An overview of grid-edge control with the digital transformation

Distribution networks are evolving to become more responsive with increasing integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) and digital transformation at the grid edges. This evolution imposes many challenges to the operation of the network, which then calls for new control and operation paradigms. Among others, a so-called grid-edge control is emerging to harmonise the coexistence of the grid control system and DER’s autonomous control. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the grid-edge control with various control architectures, layers, and strategies. The challenges and opportunities for such an approach at the grid edge with the integration of DERs and digital transformation are summarised. The potential solutions to support the network operation by using the inherent controllability of DER and the availability of the digital transformation at the grid edges are discussed

Microgrids: Planning, Protection and Control

This Special Issue will include papers related to the planning, protection, and control of smart grids and microgrids, and their applications in the industry, transportation, water, waste, and urban and residential infrastructures. Authors are encouraged to present their latest research; reviews on topics including methods, approaches, systems, and technology; and interfaces to other domains such as big data, cybersecurity, human–machine, sustainability, and smart cities. The planning side of microgrids might include technology selection, scheduling, interconnected microgrids, and their integration with regional energy infrastructures. The protection side of microgrids might include topics related to protection strategies, risk management, protection technologies, abnormal scenario assessments, equipment and system protection layers, fault diagnosis, validation and verification, and intelligent safety systems. The control side of smart grids and microgrids might include control strategies, intelligent control algorithms and systems, control architectures, technologies, embedded systems, monitoring, and deployment and implementation

A survey of scan-capture power reduction techniques

With the advent of sub-nanometer geometries, integrated circuits (ICs) are required to be checked for newer defects. While scan-based architectures help detect these defects using newer fault models, test data inflation happens, increasing test time and test cost. An automatic test pattern generator (ATPG) exercise’s multiple fault sites simultaneously to reduce test data which causes elevated switching activity during the capture cycle. The switching activity results in an IR drop exceeding the devices under test (DUT) specification. An increase in IR-drop leads to failure of the patterns and may cause good DUTs to fail the test. The problem is severe during at-speed scan testing, which uses a functional rated clock with a high frequency for the capture operation. Researchers have proposed several techniques to reduce capture power. They used various methods, including the reduction of switching activity. This paper reviews the recently proposed techniques. The principle, algorithm, and architecture used in them are discussed, along with key advantages and limitations. In addition, it provides a classification of the techniques based on the method used and its application. The goal is to present a survey of the techniques and prepare a platform for future development in capture power reduction during scan testing

State-of-the-Art of the Flywheel/Li-ion Battery Hybrid Storage System for Stationary Applications

This thesis presents the State-of-the-Art of a flywheel/Li-ion battery Hybrid Energy Storage System for stationary applications. As Renewable Energy Sources increase in the grid so do the stability problems associated with their intermittency. Here the importance of Energy Storage Systems that aim to provide many grid services. The complementary features of the two devices in terms of power, energy and discharge time candidate this hybrid system as an optimal solution to support future grids

Scalable Approach for Power Droop Reduction During Scan-Based Logic BIST

The generation of significant power droop (PD) during at-speed test performed by Logic Built-In Self Test (LBIST) is a serious concern for modern ICs. In fact, the PD originated during test may delay signal transitions of the circuit under test (CUT): an effect that may be erroneously recognized as delay faults, with consequent erroneous generation of test fails and increase in yield loss. In this paper, we propose a novel scalable approach to reduce the PD during at-speed test of sequential circuits with scan-based LBIST using the launch-on-capture scheme. This is achieved by reducing the activity factor of the CUT, by proper modification of the test vectors generated by the LBIST of sequential ICs. Our scalable solution allows us to reduce PD to a value similar to that occurring during the CUT in field operation, without increasing the number of test vectors required to achieve a target fault coverage (FC). We present a hardware implementation of our approach that requires limited area overhead. Finally, we show that, compared with recent alternative solutions providing a similar PD reduction, our approach enables a significant reduction of the number of test vectors (by more than 50%), thus the test time, to achieve a target FC

Grid-Forming Inverter-based Wind Turbine Generators: Comprehensive Review, Comparative Analysis, and Recommendations

High penetration of wind power with conventional grid following controls for inverter-based wind turbine generators (WTGs) weakens the power grid, challenging the power system stability. Grid-forming (GFM) controls are emerging technologies that can address such stability issues. Numerous methodologies of GFM inverters have been developed in the literature; however, their applications for WTGs have not been thoroughly explored. As WTGs need to incorporate multiple control functions to operate reliably in different operational regions, the GFM control should be appropriately developed for the WTGs. This paper presents a review of GFM controls for WTGs, which covers the latest developments in GFM controls and includes multi-loop and single-loop GFM, virtual synchronous machine-based GFM, and virtual inertia control-based GFM. A comparison study for these GFM-based WTGs regarding normal and abnormal operating conditions together with black-start capability is then performed. The control parameters of these GFM types are properly designed and optimized to enable a fair comparison. In addition, the challenges of applying these GFM controls to wind turbines are discussed, which include the impact of DC-link voltage control strategy and the current saturation algorithm on the GFM control performance, black-start capability, and autonomous operation capability. Finally, recommendations and future developments of GFM-based wind turbines to increase the power system reliability are presented

Virtual synchronous generator: an overview

The continuous increase in the penetration of renewable energy (RE) based distributed generations (DGs) in the power system network has created a great concern on the stability of the existing grid. Traditional bulk power plants, which are dominated by synchronous machines (SMs) can easily support system instability, due to the inherent rotor inertia and damping characteristic, as well as voltage (reactive power) control ability. Nevertheless, converter based RE has some special characteristics, such as stochastic real and reactive power output, quick active and reactive power response, small output impedance, and little or no inertia and damping property thereby causing frequency and voltage instability in the system. To solve this problem, virtual synchronous generator (VSG) concept was proposed to emulate some of the features of conventional SG through converter control strategy in order to provide additional inertia virtually. Different control schemes for VSG has been proposed in literature. Surprisingly, an overview of these schemes is yet to be efficiently presented. This paper presents an overview of the VSG control schemes. It provides the concepts, the features of the control schemes and the applications of VSG. Finally, the crucial issues regarding VSG control schemes and the necessary improvement that need to be addressed are highlighted.Keywords: Distributed generation, Synchronous generator, Virtual synchronous generator, Power electronicv converter, Energy storage system, Frequency contro