Abstract
Ensuring access to reliable and sustainable power supply is becoming more and more challenging due to a combination of factors such as more frequent power grid outages caused by extreme weather events, the large-scale introduction of renewable energy resources that increases the complexity of the power system, but also aging infrastructure, supply and demand imbalance and power theft in some areas. Combined, all these factors can cause outages and together they can make electricity supply unreliable. The implications of this are many, ranging from minor inconveniences to major failures of critical infrastructures. A potential solution to ensure power supply during outages is to use local generation in the form of renewable resources to supply energy. This paper proposes a community-based mechanism that demonstrates that when community members can determine for themselves how excess energy generation is distributed, the power supply of specific members can be ensured. Self-determination is achieved by prioritizing and differentiating between community members as well as automatically and continuously redistributing energy, thereby adapting to sudden changes in supply and demand. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can be used to empower local communities to decide for themselves how local resources are distributed during events such as outages, ensuring prolonged power supply for differentiated members of affected communities. Harnessing the potential of renewable resources and smart technologies for intelligent coordination through empowerment of consumers to become pro-active participants is a promising solution for the future power systems.
Highlights
Power outages present a challenge for current and future power systems
As stated in “Introduction” section, the main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that by letting communities decide for themselves how local resources are distributed during an outage, the duration of power supply can be prolonged for specific members of affected communities
The proposed mechanism empowers local communities to decide for themselves how local resources are distributed during events such as outages, ensuring prolonged power supply for differentiated members of affected communities
Summary
Power outages present a challenge for current and future power systems. Such outages can be caused by a number of factors including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events due to climate change, infrastructure failures and aging power plants that require frequent maintenance, and supply and demand imbalance. The negative social impact of outages can be very severe, ranging from inconveniences to normal daily operations to failures of critical infrastructures such as drinking water and communication systems (Jiménez-Estévez et al 2017). This challenge is further amplified (2019) 2:6 by the rapid introduction of renewable energy resources. As these renewables are volatile & non-dispatchable, they add uncertainty to and increase the complexity of an already highly complex power system
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