This paper presents a general description of local flexibility markets as a market-based management mechanism for aggregators. The high penetration of distributed energy resources introduces new ...flexibility services like prosumer or community self-balancing, congestion management and time-of-use optimization. This work is focused on the flexibility framework to enable multiple participants to compete for selling or buying flexibility. In this framework, the aggregator acts as a local market operator and supervises flexibility transactions of the local energy community. Local market participation is voluntary. Potential flexibility stakeholders are the distribution system operator, the balance responsible party and end-users themselves. Flexibility is sold by means of loads, generators, storage units and electric vehicles. Finally, this paper presents needed interactions between all local market stakeholders, the corresponding inputs and outputs of local market operation algorithms from participants and a case study to highlight the application of the local flexibility market in three scenarios. The local market framework could postpone grid upgrades, reduce energy costs and increase distribution grids’ hosting capacity.
•The paper describes a methodology to obtain an Urban Energy Sustainability Index (UESI).•This methodology can evaluate the global energy performance for any city.•UESI works through the measurement ...of 12 clearly-defined indicators and targets.•UESI is also a tool for designing effective actions towards energy-sustainable cities.•The index has been applied successfully to two Spanish cities (Malaga and Barcelona).
The aim of the paper is to propose a methodology for evaluating the energy sustainability of a city based on the characterization of the energy end-use, energy systems and flows, as well as other intrinsically related concepts, such as the quality of air and the energy efficiency in transport and buildings. As a result, an Urban Energy Sustainability Index (UESI) has been proposed to measure the energy sustainability of the cities. Several indicators have been proposed to be used to build the index. These indicators have been grouped into three types depending on their influence on energy urban sustainability: basic, instrumental and complementary. For each indicator, an analysis has been done and as a result an expression for estimating it has been proposed. The value of the index is obtained from the combination of these indicators using the weighted average method. The proposed index can be used as an operational tool to improve the sustainability of cities. It also aims to have an international application as it is related to the global sustainability objectives defined by internationally recognized organizations. The proposed methodology has been used for two different Spanish cities, Barcelona and Malaga. The results show that it covers most of the issues related to the use of energy and sustainability in the cities and that it can also be applied to others cities.
Ensuring resilient operation and control of smart grids is fundamental for empowering their deployment, but challenging at the same time. Accordingly, this study proposes a novel methodology for ...evaluating resilience of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems for smart distribution grids. Analysing how the system behaves under changing operating conditions a power system perspective allows to understand how resilient the smart distribution grid is, but the resilience of the ICT system in charge of its operation affects the overall performance of the system and does, therefore, condition its resilience. With the aim of systematising the evaluation of ICT systems’ resilience, this study proposes to combine a standardized modelling of Smart Grids, the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM), with a data structured diagram, the Entity Relationship Model (ERM). The architecture of smart distribution grids is analysed through SGAM. Then, their technical characteristics and functionalities are defined and represented in a ERM diagram. Finally, the attributes or properties of the system components are used to formulate resilience indicators against different types of disturbances. This methodology is then applied to analyse the resilience of a ICT platform being developed in EMPOWER H2020 project.
•The proposed algorithm can be performed with high penetration of DERs and with independence of electrical network topology.•This novel algorithm tries to open new way to expand combination of ...different devices in the network such as DFPIs and IEDs.•The algorithm presented here can be implemented in IEC 61850 for its integration into future systems.
Modern electrical networks are continuously evolving due to the increasing deployment of Information Technologies and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). This scenario affects the quality of the electricity supply of distribution systems. For this reason, this quality plays a key role on the evolution of electrical networks into Smart Grids.
Quality of the electricity supply is defined through three main skills: reliability of the electric power system, power quality and customer relationships, all of them under safety layer. From the network operation point of view, availability in a distribution network is crucial to maintain reliability. Fault location is a priority for electrical network operators in their efforts to ensure high quality for loads, generators and prosumers. The presence of DERs in current electrical distribution networks poses a new scenario where bidirectional current flow complicates fault detection. Implementation of the Smart Grid concept in these networks depends on the automation of procedures such as Fault Location, Isolation and Service Restoration, which enable a rapid response to faults. This paper proposes a fault detection algorithm for grid topologies such as radial, ring, meshed with or without DER penetration.
