing system inertia is a growing challenge as renewable generation replaces conventional thermal power plants—for instance, maintaining the sustainability of energy power systems by disabling many installations, ensuring the reliability of power supply, upgrading the distribution network, considering reverse power flows, and many other control measures driving system operator tasks in terms of planning and conducting power system regimes;
Finally, the effect of renewable energies on the operation of the end-user sector, for instance, aviation, shipping, industry, heavy transport, etc., requires serious study.

The issue is aimed toward problems related to the integration of renewable energy sources into both large and small power energy systems. This consideration includes renewable sourses’ influence on the intelligent network construction and the energy market design, also assessing the impact of distributed generation increase on the energy power system stability and reliability, the behavior of distributed generation in the presence of disturbances in the energy system, and many other factors. We believe that the results of analytical, experimental or numerical studies of scientists all over the world, which shall become available to a wide audience through the open access journal Sustainability, will help to solve the abovementioned problems.

Prof. Dr. Inga Zicmane
Guest Editor

Dr. Gatis Junghans
Dr. Svetlana Beryozkina
Dr. Sergey Kovalenko
Co-Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

distributed generation
electricity markets and policy group
electricity supply industry
energy automation and smart grid
energy storage
hybrid power systems
intelligent systems
load modeling
network security
power system reliability
power system stability
renewable energy sources
sustainable development
vehicles

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2953 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Forecasting of Electricity Consumption by Household Consumers Using Fuzzy Logic Based on the Development Plan of the Power System of the Republic of Tajikistan

by Saidjon Shiralievich Tavarov, Pavel Matrenin, Murodbek Safaraliev, Mihail Senyuk, Svetlana Beryozkina and Inga Zicmane

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3725; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15043725 - 17 Feb 2023

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 1552

Abstract

Seasonal fluctuations in electricity consumption, and uneven loading of supply lines reduce not only the energy efficiency of networks, but also contribute to a decrease in the service life of elements of power supply systems. To solve the problem of forecasting power consumption, it is proposed to use the theory of fuzzy sets to assess the effective development of the energy system of the Republic of Tajikistan. According to the statistical data of power consumption for the previous period, a fuzzy logic model with membership functions is proposed, which makes it possible to evaluate consumer satisfaction using the criteria unsatisfactory, satisfactory, conditionally satisfactory, and satisfactory, as well as the efficiency of the consumption mode of compliance using the criteria high, medium, and low, allowing the evaluation of the efficiency plan for the development of the energy system of the Republic of Tajikistan. To obtain and set more accurate data on electricity consumption, calculations were made for the winter period of the year. Based on the proposed calculation model of fuzzy logic, a quantitative component of electricity consumption, the corresponding satisfaction of the consumer, and the efficiency of the regime for nine cities of the Republic of Tajikistan were proposed in the form of diagrams of seasonal electricity consumption. The obtained seasonal power consumption makes it possible to improve the accuracy of estimating power consumption, thereby equalizing the balance of consumption and generation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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19 pages, 8660 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ordering Technique for the Maximum Power Point Tracking of an Islanded Solar Photovoltaic System

by Muhammad Mateen Afzal Awan, Aamer Bilal Asghar, Muhammad Yaqoob Javed and Zsolt Conka

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3332; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15043332 - 11 Feb 2023

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1117

Abstract

The world’s attention has turned towards renewable energy due to escalating energy demands, declining fossil fuel reservoirs, greenhouse gas emissions, and the unreliability of conventional energy systems. The sun is the only renewable energy source that is available every day for a specific period of time. Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is known for its direct conversion of sunlight into electricity using the photoelectric effect. However, due to the non-linear electrical characteristics, the power output of solar PV cells is bound to a lower value and can not produce the power of which it is capable. To extract the maximum possible power, the PV cell needs to be operated at its maximum power point (MPP) uninterruptedly under numerous weather conditions. Therefore, an electronic circuit driven by a set of rules known as an algorithm is utilized. To date, the flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is one of the most renowned maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms due to its effective tracking ability at the local and global positions. After an in-depth analysis of the design, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of the FPA algorithm, we have proposed an additional filtration and distribution process named “Random walk” along with the ordering of solutions, to improve its efficiency and tracking time. The proposed structure named “Ordered FPA” has outperformed the renowned FPA algorithm under various weather conditions at all the standard benchmarks. Simulations are performed in MATLAB/Simulink. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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12 pages, 1816 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Short-Term Prediction of the Wind Speed Based on a Learning Process Control Algorithm in Isolated Power Systems

by Vadim Manusov, Pavel Matrenin, Muso Nazarov, Svetlana Beryozkina, Murodbek Safaraliev, Inga Zicmane and Anvari Ghulomzoda

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1730; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15021730 - 16 Jan 2023

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1471

Abstract

Predicting the variability of wind energy resources at different time scales is extremely important for effective energy management. The need to obtain the most accurate forecast of wind speed due to its high degree of volatility is particularly acute since this can significantly improve the planning of wind energy production, reduce costs and improve the use of resources. In this study, a method for predicting the speed of wind flow in an isolated power system of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), based on the use of a neural network with a learning process control algorithm, is proposed. Predicting is performed for four seasons of the year, based on hourly retrospective meteorological data of wind speed observations. The obtained wind speed average error forecasting ranged from 20–28% for a day ahead. The prediction results serve as a basis for optimizing the energy consumption of individual generating consumers to minimize their financial and technical costs. In addition, this study takes into account the possibility of exporting electricity to a neighboring country as an additional income line for the isolated GBAO power system during periods of excess energy from hydropower plants (March–September), which is a systematic vision of solving the problem of improving energy efficiency in the conditions of autonomous power supply. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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19 pages, 6390 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Power Quality Enhancement of Grid-Connected Renewable Systems Using a Matrix-Pencil-Based Active Power Filter

by Khaled Chahine, Mohamad Tarnini, Nazih Moubayed and Abdallah El Ghaly

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 887; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15010887 - 03 Jan 2023

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2508

Abstract

Power electronic converters are used for integrating renewable energy sources such as wind and photovoltaic into the grid. This integration gives rise to many challenges in power systems, especially regarding power quality. Indeed, integrated systems generate a non-linear current full of harmonics, which degrades power quality. Active power filters are usually used to compensate for these harmonics at the point of common coupling. In the control of active power filters, harmonics need to be extracted from the non-linear current. In this paper, the matrix pencil method―a model-based technique for estimating parameters of exponentially damped or undamped sinusoids in noise―is proposed to extract the reference signal in shunt active power filter applications. The performance of the proposed matrix pencil method is studied for current harmonic compensation and power factor correction under different modulation schemes and two DC links: an external DC voltage source and a capacitor. Using a capacitor for the DC link requires not only including a proportional-plus-integral controller to maintain a constant capacitor voltage, but also accounting for the loss current in the formulation of the matrix pencil method. Compared with the instantaneous reactive power theory and synchronous reference frame, results obtained from simulated data using MATLAB/Simulink under different loading conditions show that the proposed method corrects the power factor and affords a lower source current total harmonic distortion and fast response. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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11 pages, 853 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Household Appliances and Devices: Consider Their Reactive Power and Power Factors

by Jackson Hannagan, Rhys Woszczeiko, Thomas Langstaff, Weixiang Shen and John Rodwell

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 158; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15010158 - 22 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3738

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a noticeable change in the flow of reactive power in power network systems around the world. A part of this change could be due to residential household appliances, particularly with the increasing use of LEDs and battery-powered devices with switch-mode power supplies. This study investigates the power characteristics of 56 modern appliances and devices. The results indicate a major change in the electrical behavior across these household appliances and devices. In particular, LED technology and switch mode power supplies are likely to increase household reactive power injection, which will increase as penetration of these products grows, particularly with government programs often incentivizing their uptake. A variety of avenues are available to address these issues, including governments requiring appliance manufacturers to display the power factor of their appliances or device. In time, appliance manufacturers may develop new products that have built-in power factor correction. Overall, the findings highlight how efforts to be sustainable with energy use may have unintended consequences on other parts of the electrical system that need to be considered for the sustainability of the system as a whole. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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58 pages, 49285 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wind Power Generation Scheduling Accuracy in Europe: An Overview of ENTSO-E Countries

by Henrik Zsiborács, Gábor Pintér, András Vincze and Nóra Hegedűsné Baranyai

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16446; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142416446 - 08 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1316

