Distributed, Renewable, and Mobile Resources
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Siting and Sizing Resilience Hubs for Grid and Community Resilience during Heat Waves(2025-01-07) Farley, Alex; Belnap, Hollis; Parvania, MasoodThe increased intensity and frequency of heat waves are impacting power grid operation and communities worldwide. Resilience hubs can provide communities with several essential services and resources, including community-oriented resilience to heat waves. This paper presents a framework for siting resilience hubs to reduce community vulnerability to heat waves based on their household air conditioning systems, socioeconomic status, and urban heating effects. Additionally, this paper utilizes a mixed-integer linear programming model to design the energy system of a resilience hub to ensure the hub has sufficient power to provide services for its surrounding community, considering different outage scenarios during a heat wave. An economic analysis discusses the cost-effectiveness of different resilience hub designs. The methodology is applied to find optimal location of resilience hubs in the metro area of Salt Lake City, UT, to reduce vulnerability to heat waves.Item Energy Scheduling-based Operating Envelopes including a Distribution System Branch Screening Algorithm(2025-01-07) Fernandez, Jorge; Grijalva, SantiagoThis paper presents an energy scheduling-based formulation for computing operating envelopes including a distribution branch screening algorithm. The contribution of the paper is two-fold: first, it presents an innovative methodology for calculating operating envelopes using energy scheduling (baseline), and second, it enhances this methodology by incorporating a custom distribution branch screening algorithm (DBS-ES). The custom algorithm leverages power system knowledge to reduce both model build time and total processing time while maintaining the same scheduling objective value as the baseline. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through experiments on the IEEE13, IEEE123, and EPRI Secondary test feeders. Results highlight a 24.5\% decrease in model build time and an 8.17\% decrease in total processing time when using DBS-ES compared to the baseline, specifically for the IEEE123 test feeder. Also, the paper briefly discusses the influence of utility-controlled storage on computing operating envelopes, noting a general increase in the overall hosting capability of the envelopes. Finally, a discussion on the equilibrium of the proposed iterative approach is presented.Item On Fault Mitigation Schemes for Grid Forming Inverters in AC-Microgrids: Studying Instantaneous Current Limiters(2025-01-07) Cisneros Saldana, Jorge; Begovic, Miroslav M.In AC microgrid systems, maintaining stability and reliability is paramount, especially during fault conditions. This paper presents a novel fault mitigation technique for grid-forming inverters, focusing on instantaneous current limiter schemes. The primary objective of this approach is to protect inverter’s internal semiconductor components under short-circuit faults conditions by implementing advanced reference frame techniques that limit current and voltage outputs. At the same time, providing fault protection/mitigation during symmetrical and asymmetrical disturbances, the investigated control scheme allows inverters not to disconnect during faults, thus maintaining grid stability and reliability, allowing time for grid protection to react and operate normally. Simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme in enhancing the resilience of AC microgrid systems, facilitating seamless integration of renewable energy sources. This paper addresses a critical need in modern power systems by providing a robust solution for inverter fault tolerance, protection and short circuit fault management for AC microgrids.Item Grid Stability and Cybersecurity Challenges in Electric Vehicle Integration: A Case Study of the ERCOT System(2025-01-07) Sneha, Fariha Hakim; Liu, Yilu; Xie, Le; Xia, TaoWith the growing popularity of EVs in Texas, ERCOT faces the challenges of accommodating the increasing demand for electricity from these vehicles while maintaining system security. This paper aims to investigate the impact of electric vehicle (EV) charging on the stability and cybersecurity of the ERCOT grid. Utilizing ERCOT’s industry level PSSE model, this paper examines the thresholds of simultaneous EV charging that the system can sustain safely. Besides, it highlights cybersecurity vulnerabilities introduced by EV charging infrastructure.Item Distribution-Level Impacts of Plug-in Electric Vehicle Charging on the Transmission System during Fault Conditions(2025-01-07) Tuffner, Francis; Undrill, John; Scoffield, Don; Eto, Joseph; Kosterev, Dmitry; Quint, RyanTransmission planners must identify and plan for the potential impacts of widespread EV charging on the reliability of the grid. This paper examines how the addition of significant EV charging loads would affect regions of the grid that are susceptible to fault induced delayed voltage recovery (or