Artificial intelligence techniques lead to data-driven energy services in distribution power systems by extracting value from the data generated by the deployed metering and sensing devices. This ...paper performs a holistic analysis of artificial intelligence applications to distribution networks, ranging from operation, monitoring and maintenance to planning. The potential artificial intelligence techniques for power system applications and needed data sources are identified and classified. The following data-driven services for distribution networks are analyzed: topology estimation, observability, fraud detection, predictive maintenance, non-technical losses detection, forecasting, energy management systems, aggregated flexibility services and trading. A review of the artificial intelligence methods implemented in each of these services is conducted. Their interdependencies are mapped, proving that multiple services can be offered as a single clustered service to different stakeholders. Furthermore, the dependencies between the AI techniques with each energy service are identified. In recent years there has been a significant rise of deep learning applications for time series prediction tasks. Another finding is that unsupervised learning methods are mainly being applied to customer segmentation, buildings efficiency clustering and consumption profile grouping for non-technical losses detection. Reinforcement learning is being widely applied to energy management systems design, although more testing in real environments is needed. Distribution network sensorization should be enhanced and increased in order to obtain larger amounts of valuable data, enabling better service outcomes. Finally, the future opportunities and challenges for applying artificial intelligence in distribution grids are discussed.
•Identification of main data-driven techniques and data sources in power systems.•Proposal and review of data-driven energy services and how they interrelate.•The dependencies among AI techniques and data-driven energy services are mapped.•Opportunities and challenges regarding the distribution grid digitalization.
This article proposes a multiobjective hybrid energy management system that minimizes both the electricity expenses and the household greenhouse gas emissions released due to consumption, considering ...the entire life cycle of the generation assets used to provide energy. The global warming potential indicator is used to decide if it is more sustainable to purchase electricity from the grid or use the household's flexible generation sources like photovoltaic panels and the energy storage system. Results prove that it is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without incurring expensive electricity bill costs thanks to the hybrid-based home energy management system approach. This method gives the end-users a more influential role in the climate change solution, allowing them to give more or less importance to the economic or environmental component, according to their preferences.
The recent deployment of distributed battery units in prosumer premises offer new opportunities for providing aggregated flexibility services to both distribution system operators and balance ...responsible parties. The optimization problem presented in this paper is formulated with an objective of cost minimization which includes energy and battery degradation cost to provide flexibility services. A decomposed solution approach with the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is used instead of commonly adopted centralised optimization to reduce the computational burden and time, and then reduce scalability limitations. In this work we apply a modified version of ADMM that includes two new features with respect to the original algorithm: first, the primal variables are updated concurrently, which reduces significantly the computational cost when we have a large number of involved prosumers; second, it includes a regularization term named Proximal Jacobian (PJ) that ensures the stability of the solution. A case study is presented for optimal battery operation of 100 prosumer sites with real-life data. The proposed method finds a solution which is equivalent to the centralised optimization problem and is computed between 5 and 12 times faster. Thus, aggregators or large-scale energy communities can use this scalable algorithm to provide flexibility services.
La intención de este artículo, al contrario de lo que se esperaría en estos días, no es el de realizar una crítica a los borradores de la nueva “Ley Orgánica de Recursos Hídricos, Uso y ...Aprovechamiento de las Aguas” o al Nuevo Código Ambiental propuesto, es más bien la de sensibilizar y alertar a quienes estamos involucrados con la gestión de los recursos hídricos, es un llamado a trabajar, de manera corresponsable, en la construcción de una nueva Ley de Aguas que tenga como base la Constitución, la participación, la técnica, lo público, lo privado, en definitiva, pensar en el bien colectivo y en el futuro de nuestros hijos.
This article describes the results of the European Project Empower. This project is about the creation of a trading platform for local energy exchange in local markets. To do so, a system ...architecture is proposed, based on the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM). The implementation of the developed platform has been tested in the Prosumer Lab environment. The Prosumer Lab is an installation at the UPC that permits to emulate different use cases by the means of power electronics. The tests showed a successful integration of the software and hardware for the project purpose.
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