EcoBlock: Grid Impacts, Scaling, and Resilience

Widespread deployment of EcoBlocks has the potential to transform today's electricity system into one that is more resilient, flexible, efficient and sustainable. In this vision, the system will consist of self- su cient, renewable-powered, block-scale entities that can deliberately adjust their net power exchange and can optimize performance, maintain stability, support each other, or disconnect entirely from the grid as needed. This report is intended as an independent analysis of the potential relationships, both constructive and adverse, between EcoBlocks and the grid

Strategic initiatives to increase the uptake of rooftop photovoltaic systems

This thesis has focused on the strategies that can be implemented by electricity utilities and private investors in increasing the penetration of rooftop photovoltaic systems (RPVs). Even though the proposals are general and applicable for any locality, the key studies of this research have been focused on the Australian electricity market. First, a detailed review and comparison of all Australian power distribution companies has been carried out in terms of the percentage of the supplied customers and the customer density per kilometre length of their power lines. Following that, the daily electricity supply and the electricity unit charges offered by the active electricity retail companies in the zones of each of these power distribution companies are reviewed and compared. Based on this information, the annual electricity bill of a customer supplied by different power distribution companies and retailers is calculated. Through this study, the national average annual electricity bill has been determined for Australia and the power distribution companies are categorised under four segments of very cheap, cheap, expensive, and very expensive companies. This study has highlighted some of the key challenges faced by power distribution companies in Australia in supplying power through a more localised renewable based generation. Installing an RPV by a household is a big decision, and there are many factors which need to be considered before this decision. It can be highly rewarding in some cases and for others, it may bring a loss in the investment. The main factors which need to be considered are the electricity consumption tariff, electricity consumption pattern, the location of the household and the tariffs offered by the utility in that area. In this thesis, economic incentives of installing a RPV and battery energy storage (BES) are discussed for a household in different states, served by various utilities. A comparison is made to find which states are more suitable in terms of gaining financial benefits from RPVs. A flat rate feed-in tariff is an incentive offered by many utilities to encourage their customers to invest in electricity generation from RPVs. Such a scheme is usually designed by financial techniques that mostly consider the initial capital cost and electricity spot price. However, such an incentive cannot help the utilities to address the technical challenges in networks with large renewable penetration. In this thesis, a dynamic feed-in tariff has been proposed and designed based on the value of electricity, hosting capacity, ambient temperature and time of day. This feed-in tariff will specifically support utilities that experience challenges in the electrification of remote areas or observe excessive stress on their networks at demand peak periods. The proposed feed-in tariff encourages the rural customers to install RPVs while discouraging the urban customers from installing RPVs without BES. Solar leasing is another opportunity to enhance the rapid uptake of RPVs. Even though solar leasing has attracted widespread acceptance in some countries, it has not been successful in being popular in some other places mainly due to lack of awareness of the model and economic viability in relation to outright buying a RPVs. One of the solar leasing models is roof rental in which a company leases the roof of residential premises for installing RPVs and selling the generated electricity to the utility. This thesis has explored an economically viable alternative for roof rental from the perspective of the engaged leasing company. To this end, an economic analysis has been performed to determine the net present value from the roof rental payments and versus different ratings of RPVs, desired interest rate and existing feed-in tariff. Furthermore, a BES can play an important role in realising maximum benefit from RPVs. However, the cost of a BES is comparatively high, and the BES of individual households may not be optimally utilised during a significant portion of the year as there may not be enough generation from RPVs during winter to charge the BES to its full capacity. Community solar on the other hand, if optimally designed, can give the opportunity to use a BES to its maximum capacity. Such systems can benefit many of the remote and rural communities, that are usually supplied by diesel generators, or long traditional distribution lines, which in addition to being expensive often don’t provide the reliability at desired level. These systems can also benefit most of the urban areas since the unmanaged penetration of RPVs has resulted in the undesired duck curve profile in the network. To this end, this thesis has proposed and validated the appropriate design criteria for community solar projects with an aim to improve the network duck curve profile, enable peak-shaving and increase the self-sufficiency of the community

A review on peak load shaving in microgrid—Potential benefits, challenges, and future trend

This study aims to review the potential benefits of peak load shaving in a microgrid system. The relevance of peak shaving for a microgrid system is presented in this research review at the outset to justify the peak load shaving efficacy. The prospective benefits of peak shaving in microgrid systems, including technological, economic, and environmental advantages, are thoroughly examined. This review study also presents a cost–benefit numerical analysis to illustrate the economic viability of peak load shaving for a microgrid system. Different peak shaving approaches are briefly discussed, as well as the obstacles of putting them into practice. Finally, this review study reveals some potential future trends and possible directions for peak shaving research in microgrid systems. This review paper lays a strong foundation for identifying the potential benefits of peak shaving in microgrid systems and establishing suitable projects for practical effectuation

Demand Side Management of Electric Vehicles in Smart Grids: A survey on strategies, challenges, modeling, and optimization

