Renewable microgrid state estimation using the Internet of Things communication network

Abstract

Given the huge concerns all over the world regarding carbon emissions from fossil fuels, energy crisis and global warming, the renewable distributed energy resources (DERs) are going to be integrated in electricity grids, which will make the energy supply more reliable and decrease transmission losses. Regrettably, one of the main practical defies in smart grid planning, control and operation with DERs is the voltage regulation at the distribution field level. This problem motivates the deployment of sensors and actuators in electricity grids so that the voltage regulation can be controlled at the desired level. To do that the measurements from the renewable microgrid state information is transmitted to an energy management center via the internet of things (IoT) based communication network. In other words, the proposed IoT communication infrastructure provides an opportunity to address the voltage regulation challenge by offering the two-way communication links for microgrid state information collection and estimation. Based on this smart grid communication infrastructure, we propose a Kalman filter based state estimation method for voltage regulation of the microgrid. Finally, the effectiveness of the Kalman filter based state estimation method is illustrated using the linear state space model of a microgrid incorporating DERs.