Dynamic Pricing for Microgrids Energy Transaction in Blockchain-based Ecosystem

Microgrid (MG) is an efficient platform to integrate distributed energy resources in distribution networks. The operation of MG is also expected to take advantage of emerging smart grid technologies to improve operation and robustness. Among these emerging technologies, blockchain technology provide a big potential to rule the energy transaction in an innovative way. In this paper, a physical architecture of the ecosystem with MGs is firstly presented. Moreover, as the main parts of the blockchain technology, the operation of distributed ledger and smart contracts are introduced in the transaction process. Considering dynamic pricing scheme in the process of energy transaction in the ecosystem, we model the energy transaction between MGs and distribution system operator (DSO) to decide the trading amount and price of the energy. The welfare maximization mathematical model is established accordingly, and the formulated dual problem will be used to find the shadow price of selling renewable energy to grid and real-time retailer price from DSO. Finally, with the deployment of distribution ledger, the energy transaction process can be fully recorded, and transaction execution can be achieved with the help of smart contracts. In light of the mentioned perspective, beside demonstrated benefit brought to both MGs and DSO, the energy transaction and management based on the blockchain will result in higher reliability and improved auditability in the ecosystem

Synchronization of power inverters in islanded microgrids using an FM-modulated signal

"(c) 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, 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 components of this work in other works."A microgrid can operate in island mode, isolated from the main grid during certain time intervals. When operated in island mode, the electronic converters of the microgrid must keep the voltage and frequency of the microgrid inside the desired range. The converters of a microgrid can be classified into three groups: 1) grid-feeding; 2) grid-supporting; and 3) grid-forming power converters. The grid-forming converters operate as a voltage source, and require an external synchronization signal provided by the microgrid central controller. Both the noise and the delay in the synchronization signals received by the grid-forming converters are critical issues, which deteriorate the quality of the microgrid voltage and may overload those converters. The synchronization signals must be robust and suitable for operating in noisy environments. In this paper, the synchronization signal is frequency-modulated to be transmitted, being robust against noise. The transmission is done through an industrial RS-485 line with a low delay. The demodulation is performed with a low computational load by the control processors of the grid-forming power converters.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grant ENE2015-64087-C2-2-R, and in part by the European Regional Development Fund.Patrao Herrero, I.; González Medina, R.; Marzal-Romeu, S.; Garcerá Sanfeliú, G.; Figueres Amorós, E. (2017). Synchronization of power inverters in islanded microgrids using an FM-modulated signal. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. 8(1):503-510. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2016.2574038S5035108

“Estrategia de control robusto descentralizado para una micro-red aislada con generación distribuida acoplada para mejorar la estabilidad de voltaje”

El constante avance de la tecnología requiere una gran cantidad de energía, por ello se ha propuesto la inclusión de fuentes de energía renovable (RES) cerca de los centros de carga. Estas RES son implementadas también en sectores donde el sistema eléctrico convencional no es capaz de llegar, de esta manera se garantiza el abastecimiento de energía eléctrica a toda la población. Sin embargo, la implementación de estos nuevos sistemas implica retos de control para que su funcionamiento sea correcto, indiferente que la Micro-red funcione de forma conectada o aislada a la red convencional. Este trabajo presenta una novedosa estrategia de control de Micro-redes aisladas, basado en el control jerárquico y control droop modificado. Esta estrategia robusta permite mejorar la estabilidad de voltaje y su comportamiento transitorio. Se implementa una Micro-red de referencia con dos fuentes fotovoltaicas con valores nominales. Lo que permite verificar el desempeño de la estrategia propuesta comparando con un controlador PI convencional.Technological advances demand a huge amount of electricity, therefore Renewable Energy Resources (RES) must be near the electrical demand is huge, in addition they are implemented in rural places, where electric utility is not able to provide the service. However, the implementation of these new systems implies facing new challenges for the correct operation of Microgrid connected or islanded from the conventional system. This research presents a novel control strategy for islanded Microgrids, based on hierarchical control and modified droop control. The robust control strategy presented allows stability voltage improvement and its transient behavior. Which subscribes to verify the performance of the proposed strategy compared with a conventional PI controller

Control strategy for direct voltage and frequency stabilityenhancement in HVAC/HVDC grids

Direct voltage fluctuations due to the presence of relatively large DC reactors (as an essen-tial part of HVDC breakers), lack of inertia, and unwanted frequency fluctuations in theAC side of HVDC grids, have major consequences on the stability of HVAC/HVDC grids.The use of the DC Power System Stabilizer (DC-PSS) can damp and eliminate voltageoscillations caused by the presence of the DC reactors. However, DC-PSS cannot addressthe issues of inertia and unwanted frequency fluctuations. A method to improve inertiais proposed here that can operate well with the droop controller, and DC-PSS does notinterfere with power-sharing and does not interact with any of these elements. Since thepresence of a droop controller in HVAC/HVDC grids associates with power and directvoltage, the method proposed here can improve direct voltage fluctuations by eliminatingsevere power peaks. Moreover, this method does not change the voltage level of the entiresystem, so there is no need to change the set-points of controllers. In addition, all param-eters of the controllers are tuned by an intelligent algorithm, and the Participation factor(PF) scheme is used to find the proper placement of the proposed controller