Abstract

Despite the rapid spread of the use of wind energy to generate electricity, harnessing this energy source remains a great challenge due to its stochastic nature. One way of dealing with this is to prepare accurate wind power forecasts. This paper explored the accuracy of day-ahead and intraday scheduling of energy generation of the onshore and offshore wind farms of the member countries of the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) in the period from 2013 to 2021. The precision of the scheduling activities showed a varying picture: the onshore wind farms of Germany, Spain, France, and Sweden produced more precise forecasts than others, with annual downward and upward regulatory needs between 0.8% and 14.4%, and from 0.8% to 6.5%, of the yearly energy generation, respectively. In certain countries, however, the forecasts were less accurate, with discrepancies exceeding 41% for downward and 132% for upward regulation. As for offshore wind farms, the annual downward and upward regulatory needs ranged between 0.9% and 61.7%, and from 1.3% to 44.1%, respectively, with Germany and Denmark producing the most accurate schedules. The innovative novelty and practical contributions of this study are that it determines and presents information related to the accuracy of the day-ahead and intraday wind power generation forecasting of the ENTSO-E countries, which is of practical relevance to the transmission system operators (TSOs), the main actors in the energy market and the decision-makers, too. This information may also help investors who invest in onshore and offshore wind farms with the economic aspects, and it may also greatly contribute to the market-related development of the management systems of energy storage solutions related to these technologies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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24 pages, 2496 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Economic Viability of Energy Communities versus Distributed Prosumers

by Lubov Petrichenko, Antans Sauhats, Illia Diahovchenko and Irina Segeda

Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4634; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14084634 - 13 Apr 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2079

Abstract

As distribution grids are made to accommodate significant amounts of renewable energy resources, the power system evolves from a classical producer-consumer scheme to a new one that includes individual prosumers or energy communities. This article contributes to the exploration of the solution to the dilemma of whether to be a distributed prosumer or an energy community prosumer by comparing the profitability of these two business models. To achieve this goal, a high-resolution methodology is created for measuring economic performance via proposed indices under different development scenarios of renewable proliferation and various network configurations. The developed methodology considers today’s electricity billing and renewable support scheme net metering. The results indicate that, first, the energy community is a more profitable framework than the individual distributed prosumer: avoided costs for energy community are, on average, 20% higher than for the individual, resulting in a payback period of the energy community that is about two times shorter than for owners of rooftop installations. Such promising results should encourage ordinary consumers to be members of energy communities. Second, the energy losses in the power distribution system are slightly higher for the case of energy communities rather than individual prosumers, yet the difference is insignificant, about 0.2%. Third, regulatory barriers shall be removed to enable participation of Latvian prosumers and distribution system operators to the energy communities, as it will benefit all the stakeholders and facilitate economically efficient energy transition. The results of this study could be adopted by decision-makers, such as government agencies, companies, and solar and wind turbine owners. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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19 pages, 2932 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Aspects of Determining the Energy Storage System Size Linked to Household-Sized Power Plants in Hungary in Accordance with the Regulatory Needs of the Electric Energy System

by Gábor Pintér, Henrik Zsiborács and Nóra Hegedűsné Baranyai

Sustainability 2022, 14(5), 2622; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14052622 - 24 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2125

Abstract

The global energy markets of the last decade have been characterized by an ever-increasing share of electric power, more than half of which is projected to come from renewable energy sources by the year 2030. Such a remarkable rise in the quantity of renewable energy, of course, will induce a series of related changes as, without the successful integration of all that unconventional type of energy into the existing energy systems, the sustainability and security of the electricity supply cannot be maintained. As a result, new legislation and energy policies are required all over the world to accommodate not only the latest technological solutions but also a variety of previously unknown market actors. In the institutions, businesses and households of Hungary, the notion of sustainability has been gaining more and more importance lately, which is manifest in the efforts to reduce the use of electricity from the public grid, which is generated by burning fossil fuel. This endeavor is facilitated by the installation of photovoltaic (PV) household-sized power plant (HMKE) systems. Currently, the Hungarian electric energy system does not possess sufficiently flexible capacities; moreover, even this capacity is expected to decrease considerably in the future due to the phasing out fossil fuel power plants. Furthermore, dynamically growing HMKE penetration means an increasing frequency of technical problems in the macroenergy system (e.g., reverse energy flow in the local grid). It is such challenges that energy storage technologies can provide a solution for. Presently, there is insufficient information available on the recommended energy storage size necessary for the efficient integration of Hungarian HMKE systems into the electric energy system and the related investment needs. The innovative novelty of this study is that it examines the quantity and power of Hungarian HMKEs in the districts of the various electric companies over time with a view of exploring a possible way of their efficient integration into the electric energy system by determining the nominal energy storage power and energy capacity of the proposed energy storage systems. In addition, the paper also presents the expected investment needs associated with these energy storage systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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17 pages, 40769 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Approach of Synchronization of Microgrid with a Power System of Limited Capacity

by Anvari Ghulomzoda, Murodbek Safaraliev, Pavel Matrenin, Svetlana Beryozkina, Inga Zicmane, Pavel Gubin, Kamol Gulyamov and Nasim Saidov

Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 13975; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132413975 - 17 Dec 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2927

Abstract

Currently, active networks called microgrids are formed on the basis of local power supply systems with a small share of distributed generation. Microgrids operating in an island mode, in some cases, have the ability to transfer electricity excess to an external network leading to a synchronization requirement; thus, the optimization task in terms of the system’s synchronization must be considered. This paper proposes a method for obtaining synchronization between microgrids and power systems of limited capacity based on a passive synchronization algorithm, allowing us to connect a microgrid to an external power system with a minimum impact moment on the shaft of the generating equipment. The algorithm application was demonstrated by considering a real-life object in Tajikistan. The simulation was carried out on RastrWin3. The obtained results show that the microgrid generator is connected to an external power system at an angle of 0.3° and a power surge of 29 kW, unlike the classical synchronization algorithm with an angle of 6.8° and a power surge of 154 kW (a reduction of the shock moment by more than five times). The proposed synchronization method allows us to reduce the resource consumption of the generating equipment and increase the reliability and efficiency of the functioning units of the examined power system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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16 pages, 6444 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Trendline Assessment of Solar Energy Potential in Hungary and Current Scenario of Renewable Energy in the Visegrád Countries for Future Sustainability

by Baibhaw Kumar, Gábor Szepesi, Zsolt Čonka, Michal Kolcun, Zsolt Péter, László Berényi and Zoltán Szamosi

Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5462; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13105462 - 13 May 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3619

Abstract

This article aims to present some opportunities for improved solar energy utilization by raising the share of renewables in energy generation in the Visegrád Countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary). The analysis is based on the status of the renewable energy targets in the member countries and their future possibilities. This paper derives input through a thorough investigation of independent data, government policies, European Commission reports, and other data available online with free access. The analysis is processed by focusing on Hungary, as a country with various possible facets of solar energy demand and supply in the region. The assessment methodology is in the context of a geographical map, technical regression analysis, temperature distribution profiles, and the relative trends of solar potential in Hungary. The country currently has ten solar power plants with more than 10 MWp, and five remarkable plants under 10 MWp capacity spread over Hungary. The analysis on geographical aspects clubbed with technical and solar affecting parameters was carried out to harvest the sustainable potential of solar energy in the region. This study attempts to establish a relationship between the current and future prospects of solar energy in Hungary as a nation, and as part of the Visegrád countries, based on assessment for a sustainable future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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Review

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45 pages, 3243 KiB

Open AccessReview

Blockchain Technology Implementation in the Energy Sector: Comprehensive Literature Review and Mapping

by Nadhira Khezami, Nourcherif Gharbi, Bilel Neji and Naceur Benhadj Braiek

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15826; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142315826 - 28 Nov 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3593

Abstract

Satisfying the world’s rapidly increasing demands in energy via the optimized management of available resources is becoming one of the most important research trends worldwide. When it comes to energy, it is very important to talk about decentralization, security, traceability and transparency. Thus, over the last few years, numerous research works have presented blockchain technology as the best novel business platform enabling a secure, transparent and tamper-proof energy management solution. In this paper, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) using the PRISMA framework of the different existing research studies related to the use of the blockchain technology in the energy sector, published between 2008 and 2021. We identified a total of 769 primary studies after intensive manual analysis and filtering, which we thoroughly assessed using various criteria to address six main research questions that covered the blockchain types, applications and platforms in the energy sector, the energy source types for which blockchain platforms are implemented, the emergent technologies that are combined to blockchain solutions, and the types of consensuses used in energy blockchains. Based on the collected survey data, we built a database to categorize the existing research works, identify research trends, and highlight knowledge gaps and potential areas for additional field study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Power System Challenges toward Renewable Energies’ Integration)

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