Efficient and Secure Energy Trading with Electric Vehicles and Distributed Ledger Technology

Efficient energy management of Distributed Renewable Energy Resources (DRER) enables a more sustainable and efficient energy ecosystem. Therefore, we propose a holistic Energy Management System (EMS), utilising the computational and energy storage capabilities of nearby Electric Vehicles (EVs), providing a low-latency and efficient management platform for DRER. Through leveraging the inherent, immutable features of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and smart contracts, we create a secure management environment, facilitating interactions between multiple EVs and energy resources. Using a privacy-preserving load forecasting method powered by Vehicular Fog Computing (VFC), we integrate the computational resources of the EVs. Using DLT and our forecasting framework, we accommodate efficient management algorithms in a secure and low-latency manner enabling greater utilisation of the energy storage resources. Finally, we assess our proposed EMS in terms of monetary and energy utility metrics, establishing the increased benefits of multiple interacting EVs and load forecasting. Through the proposed system, we have established the potential of our framework to create a more sustainable and efficient energy ecosystem whilst providing measurable benefits to participating agents.Comment: Accepted at IEEE Virtual Conference on Communications (VCC) 202

Effect of Wireless Communication Delay on DC Microgrids Performance

This paper investigates the effect of wireless communication technologies latency on the converters and the bus voltage of centrally communication based controlled DC microgrids (MGs) during islanding. A DC microgrid with its communication based control scheme was modeled to show the impact of latency. Simulation results show that the impact may be severe depending on the design, and the operational condition of the microgrid before latency occurs

Current challenges and future trends in the field of communication architectures for microgrids

[EN] The concept of microgrid has emerged as a feasible answer to cope with the increasing number of distributed renewable energy sources which are being introduced into the electrical grid. The microgrid communication network should guarantee a complete and bidirectional connectivity among the microgrid resources, a high reliability and a feasible interoperability. This is in a contrast to the current electrical grid structure which is characterized by the lack of connectivity, being a centralized-unidirectional system. In this paper a review of the microgrids information and communication technologies (ICT) is shown. In addition, a guideline for the transition from the current communication systems to the future generation of microgrid communications is provided. This paper contains a systematic review of the most suitable communication network topologies, technologies and protocols for smart microgrids. It is concluded that a new generation of peer-to-peer communication systems is required towards a dynamic smart microgrid. Potential future research about communications of the next microgrid generation is also identified.This work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under Grant ENE2015-64087-C2-2. This work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant BES-2013-064539.Marzal-Romeu, S.; Salas-Puente, RA.; González Medina, R.; Garcerá, G.; Figueres Amorós, E. (2018). Current challenges and future trends in the field of communication architectures for microgrids. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 82(2):3610-3622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.101S3610362282

INFRAESTRUCTURA DE COMUNICACIONES EN MICRORREDES ELECTRICAS

Este artículo muestra un estudio de la actualidad técnica y tecnológica de la infraestructura de comunicaciones utilizadas en  microrredes eléctricas, en este sentido ha surgido la necesidad de investigar, analizar, mejorar y desarrollar métodos de comunicación tanto alámbricos como inalámbricos que permitan crear una infraestructura de comunicaciones que soporte las características de control, supervisión y trasmisión de información entre dispositivos de control en una microrred de forma eficiente, segura y confiable.Dadas estas características en el artículo se analizan  las diferentes arquitecturas y topologías propuestas entorno a comunicaciones en el ambiente Smart Grid que se puedan adaptar a la forma en que opera una microrred. Se muestran las propuestas  y desarrollos realizados en el  área de telecomunicaciones concerniente a protocolos de comunicaciones utilizados en microrredes eléctricas, con el fin de conocer las tecnologías, protocolos y algoritmos utilizados en la transmisión de datos

Estudo sistemático sobre microrredes e redes elétricas inteligentes / A systematic study on microgrids and smart grids

A crescente demanda por energia no mundo ao longo dos anos vem requerendo por parte dos países soluções mais seguras e sustentáveis relacionadas à geração de energia. Grande parte das fontes que constituem a matriz elétrica mundial é não renovável, contribuindo para o aumento do efeito estufa e outras contraproducentes consequências. A solução desse problema, em partes, advém da utilização de fontes renováveis de energia integradas aos sitemas elétricos, como as microrredes, que são redes elétricas localizadas que permitem a integração de recursos distribuídos de geração e armazenamento de energia para o atendimento confiável e resiliente dos seus consumidores. Diante deste contexto, este artigo apresenta um estudo da literatura técnica concernente às microrredes e redes elétricas inteligentes. Os conceitos associados às microrredes são apresentados e estudados, bem como as vantagens e desvantagens na utilização das microrredes. Complementarmente, este artigo também apresenta um breve e atual levantamento de microrredes em operação no mundo. Para a obtenção dos artigos científicos e textos descritos neste estudo, a base de dados mais utilizada foi a Scopus, sendo selecionados os artigos publicados nos últimos 20 anos (2000-2020), com maior ênfase para artigos mais recentes e mais citados neste período. Por fim, este artigo apresenta uma análise dos desafios existentes e tendências futuras para a pesquisa na área das microrredes. Conclui-se que as microrredes são promissoras para a integração de recursos distribuídos à rede elétrica, mas que soluções dos desafios existentes são imprescindíveis para a sua larga implementação

