Optimal Control of Distributed Energy Resources for the Provision of Ancillary Services to Distribution Grids

Abstract

Integrating renewable energy sources into power systems is crucial for decarbonization efforts but introduces challenges, such as voltage fluctuation, line congestion, due to their inherent intermittency. To mitigate these issues, one viable strategy involves the optimal utilization and management of flexible energy storage units. By controlling these units effectively, it is possible to provide essential ancillary services to the grid, which enhances overall system reliability and stability while ensuring a robust and sustainable energy transition. This thesis models several types of flexible devices, including general electrical appliances, which are used and controlled as virtual batteries by simulating the charging or discharging process. In addition, various control solutions are studied, including centralized and distributed control methods. When a centralized control method is considered, the optimal solution can be found accurately, while when a distributed control method is used, the privacy and scalability of the system can be guaranteed. By using proper control methods, a large number of flexible devices of various types and various capacities are able to be aggregated to participate in the service provision, so that not only is the system issue solved, but also the flexible devices are benefited. In addition, the formulated optimization problems are incorporated into the model predictive control (MPC) schemes, enhancing the performance of online optimization. The thesis studies four different projects, in each of which the flexible devices are exploited by a proper control scheme to deal with one or more system issues. The projects explain and analyze the control schemes in detail with simulation and demonstration.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Jovica Milanovic (Supervisor) & Alessandra Parisio (Supervisor)