Abstract:For many years, coal-fired power plant generation comprised the largest share of electricity in the U.S. power sector. While natural gas plants now constitute a greater portion of the total, coal is projected to remain a shrinking but significant component of U.S. electricity production. Natural gas-fired technologies are dispatchable and versatile generation sources, but the recent and anticipated growth of wind and solar technologies will add non-dispatchable, intermittent power generation sources to U.S. electricity grids. Numerous emissions-related benefits arise from the deployment of these technologies, but they must coexist with coal plants, many of which run most efficiently under baseload operating procedures. Historical monthly emissions data has been analyzed on a sample of coal plants to show how modified coal operations have affected plant emission rates, as measured by carbon dioxide emitted per unit of electricity output. Statistically significant correlations between plant capacity factors and emission rate intensity have been observed by the majority of the sample, showing a worsening under more sporadic operations. Since nearly all of the coal plants in the sample are generating less electricity, determining the emissions impact of operational decisions will assist policymakers as they seek to minimize total system emissions without severe disruptions to electricity cost and service reliability.

Abstract:The DC microgrid has become a typical distribution network due to its excellent performance. However, a well-designed protection scheme still remains a challenge for DC microgrids. At present, researches on DC microgrids primarily focus on the topology structure, control method and energy control, while researches on fault analysis, detection and isolation have not drawn enough attention. Therefore, this paper intends to depict the current research status in different relative areas and review the proposed protection strategies in order to help researchers to have a clear understanding on DC microgrid protection. Meanwhile, to solve the protection issues and promote the development of the DC microgrid, this paper points out the key areas of future research. The future protection research directions lie in the development of novel protection devices, which are based on electronic technology to provide loose protection constraints and the improvement of suitable protection schemes. In addition, the novel concept of coordinated strategy of control and protection of the DC microgrids is explained.

Abstract:This paper proposes a wavelet-based data compression method to compress the recorded data of oscillations in power systems for wide-area measurement systems. Actual recorded oscillations and simulated oscillations are compressed and reconstructed by the waveletbased data compression method to select the best wavelet functions and decomposition scales according to the criterion of the minimum compression distortion composite index, for a balanced consideration of compression performance and reconstruction accuracy. Based on the selections, the relationship between the oscillation frequency and the corresponding optimal wavelet and scale is discussed, and a piecewise linear model of the base-2 logarithm of the frequency and the order of the wavelet is developed, in which different pieces represent different scales. As a result, the wavelet function and decomposition scale can be selected according to the oscillation frequency. Compared with the wavelet-based data compression method with a fixed wavelet scale for disturbance signals and the real-time data compression method based on exception compression and swing door trending for oscillations, the proposed method can provide high compression ratios and low distortion rates.

Abstract:Longest geographically connected Australian power system is undergoing an unprecedented transition, under the effect of increased integration of renewable energy systems. This change in generation mix has implications for the whole interconnected system designs, its operational strategies and the regulatory framework. Frequency control policies about real-time balancing of demand and supply is one of the prominent and priority operational challenge requiring urgent attention. This paper reviews the Australian electricity market structure in presence of wind energy and its governance. Various issues related to increased wind generation systems integration are discussed in detail. Currently applied mitigations along with prospective mitigation methods requiring new or improved policies are also discussed. It is concluded that developing prospective frequency regulation ancillary services market desires further encouraging policies from governing authority to keep pace with current grid transition and maintain its security.

Abstract:Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, face several obstacles, including curtailment, where the generated energy exceeds local demand and production must be reduced because of limited transmission capacity. Simultaneously, consumer demand for large-capacity batteries is expanding given the recent rapid development of electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid EVs. A batterycharging mode, in which discharged batteries are transported from battery exchange stations in high-load areas to wind farms, is proposed to alleviate curtailment. In this study, batteries store otherwise curtailed energy and smooth the wind power output simultaneously. The structure of the battery-charging device is discussed, and the concept of a battery-charging container is proposed. The control principle of the battery-charging management unit is presented with a simulation model constructed in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment. A case study is simulated, and the feasibility of the mode is analyzed considering the levelized cost and energy losses. Simulation results show that this mode is a feasible solution to alleviating wind curtailment and providing fresh impetus for developing EV battery exchanges.