The shift of transportation technology from internal combustion engine (ICE) based vehicles to electricvehicles (EVs) in recent times due to their lower emissions, fuel costs, and greater efficiency hasbrought EV technology to the forefront of the electric power distribution systems due to theirability to interact with the grid through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) infrastructure. The greater adoptionof EVs presents an ideal use-case scenario of EVs acting as power dispatch, storage, and ancillaryservice-providing units. This EV aspect can be utilized more in the current smart grid (SG) scenarioby incorporating demand-side management (DSM) through EV integration. The integration of EVswith DSM techniques is hurdled with various issues and challenges addressed throughout thisliterature review. The various research conducted on EV-DSM programs has been surveyed. This reviewarticle focuses on the issues, solutions, and challenges, with suggestions on modeling the charginginfrastructure to suit DSM applications, and optimization aspects of EV-DSM are addressed separatelyto enhance the EV-DSM operation. Gaps in current research and possible research directions have beendiscussed extensively to present a comprehensive insight into the current status of DSM programsemployed with EV integration. This extensive review of EV-DSM will facilitate all the researchersto initiate research for superior and efficient energy management and EV scheduling strategies andmitigate the issues faced by system uncertainty modeling, variations, and constraints

Grid-Connected Distributed Wind-Photovoltaic Energy Management: A Review

Energy management comprises of the planning, operation and control of both energy production and its demand. The wind energy availability is site-specific, time-dependent and nondispatchable. As the use of electricity is growing and conventional sources are depleting, the major renewable sources, like wind and photovoltaic (PV), have increased their share in the generation mix. The best possible resource utilization, having a track of load and renewable resource forecast, assures significant reduction of the net cost of the operation. Modular hybrid energy systems with some storage as back up near load center change the scenario of unidirectional power flow to bidirectional with the distributed generation. The performance of such systems can be enhanced by the accomplishment of advanced control schemes in a centralized system controller or distributed control. In grid-connected mode, these can support the grid to tackle power quality issues, which optimize the use of the renewable resource. The chapter aims to bring recent trends with changing requirements due to distributed generation (DG), summarizing the research works done in the last 10 years with some vision of future trends

Analysis of Large Scale PV Systems with Energy Storage to a Utility Grid

With electric distribution network operators experiencing an exponential increase in distributed energy resource connections to the power grid, operational challenges arise attributable to the traditional methods of building distribution feeders. Photovoltaic (PV) solar systems are the major contributor due to recent technological advancements. Though this renewable energy resource is beneficial to human society, unfavorable electrical conditions can arise from the inherit variability of solar energy. Extreme variability of power injection can force excessive operations of voltage regulation equipment and potentially degrade customer voltage quality. If managed and controlled properly, battery energy storage systems installed on a distribution feeder have the ability to compliment solar generation and dampen the negative effects of solar generation. Now that customers are connecting their own generation, the traditional design assumption of load flowing from substation to customer is nullified. This research aims first to capture the maximum amount of generation that can be connected to a distribution feeder. Numerous deployments of generation scenarios are applied on six unique distribution feeders to conclude that hosting capacity is dependent on interconnect location. Then, existing controllers installed on voltage regulation equipment are modeled in detail. High resolution time series analysis driven from historical measurements is conducted on two contrasting feeders with specific PV generator deployments. With the proper modeling of on-load tap changer controls, excessive operations caused by extreme PV generation swings were captured. Several services that battery energy storage systems can provide when connected to an individual distribution feeder with significant PV generation include long term absorption of excessive PV generation, dynamic response to extreme PV generation ramping, and release of stored energy for system peak shaving. A centralized master energy coordinator is proposed with the ability to dispatch the battery system in such a fashion to implement each service throughout consecutive days of operation. This solution was built by integrating load and solar energy forecasting predictions in order to construct an optimum charging and discharging schedule that would maximize the asset’s lifespan. Multiple load and solar generation scenarios including a consecutive three day run is included to verify the robustness of this energy coordinator

Effect of virtual power plant scheme on the supply and demand sides based on the techno-economic analysis

北九州市立大学博士(工学)This research proposed a comprehensive method for analyzing the feasibility of using a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) to benefit both the plant and demand sides. First, the energy-saving potential of a VPP composed of a photovoltaic and energy storage system was explored. Second, the economic performance of the VPP was evaluated based on a payback period and total life cycle cost analysis. Then, considering the imbalance of the benefits between the demand and plant sides, cooperative game theory was applied to explore the cooperation potential. The influence of government subsidy policies on both the plant and demand sides was a simultaneous concern. Finally, the profit of the alliance, comprising both the demand and plant sides was allocated, based on the Shapley value. This study highlights the excellent energy-saving potential from implementing a VPP. This research provides policy guidance for the Japanese government to promote VPPs in the future.doctoral thesi

Prospects for Electric Mobility: Systemic, Economic and Environmental Issues

The transport sector, which is currently almost completely based on fossil fuels, is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Heading towards a more sustainable development of mobility could be possible with more energy efficient automotive technologies such as battery electric vehicles. The number of electric vehicles has been increasing over the last decade, but there are still many challenges that have to be solved in the future. This Special Issue “Prospects for Electric Mobility: Systemic, Economic and Environmental Issues” contributes to the better understanding of the current situation as well as the future prospects and impediments for electro mobility. The published papers range from historical development of electricity use in different transport modes and the recent challenges up to future perspectives

Optimal Home Energy Management System for Committed Power Exchange Considering Renewable Generations

This thesis addresses the complexity of SH operation and local renewable resources optimum sizing. The effect of different criteria and components of SH on the size of renewable resources and cost of electricity is investigated. Operation of SH with the optimum size of renewable resources is evaluated to study SH annual cost. The effectiveness of SH with committed exchange power functionality is studied for minimizing cost while responding to DR programs