Impact of Communication Latency on the Bus Voltage of Centrally Controlled DC Microgrid during Islanding

Maintaining a sustainable and reliable source of energy to supply critical loads within a renewable energy based microgrid (MG) during blackouts is directly related to its bus voltage variations. For example, voltage variation might trigger protection devices and disconnect DERs within the MG. Centrally controlled MGs (CCMGs) type is dependent on communication. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the impact of communication networks performance degradation, such as latency, on the bus voltage of CCMGs. This paper investigates the effect of wireless communication technologies latency on the bus voltage and performance of centralized DC MGs. Two mathematical models were developed to describe the behavior of microgrids during latency. As a case study, a renewable energy- based DC microgrid with its centralized control scheme was simulated to validate and compare the developed mathematical models. Results verify the accuracy of the developed models and show that the impact may be severe depending on the design, and the operational condition of the MG before latency occurs

A Hybrid State/Event Driven Communication-based Control for DC Microgrids

The U.S. electric power industry is undergoing unprecedented changes triggered by the growing electricity demand, and the national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, there is a call for increased power grid resiliency, survivability and self-healing capabilities. As a result of these challenges, the smart grid concept emerged. One of the main pillars of the smart grid is microgrids. In this thesis, the technical merits of clustering multiple microgrids during blackouts on the overall stability and supply availability have been investigated. We propose to use the existing underground distribution grid infrastructure, if applicable, during blackouts to form microgrid clusters. The required control hierarchy to manage microgrid clusters, and communicate with the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) has been discussed. A case study based on IEEE standard distribution feeders, and two microgrid models, has been presented. Results show that clustering microgrids help improve their performance and that the microgrid total rotating mass inertia has a direct impact on the overall stability of a microgrid cluster. The design and control of individual microgrids have been given genuine attention in this thesis since they represent the main resiliency building block in the proposed clustering approach. Therefore, a considerable portion of this thesis is dedicated to present studies and results of designing, simulating, building and testing a direct current (DC) microgrid. The impact of various operational scenarios on DC microgrid performance has been thoroughly discussed. Specifically, this thesis presents the design and implementation of the City College of New York (CCNY) DC microgrid laboratory testbed. The experimental results verify the applicability and flexibility of the developed microgrid testbed. An autonomous communication-based centralized control for DC microgrids has been developed and implemented. The proposed controller enables a smooth transition between various operating modes. Finite state machine (FSM) has been used to mathematically describe the various operating modes (states), and the events that may lead to mode changes (transitions). Therefore, the developed centralized controller aims at optimizing the performance of MG during all possible operational scenarios, while maintaining its reliability and stability. Results of selected drastic cases have been presented, which verified the validity and applicability of the proposed controller. Since the proposed microgrid controller is communication-based, this thesis investigates the effect of wireless communication technologies latency on the performance of DC microgrids during islanding. Mathematical models have been developed to describe the microgrid behavior during communication latency. Results verify the accuracy of the developed models and show that the impact may be severe depending on the design, and the operational conditions of the microgrid just before the latency occurs. We propose to use the existing underground distribution grid infrastructure, if applicable, during blackouts to form microgrid clusters. The required control hierarchy to manage microgrid clusters, and communicate with the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) has been discussed. A case study based on IEEE standard distribution feeders, and two microgrid models, has been presented. Results show that clustering microgrids help improve their performance and that the microgrid total rotating mass inertia has a direct impact on the overall stability of a microgrid cluster. The design and control of individual microgrids have been given genuine attention in this thesis since they represent the main resiliency building block in the proposed clustering approach. Therefore, a considerable portion of this thesis is dedicated to present studies and results of designing, simulating, building and testing a direct current (DC) microgrid. The impact of various operational scenarios on DC microgrid performance has been thoroughly discussed. Specifically, this thesis presents the design and implementation of the City College of New York (CCNY) DC microgrid laboratory testbed. The experimental results verify the applicability and flexibility of the developed microgrid testbed. An autonomous communication-based centralized control for DC microgrids has been developed and implemented. The proposed controller enables a smooth transition between various operating modes. Finite state machine (FSM) has been used to mathematically describe the various operating modes (states), and the events that may lead to mode changes (transitions). Therefore, the developed centralized controller aims at optimizing the performance of MG during all possible operational scenarios, while maintaining its reliability and stability. Results of selected drastic cases have been presented, which verified the validity and applicability of the proposed controller. Since the proposed microgrid controller is communication-based, this thesis investigates the effect of wireless communication technologies latency on the performance of DC microgrids during islanding. Mathematical models have been developed to describe the microgrid behavior during communication latency. Results verify the accuracy of the developed models and show that the impact may be severe depending on the design, and the operational conditions of the microgrid just before the latency occurs

