Intelligent Optimal and Economic Integration of Renewables in Legacy Power Systems

This research program deals with three interrelated themes that aim to offer smart grid tools that enhance the value of the electric system to society. Theme 1: Next Generation Economic Dispatch Conventional generalized dispatch extends the concept of sharing the load requirements among available generating units in the most economical way to include hydro generation as well as environmental and physical network objectives and constraints. The proposed research responds to the challenges introduced by renewable energy resources, demand management resources, dynamic storage systems, by investigating the prospects for developing fast optimization tools to assist system operators in deploying system resources to run efficiently and reliably using the most robust computational intelligence tools.. Theme 2: Price Signal-based Appliance Dispatch Reducing electricity prices during low demand periods encourages users to shift their consumption away from high demand periods. This is beneficial for both power provider and user because it lowers production and loss costs, environmental impact, and increases life and reliability while reducing capital costs of power system assets. The outcome of this research theme will allow the development of an internet-based tool (app) that provides suggestions to the electricity consumer as to when to deploy appliances to take advantage of favorable pricing information. In return, the power provider will have access to the subscribers’ consumption patterns. Theme 3: Adaptive Power Quality Evaluation and Mitigation Poor quality electricity signified by distorted voltage waves degrades the performance of electric power equipment and appliances indicated by noisy operation, overheating, sluggish operation, and prolonged use results in reduced life expectancy of the apparatus. Low quality power is unavoidable as it is caused by modern power semiconductor devices found in residential, commercial and industrial loads. Renewable energy sources such as solar collectors, wind-and marine based generation use power conditioning equipment that inject distortion into the power supply. This part of this research program is designed to create fast diagnostic tools that detect the presence of poor quality signals and inject remedial power signals that reduce the harmful distortion using active power conditioning equipment connected throughout the system. The ultimate goal is to design economically accessible devices that enhance power quality at the distribution level.