FIDVR). We find that EV chargers that cease drawing current at the onset of faults and that delay drawing current until sometime after a fault has cleared will not exacerbate FIDVR and label this behavior grid friendly. We find that EV chargers that do not cease drawing current at the onset of these faults or that resume drawing current immediately after the fault has cleared will exacerbate FIDVR and label this behavior grid unfriendly. We emphasize that modeling and information on EV charging behaviors is currently limited and recommend engagement by the transmission planning community with the EV manufacturing community to improve this situation.Item Occam's Razor in Residential PV-Battery Systems: Theoretical Interpretation, Practical Implications, and Possible Improvements(2025-01-07) Farrokhabadi, MostafaThis paper presents a theoretical interpretation and explores possible improvements of a widely adopted rule-based control for residential solar photovoltaics (PV) paired with battery storage systems (BSS). The method is referred to as Occam's control in this paper, given its simplicity and as a tribute to the 14th-century William of Ockham. Using the self-consumption-maximization application, it is proven that Occam's control is a special case of a larger category of optimization methods called online convex learning. Thus, for the first time, a theoretical upper bound is derived for this control method. Furthermore, based on the theoretical insight, an alternative algorithm is devised on the same complexity level that outperforms Occam's. Practical data is used to evaluate the performance of these learning methods as compared to the classical rolling-horizon linear programming. Findings support online learning methods for residential applications given their low complexity and small computation, communication, and data footprint. Consequences include improved economics for residential PV-BSS systems and mitigation of distribution systems' operational challenges associated with high PV penetration.Item Optimizing Electrical Demand for a Campus with Geothermal District Heating(2025-01-07) Mckahn, Denise; Cardell, JudithThe electrification of energy use for building heating-cooling and transportation sectors increases stress on an already strained electric power grid. Shifting energy end-use to electricity presupposes that electricity generation will have low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With the legacy power system and significant operational constraints on the power grid though, the majority of electricity generation will continue for many years to be predominantly powered from fossil fuel combustion. The continuing need to decrease carbon and other GHGs raises the need to find clean energy sources outside of the electric power grid. One clean energy technology for building heating and cooling is geothermal energy, a well-proven and mature technology option, especially for district heating applications. With the main energy source being clean and renewable, geothermal energy decreases direct combustion of fossil fuels, and so contributes significantly to reducing GHGs from building energy needs. With the goals of sustainability and reduced emissions, serving building heating and cooling directly with geothermal systems rather than pushing for electrification will reduce the burden on the power grid and have a high probability of decreasing pollutant emissions from building energy demands. This paper introduces a geothermal energy system for Smith College, in Northampton MA, USA, that includes geothermal heat exchangers and heat pumps. Elements of the system rely on electricity for operation. This paper investigates optimizing the time of use for electricity, as used for the heat pumps and potential thermal energy storage as well as battery storage. The proposed district heating system is designed to decrease GHG emissions and support the College goal to minimize operations costs.Item Introduction to the Minitrack on Distributed, Renewable, and Mobile Resources(2025-01-07) Blumsack, Seth; Cardell, JudithItem Demand Response Potential of Drinking Water Distribution Networks(2025-01-07) Stuhlmacher, Anna; Mathieu, JohannaPumps in drinking water distribution networks can be controlled to participate in demand response programs. In this paper, we estimate the demand response potential of water distribution networks based on actual network data. We calculate the power and energy capacities of community water systems within Wisconsin and Arizona, drawing on publicly available data of consumer water demand, population served, storage tanks, and pump specifications. We then extrapolate this data to get an order-of-magnitude estimate for the entire United States. Overall, we found that water distribution networks are sizable demand response assets with an estimated power capacity of 13 GW and energy capacity of 750 GWh in the United States. We also found that large and very large utilities may be the best demand response candidates. This paper also discusses factors impacting water supply flexibility and future research directions.