Elastic Energy Distribution of Local Area Packetized Power Networks to Mitigate Distribution Level Load Fluctuation

Abstract

Featured by distributed energy storing and time division multiplexing transmission, dc packetized-power distribution has great potential in compensating inelastic load fluctuations at the demand side. In this paper, we investigate an ac distribution grid integrated with local area packetized-power networks (LAPPNs). LAPPNs, as the dc sector, enable a store-then-consume mechanism, whereby the sectoral loads characterized as elastic ones, can be manipulated to reduce the distribution level load fluctuation. A multi-mode energy distribution is proposed for the dc sector, including an advanced energy distribution as the ‘storing’ phase utilizing conventionally non-peak hours, and an open energy distribution as the ‘consumption’ phase to further compensate the ac sector load fluctuation on real-time basis. We develop a cross-time hierarchical energy distribution scheme to coordinate energy distribution of dc sector and ac sector and exploit the elasticity of dc sector loads on both day-ahead basis and real-time basis, jointly resulting in a significant mitigation of distribution load fluctuation. Power distribution optimizations are separately formulated and solved for different procedures of the scheme. Simulations have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the scheme in reducing distribution level load fluctuation and to reveal facts on how much dc elastic loads is needed for fluctuation reduction in a scenario in North America.