Practical applications of multi-agent systems in electric power systems

The transformation of energy networks from passive to active systems requires the embedding of intelligence within the network. One suitable approach to integrating distributed intelligent systems is multi-agent systems technology, where components of functionality run as autonomous agents capable of interaction through messaging. This provides loose coupling between components that can benefit the complex systems envisioned for the smart grid. This paper reviews the key milestones of demonstrated agent systems in the power industry and considers which aspects of agent design must still be addressed for widespread application of agent technology to occur

Advanced Testing Chain Supporting the Validation of Smart Grid Systems and Technologies

New testing and development procedures and methods are needed to address topics like power system stability, operation and control in the context of grid integration of rapidly developing smart grid technologies. In this context, individual testing of units and components has to be reconsidered and appropriate testing procedures and methods need to be described and implemented. This paper addresses these needs by proposing a holistic and enhanced testing methodology that integrates simulation/software- and hardware-based testing infrastructure. This approach presents the advantage of a testing environment, which is very close to f i eld testing, includes the grid dynamic behavior feedback and is risks-free for the power system, for the equipment under test and for the personnel executing the tests. Furthermore, this paper gives an overview of successful implementation of the proposed testing approach within different testing infrastructure available at the premises of different research institutes in Europe.Comment: 2018 IEEE Workshop on Complexity in Engineering (COMPENG

Scenarios for the development of smart grids in the UK: literature review

Smart grids are expected to play a central role in any transition to a low-carbon energy future, and much research is currently underway on practically every area of smart grids. However, it is evident that even basic aspects such as theoretical and operational definitions, are yet to be agreed upon and be clearly defined. Some aspects (efficient management of supply, including intermittent supply, two-way communication between the producer and user of electricity, use of IT technology to respond to and manage demand, and ensuring safe and secure electricity distribution) are more commonly accepted than others (such as smart meters) in defining what comprises a smart grid. It is clear that smart grid developments enjoy political and financial support both at UK and EU levels, and from the majority of related industries. The reasons for this vary and include the hope that smart grids will facilitate the achievement of carbon reduction targets, create new employment opportunities, and reduce costs relevant to energy generation (fewer power stations) and distribution (fewer losses and better stability). However, smart grid development depends on additional factors, beyond the energy industry. These relate to issues of public acceptability of relevant technologies and associated risks (e.g. data safety, privacy, cyber security), pricing, competition, and regulation; implying the involvement of a wide range of players such as the industry, regulators and consumers. The above constitute a complex set of variables and actors, and interactions between them. In order to best explore ways of possible deployment of smart grids, the use of scenarios is most adequate, as they can incorporate several parameters and variables into a coherent storyline. Scenarios have been previously used in the context of smart grids, but have traditionally focused on factors such as economic growth or policy evolution. Important additional socio-technical aspects of smart grids emerge from the literature review in this report and therefore need to be incorporated in our scenarios. These can be grouped into four (interlinked) main categories: supply side aspects, demand side aspects, policy and regulation, and technical aspects.

An IoT realization in an interdepartmental real time simulation lab for distribution system control and management studies

© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. Modern electric distribution systems with emerging operation methods and advanced metering systems bring new challenges to the system analysis, control and management. Interdependency of cyber and physical layers and interoperability of various control and management strategies require wide and accurate test and analysis before field implementation. Real-time simulation is known as a precise and reliable method to support new system/device development from initial design to implementation. However, for the study of different application algorithms, considering the various expertise requirements, the interconnection of multiple development laboratories to a real-time simulation lab, which constitutes the core of an interdepartmental real-time simulation platform, is needed. This paper presents the implemented architecture of such an integrated lab, which serves real-time simulations to different application fields within electric distribution system domain. The architecture is an implementation of an Internet-of-Things to facilitate software in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware in-the-loop (HIL) tests. A demo of the proposed architecture is presented, applied to the testing of a fault location algorithm in a portion of a realistic distribution system model. The implemented platform is flexible to integrate different algorithms in a plug-and-play fashion through a designed communication interface

An IoT realization in an interdepartmental real time simulation lab for distribution system control and management studies

Modern electric distribution systems with emerging operation methods and advanced metering systems bring new challenges to the system analysis, control and management. Interdependency of cyber and physical layers and interoperability of various control and management strategies require wide and accurate test and analysis before field implementation. Real-time simulation is known as a precise and reliable method to support new system/device development from initial design to implementation. However, for the study of different application algorithms, considering the various expertise requirements, the interconnection of multiple development laboratories to a real-time simulation lab, which constitutes the core of an interdepartmental real-time simulation platform, is needed. This paper presents the implemented architecture of such an integrated lab, which serves real-time simulations to different application fields within electric distribution system domain. The architecture is an implementation of an Internet-of-Things to facilitate software in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware in-the-loop (HIL) tests. A demo of the proposed architecture is presented, applied to the testing of a fault location algorithm in a portion of a realistic distribution system model. The implemented platform is flexible to integrate different algorithms in a plug-and-play fashion through a designed communication interface

A SGAM-based test platform to develop a scheme for wide area measurement-free monitoring of smart grids under high PV penetration

© 2019 by the authors. In order to systematically shift existing control and management paradigms in distribution systems to new interoperable communication supported schemes in smart grids, we need to map newly developed use cases to standard reference models like Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM). From the other side, any new use cases should be tested and validated ex-ante before being deployed in the real-world system. Considering various types of actors in smart grids, use cases are usually tested using co-simulation platforms. Currently, there is no efficient co-simulation platform which supports interoperability analysis based on SGAM. In this paper, we present our developed test platform which offers a support to design new use cases based on SGAM. We used this platform to develop a new scheme for wide area monitoring of existing distribution systems under growing penetration of Photovoltaic production. Off-the-shelf solutions of state estimation for wide area monitoring are either used for passive distribution grids or applied to the active networks with wide measurement of distributed generators. Our proposed distribution state estimation algorithm does not require wide area measurements and relies on the data provided by a PV simulator we developed. This practical scheme is tested experimentally on a realistic urban distribution grid. The monitoring results shows a very low error rate of about 1% by using our PV simulator under high penetration of PV with about 30% error of load forecast. Using our SGAM-based platform, we could propose and examine an Internet-of-Things-based infrastructure to deploy the use case

Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions

Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers, involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems. SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues, challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems