Dynamic Electric Dispatch for Wind Power Plants: A New Automatic Controller System Using Evolutionary Algorithms

Carolina G Marcelino,João V C Avancini,Carla A D M Delgado,Sancho Salcedo-Sanz,Silvia Jiménez-Fernández,Elizabeth F Wanner

doi:10.3390/su132111924

Abstract

In this paper, we use an evolutionary swarm intelligence approach to build an automatic electric dispatch controller for an offshore wind power plant (WPP). The optimal power flow (OPF) problem for this WPP is solved by the Canonical Differential Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (C-DEEPSO). In this paper, C-DEEPSO works as a control system for reactive sources in energy production. The control operation takes place in a daily energy dispatch, scheduled into 15 min intervals and resulting in 96 operating test scenarios. As the nature of the optimization problem is dynamic, a fine-tuning of the initialization parameters of the optimization algorithm is performed at each dispatch interval. Therefore, a version of the C-DEEPSO algorithm has been built to automatically learn the best set of initialization parameters for each scenario. For this, we have coupled C-DEEPSO with the irace tool (an extension of the iterated F-race (I/F-Race)) by using inferential statistic techniques. The experiments carried out showed that the methodology employed here is robust and able to tackle this OPF-like modeling. Moreover, the methodology works as an automatic control system for a dynamic schedule operation.

Highlights

IntroductionTo meet the ambitious goals of the Paris agreement [1] to prevent, or at least minimize, climate change, there is a global need for sustainable energy supply
Received: 10 September 2021Accepted: 26 October 2021Published: 28 October 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This article is an open access articleTo meet the ambitious goals of the Paris agreement [1] to prevent, or at least minimize, climate change, there is a global need for sustainable energy supply
We propose an integration between the Canonical Differential Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (C-DEEPSO) [37] and irace [38]

Summary

Introduction

To meet the ambitious goals of the Paris agreement [1] to prevent, or at least minimize, climate change, there is a global need for sustainable energy supply. Part of this energy supply must be produced by renewable sources. The production of energy and electricity from wind sources can be carried out both on the ground (onshore) and in wind farms installed in the ocean (offshore). Especially when compared to other energy sources, great efforts to develop onshore and offshore wind farms are being made [4,5].

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Conclusion