Abstract:Wind power is volatile and uncertain, which makes it difficult to establish an accurate prediction model. How to quantitatively describe the distribution of wind power output is the focus of this paper. First, it is assumed that wind speed is a random variable that satisfies the normal distribution. Secondly, based on the nonlinear relationship between wind speed and wind power, the distribution model of wind power prediction is established from the viewpoint of the physical mechanism. The proposed model successfully shows the complex characteristics of the wind power prediction distribution. The results show that the distribution of wind power prediction varies significantly with the point forecast of the wind speed.

Abstract:A layout of the offshore wind farm (OSWF) plays a vital role in its capital cost of installation. One of the major contributions in the installation cost is electrical collector system (ECS). ECS includes: submarine cables, number of wind turbines (WTs), offshore platforms etc. By considering the above mentioned problem having an optimized design of OSWF provides the better feasibility in terms of economic considerations. This paper explains the methodology for optimized designing of ECS. The proposed methodology is based on combined elitist ant colony optimization and multiple travelling salesman problem. The objective is to minimize the length of submarine cable connected between WTs and to minimize the wake loss in the wind farm in order to reduce the cost of cable and cable power loss. The methodology is applied on North Hoyle and Horns Rev OSWFs connected with 30 and 80 WTs respectively and the results are presented.

Abstract:A unified optimal power flow (OPF) model for AC/DC grids integrated with natural gas systems is proposed for the real-time scheduling of power systems. Herein, the primary physical couplings underlying this coordinated system are modeled and investigated. In addition, the uncertainties of gas loads are considered when studying the role of gas supply for gas-fired units in power system operations. The nonlinear gas system constraints are converted to the second-order cone forms that allow for the use of the Benders decomposition techniques and the interior-point method to obtain the optimal solution. The numerical results of the modified IEEE 118-bus test system that integrates the Belgium 20-node natural gas system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The effects of gas demand uncertainties on the optimal schedule of thermal generators are investigated as well.

Abstract:This paper describes new methodology in the current unbalance calculations in meshed grids. The meshed grids, mainly the transmission ones, consist of more parts connected together which are formed using different conductor types, phase sequence arrangements, tower constructions, and various number of lines on the same tower. Therefore several computational challenges arise in comparison with the widely discussed point-topoint configuration. The methodology divides the grid into a number of impedance matrices respecting all the self and mutual impedances among all conductors and all parallel lines. Another challenging issue for the lines impedance description is changing the number of shield wires along the line if the line is composed of several sections with different tower configurations. For the current unbalance calculation, shield wires must also be included in the algorithms, and matrices of various dimensions can be obtained. For the overall matrix description to be used, dimensions of all matrices in final equations must be equal, and therefore the virtual shield wires are created. To compare more conductor transposition cases with each other, the line loadings caused by voltage sources should be equal. This is necessary mainly in case of meshed grids where the supplying sources on different lines can have strong mutual couplings. This can be achieved by an appropriately designed optimization of the connected voltage sources.

Abstract:This paper proposes a generation dispatch model based on the maximum entropy principle. The objective is to find an optimal generation dispatch strategy that minimizes the generation cost and satisfies the security constraints of power systems, while taking into account the uncertainty of wind power. Since in many situations, only partial information of the probabilistic variables can be obtained, the maximum entropy principle is introduced to find the most likely realized probability distributions of the power flow, thus providing an accurate probabilistic circumstance to solve the generation dispatch model. The proposed method is tested on the IEEE 39-bus system, and is compared with the methodologies based on Monte Carlo simulation and Gram-Charlier expansions.

Abstract:This paper presents an approach to determine the vulnerable components in the electricity and natural gas networks of an islanded microgrid that is exposed to deliberate disruptions. The vulnerable components in the microgrid are identified by solving a bi-level optimization problem. The objective of the upper-level problem (the attacker’s objective) is to maximize the expected operation cost of microgrid by capturing the penalties associated with the curtailed electricity and heat demands as a result of the disruption. In the lower-level problem, the adverse effects of disruptions and outages in the electricity and natural gas networks are mitigated by leveraging the available resources in the microgrid (the defender’s objective). The uncertainties in the electricity and heat demand profiles were captured by introducing scenarios with certain probabilities. The formulated bi-level optimization problem provides effective guidelines for the microgrid operator to adopt the reinforcement strategies in the interdependent natural gas and electricity distribution networks and improve the resilience of energy supply. The presented case study shows that as more components are reinforced in the interdependent energy networks, the reinforcement cost is increased and the expected operation cost as a result of disruption is decreased.