Network and System Management for the Security Monitoring of Microgrids using IEC 62351-7

Interest in adding renewable energy sources to the power grid has risen substantially in recent years. As a response to this growing interest, the deployment of microgrids capable of integrating renewable energy has become more widespread. Microgrids are independent power systems that deliver power from different kinds of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) to local energy consumers more efficiently than the conventional power grid. The microgrid leverages advanced information and communication technologies for vital protection, monitoring, and control operations as well as for energy management. With the use of information technology comes the need to protect the microgrid information layer from cyberattacks that can impact critical microgrid power operations. In this research, a security monitoring system to detect cyberattacks against the microgrid, in near-real time, is designed and implemented. To achieve this, the system applies Network and System Management (NSM) for microgrid security monitoring, as specified by the IEC 62351-7 security standard for power systems. The specific contributions of this research are (i) an investigation on the suitability of NSM for microgrid security monitoring; (ii) the design and implementation of an NSM platform; (iii) the design and implementation of a security analytics framework for NSM based on deep learning models; (iv) the elaboration of a comprehensive microgrid simulation model deployed on a Hardware in the Loop (HIL) co-simulation framework; and (v) an experimental evaluation on the effectiveness and scalability of the NSM security monitoring platform for detection against microgrid attack scenarios, with a methodology being used to systematically generate the scenarios. The experimental results validate the usefulness of NSM in detecting attacks against the microgrid

ICT-Enabled Control and Energy Management of Community Microgrids for Resilient Smart Grid Operation

Our research has focused on developing novel controllers and algorithms to enhance the resilience of the power grid and increase its readiness level against major disturbances. The U.S. power grid currently encounters two main challenges: (1) the massive and extended blackouts caused by natural disasters, such as hurricane Sandy. These blackouts have raised a national call to explore innovative approaches for enhanced grid resiliency. Scrutinizing how previous blackouts initiated and propagated throughout the power grid, the major reasons are lack of situational awareness, lack of real-time monitoring and control, underdeveloped controllers at both the transmission and distribution levels, and lack of preparation for major emergencies; and (2) the projected high penetration of renewable energy resources (RES) into the electric grid, which is mainly driven by federal and state regulatory actions to reduce GHG emissions from new and existing power plants, and to encourage Non Wire Solutions (NWS). RESs are intermittent by nature imposing a challenge to forecast load and maintain generation/demand balance. The conceived vision of the smart grid is a cyber-physical system that amalgamates high processing power and increased dependence on communication networks to enable real-time monitoring and control. This will allow for, among other objectives, the realization of increased resilience and self-healing capabilities. This vision entails a hierarchical control architecture in which a myriad of microgrids, each locally controlled at the prosumer level, coordinates within the distribution level with their correspondent distribution system operator (i.e. area controllers). The various area controllers are managed by a Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control operator. The smart grid has been devised to address the grid main challenges; however, some technical barriers are yet to be overcome. These barriers include the need to develop new control techniques and algorithms that enable flexible transitions between operational modes of a single controller, and effective coordination between hierarchical control layers. In addition, there is a need to understand the reliability impacts of increased dependence on communication networks. In an attempt to tackle the aforementioned barriers, in my work, novel controllers to manage the prosumer and distribution networks were developed and analyzed. Specifically, the following has been accomplished at the prosumer level, we: 1) designed and implemented a DC MG testbed with minimal off-the-shelf components to enable testing new control techniques with significant flexibility and reconfiguration capability; 2) developed a communication-based hybrid state/event driven control scheme that aims at reducing the communication load and complexity, processor computations, and consequently system cost while maintaining resilient autonomous operation during all possible scenarios including major emergencies; and 3) analyzed the effect of communication latency on the performance of centralized ICT-based DC microgrids, and developed mathematical models to describe the behavior of microgrids during latency. In addition, we proposed a practical solution to mitigate severe impacts of latency. At the distribution level, we: 1) developed a model for an IEEE distribution test network with multiple MGs integrated[AM1] [PL2] ; 2) developed a control scheme to manage community MGs to mitigate RES intermittency and enhance the grid resiliency, deferring the need for infrastructure upgrade; and 3) investigated the optimal placement and operation of community MGs in distribution networks using complex network analysis, to increase distribution networks resilience. At the transmission level (T.L), New York State T.L was modeled. A case study was conducted on Long Island City to study the impact of high penetration of renewable energy resources on the grid resilience in the transmission level. These research accomplishments should pave the way and help facilitate a smooth transition towards the future smart grid.

A survey on communication infrastructure for micro-grids

A micro-grid is a small scale power supply network that is designed to provide electricity to a small community with its own renewable energy sources. Due to distributed generation variability, security and load sharing issues, an efficient communication infrastructure is necessary between its agents (load, generation and storage units). Numerous research efforts are being developed to come up with such communication techniques that can overcome the barriers to implement the concept of micro-grids. This paper covers the features, characteristics and challenges of micro-grids and their associated communication techniques. 2013 IEEE.Scopus2-s2.0-8488366577