Reliability Studies of Distribution Systems Integrated with Energy Storage

The integration of distributed generations (DGs) - renewable DGs, in particular- into distribution networks is gradually increasing, driven by environmental concerns and technological advancements. However, the intermittency and the variability of these resources adversely affect the optimal operation and reliability of the power distribution system. Energy storage systems (ESSs) are perceived as potential solutions to address system reliability issues and to enhance renewable energy utilization. The reliability contribution of the ESS depends on the ownership of these resources, market structure, and the regulatory framework. This along with the technical characteristics and the component unavailability of ESS significantly affect the reliability value of ESS to an active distribution system. It is, therefore, necessary to develop methodologies to conduct the reliability assessment of ESS integrated modern distribution systems incorporating above-mentioned factors. This thesis presents a novel reliability model of ESS that incorporates different scenarios of ownership, market/regulatory structures, and the ESS technical and failure characteristics. A new methodology to integrate the developed ESS reliability model with the intermittent DGs and the time-dependent loads is also presented. The reliability value of ESS in distribution grid capacity enhancement, effective utilization of renewable energy, mitigations of outages, and managing the financial risk of utilities under quality regulations are quantified. The methodologies introduced in this thesis will be useful to assess the market mechanism, policy and regulatory implications regarding ESS in future distribution system planning and operation. Another important aspect of a modern distribution system is the increased reliability needs of customers, especially with the growing use of sensitive process/equipment. The financial losses of customers due to industrial process disruption or malfunction of these equipment because of short duration (voltage sag and momentary interruption) and long duration (sustained interruption) reliability events could be substantial. It is, therefore, necessary to consider these short duration reliability events in the reliability studies. This thesis introduces a novel approach for the integrated modeling of the short and long duration reliability events caused by the random failures. Furthermore, the active management of distribution systems with ESS, DG, and microgrid has the potential to mitigate different reliability events. Appropriate models are needed to explore their contribution and to assist the utilities and system planners in reliability based system upgrades. New probabilistic models are developed in this thesis to assess the role of ESS together with DG and microgrid in mitigating the adverse impact of different reliability events. The developed methodologies can easily incorporate the complex protection settings, alternate supplies configurations, and the presence of distributed energy resources/microgrids in the context of modern distribution systems. The ongoing changes in modern distribution systems are creating an enormous paradigm shift in infrastructure planning, grid operations, utility business models, and regulatory policies. In this context, the proposed methodologies and the research findings presented in this thesis should be useful to devise the appropriate market mechanisms and regulatory policies and to carry out the system upgrades considering the reliability needs of customers in modern distribution systems

Analysis and Mitigation of Power Quality Issues in Distributed Generation Systems Using Custom Power Devices

This paper discusses the power quality issues for distributed generation systems based on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy. A thorough discussion about the power quality issues is conducted here. This paper starts with the power quality issues, followed by discussions of basic standards. A comprehensive study of power quality in power systems, including the systems with dc and renewable sources is done in this paper. Power quality monitoring techniques and possible solutions of the power quality issues for the power systems are elaborately studied. Then, we analyze the methods of mitigation of these problems using custom power devices, such as D-STATCOM, UPQC, UPS, TVSS, DVR, etc., for micro grid systems. For renewable energy systems, STATCOM can be a potential choice due to its several advantages, whereas spinning reserve can enhance the power quality in traditional systems. At Last, we study the power quality in dc systems. Simpler arrangement and higher reliability are two main advantages of the dc systems though it faces other power quality issues, such as instability and poor detection of faults

Experimental Characterisation and Response Assessment of Single-Phase Inverter Responses to Grid Disturbances

Electricity generation from renewable energy sources has significantly increased in recent years, and they are projected to become the primary power sources in the near future. Power electronic converters are necessary for converting and integrating this power into the grid and are equipped with advanced controlling techniques for faster responses. The absence of control and visibility over these systems by operators leads to issues in power distribution, particularly during grid disturbances. Researchers are focusing on understanding the impacts of grid disturbances on distributed photovoltaic (DPV) inverters to ensure a reliable network. Although technical standards provide guidance on DPV inverters for expected performance and behaviour, some guidelines are unclear about different grid disturbances. This thesis aims to provide extensive experimental evidence on the behaviour of residential DPV inverters under different grid disturbance conditions. The undesirable behaviour of DPV inverters is classified, and the reasons behind these behaviours are identified. This thesis identifies and classifies the undesirable behaviours presented by DPV inverters in response to grid disturbances, such as fast voltage sag and voltage phase angle jump (VPAJ). These behaviours are undesirable because various inverters respond differently to the same grid disturbance. An extensive experimental study was conducted on 31 commercially available off-the-shelf DPV inverters. The results provide insights into the undesirable behaviours exhibited by inverters and their potential impacts on the power system. This study classified the behaviours of DPV inverters as: 1) ride-through, 2) power curtailment, and 3) disconnection. Statistical analysis showed that a large proportion of installed inverters could exhibit undesirable behaviours that could negatively impact the operation and stability of the power system. The outcomes from this contribution have been far-reaching, including a necessary update to the Australian standard for grid-connected inverters. Further, the causes behind these undesirable behaviours of DPV inverters are classified into disconnections and power curtailments to a similar VPAJ grid disturbance. The inverters’ misinterpretation of VPAJ disturbance caused these undesirable behaviours. The outcomes from this research provided a necessary update to the Australian standard for grid-connected inverters by including emergency voltage disturbance ride-through tests enforced in South Australia and provided essential behaviours and data for a load-photovoltaic composite model for the Australian Energy Market Operator. Finally, simulation and experimental investigations are conducted to identify the impacts of grid disturbances occurring at a specific point-on-wave. The study aimed to identify the points on the voltage waveform that are most susceptible to VPAJ disturbance. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify the vulnerability of inverters for VPAJ that occur at different points-on-wave. The results of this study help identify the points on the voltage waveform that are most prone to VPAJ disturbances and understand the appropriate response that inverters should exhibit during such disturbance and at-risk generation scale. The research aims to demonstrate the importance of understanding and providing information about inverters’ responses to different grid faults because of the constantly evolving grid under high penetration from distributed energy resources. Such types of behaviour potentially threaten the operation of highly-penetrated systems because a large portfolio of generation can suddenly disconnect, leaving a large contingency to be satisfied

