Enhancing Grid Resilience Research Articles

Applications of Complex Network Analysis in Electric Power Systems

This paper provides a review of the research conducted on complex network analysis (CAN) in electric power systems. Moreover, a new approach is presented to find optimal locations for microgrids (MGs) in electric distribution systems (EDS) utilizing complex network analysis. The optimal placement in this paper points to the location that will result in enhanced grid resilience, reduced power losses and line loading, better voltage stability, and a supply to critical loads during a blackout. The criteria used to point out the optimal placement of the MGs were predicated on the centrality analysis selected from the complex network theory, the center of mass (COM) concept from physics, and the recently developed controlled delivery grid (CDG) model. An IEEE 30 bus network was utilized as a case study. Results using MATLAB (MathWorks, Inc., Nattick, MA, USA) and PowerWorld (PowerWorld Corporation, Champaign, IL, USA) demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed approach for MGs placement.

Are Current U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Grid Resilience Assets?

This paper examines the concept of Grid resilience in the context of the North American electricity supply system and the role existing (Generation II) light water–cooled nuclear power plants (NPPs) play in enabling and enhancing Grid resilience. (Because of similarities in technology and plant design, it is likely that most of the discussion in the paper is also relevant to Generation III and Generation III+ light water NPP designs. The applicability of the analysis to Canadian CANDU and Russian VVER technology has not been assessed.) The paper asks and answers three compound questions: (1) what is Grid resilience, and what is a resilient Grid? (2) what is a resilient nuclear power plant (rNPP), and what are the basic functional requirements of rNPPs? and in light of the answers to these questions, (3) are today’s U.S. NPPs significant Grid resilience assets? The conclusion reached is that existing U.S. commercial NPPs are safe and efficient capacity, energy, and reliability assets and they have demonstrated some Grid resilience benefit during regional weather events. However, today’s NPPs do not deliver the Grid resilience benefits nuclear power can and should provide the nation. The author argues that nuclear power’s unique fuel security (an attribute that could allow NPPs to energize the Grid during extended periods in which fuel could not be delivered to other types of power plants) is a compelling reason to develop future rNPPs that would deliver strategic Grid resilience benefits in the face of evolving hazards and threats to the U.S. Grid.

Reliable protection scheme for PV integrated microgrid using an ensemble classifier approach with real‐time validation

The need for enhancing grid resilience has led to wider acceptance of photo voltaic (PV) integrated microgrid. The variation in fault current during grid connected and islanding operation makes the microgrid protection task challenging. A protection scheme based on ensemble of classifiers has been devised by exploiting the effectiveness of a classifier set coupled with voting strategy. Unlike the existing classifier-based approaches involving single classifier, the ensemble-based approach is insensitive to the biasness of individual classifier and dimension/size of dataset. The proposed scheme is formulated to simultaneously perform the tasks of mode detection, fault detection/classification, section identification and location. The scheme is able to discriminate between faults and power quality disturbances, which avoids unintended false tripping. Along with accuracy, the reliability assessment of proposed scheme has been carried out using two indices, i.e. dependability and security for different faults, operating mode and contingencies. For evaluating the reliability of the fault locator, a stochastic approach (Monte-Carlo simulation) has been adopted. The simulation results justify the applicability of the proposed ensemble classifier-based scheme for complete protection and reliable operation of microgrids with PV penetration. The scheme also has been validated for real-time settings using hardware in loop simulations.