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OUREL – Optimal Utilization of Renewable Energies in Low Voltage (LV) Power Distribution Systems

Subject Area Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
Electrical Energy Systems, Power Management, Power Electronics, Electrical Machines and Drives
Term from 2019 to 2024
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426655646
 
Final Report Year 2023

Final Report Abstract

This project proposes a novel distributed control method to optimize the operation of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) like Photovoltaic (PV) power plants, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Heat Pumps (HPs) within an electrical Low Voltage (LV) power distribution grid in real time. Optimality is understood as maximum utility of power consumption and generation. The utility is quantified by static concave utility functions with individual dynamic priority factors to ensure fairness in power allocation while still considering the individual DER operator needs. Maximizing the utility without causing inadmissible voltage drops or equipment overloads constitutes an Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem. It is solved by an Online Feedback Optimization (OFO) algorithm that iteratively updates the DER power setpoints with a high update rate. The OFO approach features a low computational complexity and DER model dependency. A State Estimation (SE) algorithm complements the optimization to monitor the grid state from available measurements. In the distributed approach, each controller performs a SE in each control cycle. Therefore, a lowcomplexity SE algorithm is developed that can be supported by low-cost hardware. While the resulting distributed implementation avoids a single point of failure, it necessitates an extensive exchange of data among controllers. Therefore, considering accurate communication network characteristics is integral for realizing the actual control method. For this a dedicated communication protocol for periodic and low-latency data exchange between all nodes of the network is developed and optimized for maximum information freshness. Connectivity between all controllers is ensured by device-to-device and multi-hop communication. The overall utility maximizing algorithm is evaluated in a co-simulation environment featuring a power grid simulation and a communication network emulation. The results show the algorithm’s ability to steer the LV grid into state of optimal utility while respecting admissible voltage and current limits, and its suitability to autonomously adapt to varying power supply from renewables. The developed communication protocol proves its capabilities to establish reliable data exchange. Furthermore, the simulations verify the stable control and consistent operation of the communication protocol even under moderate communication network degradation and individual controller failures. Also, the applicability to low-cost hardware is demonstrated by implementing the utility maximizing control on a Raspberry Pi.

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