Abstract:Distributed photovoltaic generators (DPGs) have been integrated into the medium/low voltage distribution network widely. Due to the randomness and fluctuation of DPG, however, the distribution and direction of power flow are changed frequently on some days. Therefore, more attention is needed to ensure the safe operation of the distribution network. The installation of energy storage systems (ESSs) can help the network to withstand the fluctuations caused by DPG. Based on the discrete Fourier transform method, this paper presents an ESS capacity allocation strategy for the medium/low voltage distribution network with DPG. The reliability scenario models are created via Latin hypercube sampling with Cholesky decomposition and scenario reduction. Numerical results show that the proposed strategy can reduce the power flow fluctuation with less ESS capacity, and increase the penetration capacity of DPG in the distribution network while maintaining the quality of the power supply.

Abstract:This paper investigates an optimal day-ahead dynamic pricing problem in an electricity market with one electricity retailer and multiple customers. The main objective of this paper is to support the retailer to make the best day-ahead dynamic pricing decision, which maximizes its profit under the realistic assumption that mixed types of customers coexist in the electricity market where some customers have installed smart meters with the embedded home energy management system in their home whereas other customers have not installed smart meters. To this end, we propose a hybrid demand modelling framework which firstly uses an optimal energy management algorithm with bill minimization to model the behavior of customers with smart meters and secondly use a data-driven demand modelling method to model the behavior of customers without smart meters. Such a hybrid demand model can not only schedule usages of home appliances to the interests of customers with smart meters but also be used to understand electricity usage behaviors of customers without smart meters. Based on the established hybrid demand model for all customers, a profit maximization algorithm is developed to achieve optimal prices for the retailer under relevant market constraints. Under the condition of no growth of the revenue (i.e. no increase of total bill from all customers), simulation results indicate our optimization algorithm can improve the profit for around 5% on average.

Abstract:An electric vehicle (EV) centred ecosystem has not yet been formed, the existing limited statistic data are far from enough for the analysis of EV users’ travel and charge behaviors, which however tends to be affected by many certain and uncertain factors. An experimental economics (EE) based simulation method can be used to analyze the behaviors of key participants in a system. However, it is restricted by the system size, experimental site and the number of qualified human participants. Therefore, this method is hard to be adopted for the behavioral analysis of a large number of human participants. In this paper, a new method combining a questionnaire statistics and the EEbased simulation is proposed. The causal relationship is considered in the design of the questionnaires and data extraction, then a multi-agent modeling integration method is introduced in the EE-based simulation, which enables the integration of causal/statistical/behavioral models into the multi-agent framework to reflect the EV users’ travel willingness statistically. The generated multi-agents are used to replace human participants in the EE-based simulation in order to evaluate EV users’ travel demands in different scenarios, and compare the differences of simulated or measured travel behaviors between potential EV users and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle users.

Abstract:This paper presents a model predictive control (MPC) for off-board plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) chargers with photovoltaic (PV) integration using two-level four-leg inverter topology. The PEV charger is controlled by a unified controller that incorporates direct power and current MPC to dynamically control decoupled active-reactive power flow in a smart grid environment as well as to control PEV battery charging and discharging reliably. PV power generation with maximum power tracking is seamlessly integrated with the power flow control to provide additional power generation. Fast dynamic response and good steady-state performance under all power flow modes and various environmental conditions are evaluated and analyzed. From the results obtained, the charger demonstrates less than 1.5% total harmonic distortion as well as low active and reactive power ripple of less than 7% and 8% respectively on the grid for all power flow modes. The PEV battery also experiences a low charging and discharging current ripple of less than 2.5%. Therefore, the results indicate the successful implementation of the proposed charger and its control for PV integrated offboard PEV chargers.