Power quality and electromagnetic compatibility: special report, session 2

The scope of Session 2 (S2) has been defined as follows by the Session Advisory Group and the Technical Committee: Power Quality (PQ), with the more general concept of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and with some related safety problems in electricity distribution systems. Special focus is put on voltage continuity (supply reliability, problem of outages) and voltage quality (voltage level, flicker, unbalance, harmonics). This session will also look at electromagnetic compatibility (mains frequency to 150 kHz), electromagnetic interferences and electric and magnetic fields issues. Also addressed in this session are electrical safety and immunity concerns (lightning issues, step, touch and transferred voltages). The aim of this special report is to present a synthesis of the present concerns in PQ&EMC, based on all selected papers of session 2 and related papers from other sessions, (152 papers in total). The report is divided in the following 4 blocks: Block 1: Electric and Magnetic Fields, EMC, Earthing systems Block 2: Harmonics Block 3: Voltage Variation Block 4: Power Quality Monitoring Two Round Tables will be organised: - Power quality and EMC in the Future Grid (CIGRE/CIRED WG C4.24, RT 13) - Reliability Benchmarking - why we should do it? What should be done in future? (RT 15

Decentralized control techniques applied to electric power distributed generation in microgrids

Distributed generation of electric energy has become part of the current electric power system. In this context a new scenario is arising in which small energy sources make up a new supply system: The microgrid.The most recent research projects show the technical difficulty of controlling the operation of microgrids, because they are complex systems in which several subsystems interact: energy sources, power electronic converters, energy storage systems, local, linear and non-linear loads and of course, the main grid. In next years, the electric grid will evolve from the current very centralized model toward a more distributed one. At the present time the generation, consumption and storage points are very far away one from each other. Under these circumstances, relatively frequent failures of the electric supply and important losses take place in the transport and distribution of energy, so that it can be stated that the efficiency of the supply system is low.In another context, electric companies are aiming at an electric grid, formed in a certain proportion by distributed generators, where the consumption points are near the generation points, avoiding high losses in the transmission lines and reducing the rate of shortcomings. Summing up, it is pursued the generation of small quantities of electric power by the users (this concept is called microgeneration in the origin), considering them not only as electric power consumers but also as responsible for the generation, becoming this way an integral part of the grid.In this context it is necessary to develop a new concept of flexible grid, i.e., with reconfiguration capability for operation with or without connection to the mains. The future microgrids should incorporate supervision and control systems that allow the efficient management of various kinds of energy generators, such as photovoltaic panels, energy storage systems, and local loads. Hence, we are dealing with intelligent flexible Microgrids capable of import and export power from/to the grid reconfiguring its operation modes and making decisions in real time.The researching lineas that have been introduced in this thesis are focused on the innovation in this kind of systems, the integration of several renewable energy sources, the quality of the power supply, security issues, and the system behavior during faults.In order to carry out some solutions related within these characteristics, the main goal of this thesis is the application on new control stretegies and a power management analysis of a microgrid. Thus, thanks to the emerging of renewable energy, is possible to give an alternative to the decoupling of generation units connected to the utility grid.Likewise, a work methodology has been analyzed and developed based on the modeling, control parameters design, and power management control starting from a single voltage source inverter to a number of interconnected DG units forming flexible Microgrids. In addition, all the mencioned topics have been studied giving new system performances, viability and safe functioning, thanks to the small-signal analysis and introducing control loop design algorithms, improving the import/export of electric power and operating both grid connected mode and an island.This thesis has presented an analysis, simulation and experimental results focusing on modeling, control, and analysis of DG units, giving contributions according to the following steps:- Control-oriented modeling based on active and reactive power analysis- Control synthesis based on enhanced droop control technique.- Small-signal stability study to give guidelines for properly adjusting the control system parameters according to the desired dynamic responseThis methodology has been extended to microgrids by using hierarchical control applied to droop-controlled line interactive UPSs showing that:- Droop-controlled inverters can be used in islanded microgrids.- By using multilevel control systems the microgrid can operate in both grid-connected and islanded mode, in a concept called flexible microgrid.The proposed hierarchical control required for flexible Microgrids consisted of different control levels, as following:- Primary control is based on the droop method allowing the connection of different AC sources without any intercommunication.- Secondary control avoids the voltage and frequency deviation produced by the primary control. Only low bandwidth communications are needed to perform this control level. A synchronization loop can be added in this level to transfer from islanding to grid connected modes.- Tertiary control allows the import/export of active and reactive power to the grid