Abstract:Demand response has gained significant attention recently with the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources in power systems. Air conditioning loads are typical thermostatically controlled loads which can play an active role in ancillary services by regulating their aggregated power consumption. The aggregation of air conditioners is essential to the control of air conditioning loads. In this paper, linear state equations are proposed to aggregate air conditioning loads by solving coupled Fokker–Planck equations (CFPEs) using the finite difference method. By analyzing the numerical stability and convergence of the difference scheme, the grid spacings, including temperature step and time step, are properly determined according to the maximal principle. Stationary solutions of the CFPEs are obtained by analytical and numerical methods. Furthermore, a classification method using dimension reduction is proposed to deal with the problem of heterogeneous parameters and interval estimation is applied to describe the stochastic behavior of air conditioning loads. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Abstract:Along with the increasing penetration of distributed generation with voltage-source converters (VSCs), there are extensive concerns over the potential virtual rotor angle stability, which is characterized by oscillations of power and frequency during the dynamic process of synchronization in the grid. Several control strategies have been developed for VSCs to emulate rotating inertia as well as damping of oscillations. This paper classifies these strategies and provides a small-signal modeling framework including all kinds of VSCs in different applications for virtual rotor angle stability. A unified perspective based on the famous Phillips–Heffron model is established for various VSCs. Thus, the concepts of equivalent inertia and the synchronizing and damping coefficients in different VSCs are highlighted, based on the similarities with the synchronous generator (SG) system in both physical mechanisms and mathematical models. It revealed the potentiality of various VSCs to achieve equivalence with the SG. This study helps promote the unity of VSCs and traditional SGs in both theories and methods for analyzing the dynamic behavior and enhancing the stability. Finally, future research needs and new perspectives are addressed.

Abstract:Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) operate in the low modulation index region in many applications. However, when utilized at the low modulation index region, large harmonics appear in the output voltage, which degrade the performance of the MMC. To improve the harmonic characteristic in the low modulation index, the carrier dynamic overlapping switching frequency optimal pulse width modulation (CDOSFOPWM) method is proposed for the MMC here. The whole modulation index region is divided into three regions: high modulation index region, middle modulation index region, and low modulation index region. The carrier amplitude, carrier overlap ratio, and frequency of triangular carriers are chosen dynamically according to the modulation index region of the modulation signals, to achieve the optimal harmonic characteristic in the whole modulation index region and maintain the switching loss. The number of on-state submodules (SMs) can be calculated by CDOSFOPWM, and the selection of SMs is performed by a reducing switching frequency voltage balancing algorithm. Finally, the proposed method is verified by simulation and experimental results.

Abstract:In three-phase four-wire systems, unbalanced loads can cause grid currents to be unbalanced, and this may cause the neutral point potential on the grid side to shift. The neutral point potential shift will worsen the control precision as well as the performance of the threephase four-wire unified power quality conditioner (UPQC), and it also leads to unbalanced three-phase output voltage, even causing damage to electric equipment. To deal with unbalanced loads, this paper proposes a matching-ratio compensation algorithm (MCA) for the fundamental active component of load currents, and by employing this MCA, balanced three-phase grid currents can be realized under 100% unbalanced loads. The steady-state fluctuation and the transient drop of the DC bus voltage can also be restrained. This paper establishes the mathematical model of the UPQC, analyzes the mechanism of the DC bus voltage fluctuations, and elaborates the interaction between unbalanced grid currents and DC bus voltage fluctuations; two control strategies of UPQC under three-phase stationary coordinate based on the MCA are given, and finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy are verified by experiment results.

Abstract:This letter proposes a novel hybrid component and configuration model for combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) participating in independent system operator (ISO) markets. The proposed model overcomes the inaccuracy issues in the current configuration-based model while retaining its simple and flexible bidding framework of configuration-based models. The physical limitations— such as minimum online/offline time and ramping rates— are modeled for each component separately, and the cost is calculated with the bidding curves from the configuration modes. This hybrid mode can represent the current dominant bidding model in the unit commitment problem of ISOs while treating the individual components in CCGTs accurately. The commitment status of the individual components is mapped to the unique configuration mode of the CCGTs. The transitions from one configuration mode to another are also modeled. No additional binary variables are added, and numerical case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of this model for CCGT units in the unit commitment problem.

Abstract:A unique high efficiency photovoltaic (PV) system is presented. It uses partial sine wave tracking for a pulse-width modulation (PWM) boost converter as well as a full-bridge inverter. The boost converter and full-bridge inverter are connected via a compact intermediate film capacitor (i.e. non-smoothing DC link stage). PWM switching is activated by a dual mode control technique. In the proposed topology, simultaneous switching of both power conversion stages is avoided and therefore this increases the power conversion efficiency. The distinctive operating principles of these two power processing stages are discussed and analyzed with the experimental results for single-phase loading of the PV system.