Grid Innovation in the Era of Smart Grids

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2022) | Viewed by 11916

Special Issue Editor

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica ed Elettronica, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Interests: distribution network planning and operation; smart grids; microgrids; renewable energy sources; energy storage systems; demand-side integration policies
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, the conditions are particularly suitable and affordable for an industry transition to distributed energy, and smart grids are the enablers for a new era in sustainable energy. Electric utilities are undergoing a significant transformation and face new challenges and expectations to foster the energy transition and decarbonization with innovative network structures, control schemes, and methodologies. Grid innovation has become crucial, and new technologies will be the key to a smooth transition. In the smart grid era, innovative solutions and technologies for creating intelligent, flexible, and efficient power networks are needed. Thus, distribution networks need to become more flexible and intelligent so distributed energy resources (DERs) and network elements can be adequately managed. These challenges require new tools, strategies, and technologies to manage the transition to the distributed grids of tomorrow and to improve grid reliability and resiliency.

You are invited to submit original contributions that promote exploratory research and development of electricity grid innovation while addressing the challenge of a reliable and sustainable distribution system.

This Special Issue focuses on recent research and technology improvements including, but not limited to:

  • Innovation in the electricity grid
  • New planning tools for distribution networks
  • Utility perspective
  • Innovation to manage grid stability with DERs and electric vehicles
  • Role of energy storage in smart grids
  • Communication infrastructure for smart grids
  • Maintenance and management of smart grids
  • Technologies for grid maintenance
  • Next generation enablers of smart grids
  • Increased reliability of smart grids
  • Blockchain to enable customer engagement

Dr. Susanna Mocci
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Smart grids
  • Distribution systems
  • Multi-energy systems
  • Distribution network planning
  • Distribution network operation
  • Control systems
  • Renewable energy sources
  • Distributed energy resources
  • Low carbon technologies
  • Load flexibility
  • Self-consumption
  • Demand response
  • Demand-side integration
  • Energy storage system
  • E-mobility
  • Local energy communities
  • Aggregators
  • Virtual power plant
  • Virtual net-metering
  • Micro-grids
  • Nano-grids
  • Energy efficiency
  • Blockchain

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 2338 KiB  
Article
The Vehicle-to-Grid Concept with Respect to the Preferences of Electric Vehicle Drivers and Charging Station Operators
by Martina Kajanova and Peter Bracinik
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(11), 5476; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12115476 - 28 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1315
Abstract
Recent events in Europe show the necessity of speeding up the transition to local renewable energy sources utilization within countries’ power systems. Moreover, the share of electric vehicles is gradually increasing within the Europe market. To utilize renewable energy sources with intermittent character [...] Read more.
Recent events in Europe show the necessity of speeding up the transition to local renewable energy sources utilization within countries’ power systems. Moreover, the share of electric vehicles is gradually increasing within the Europe market. To utilize renewable energy sources with intermittent character to supply power for this increasing demand for electric vehicle charging, the vehicle-to-grid concept must be applied. However, for this concept to be successful, it should be beneficial for electric vehicle drivers and charging station operators. As a result, the focus of this research is on developing a charging/discharging control algorithm that adheres to the above assumptions. The use of the proposed control mechanism in case studies demonstrates that if electric vehicle drivers declare their preferences truthfully, the social welfare of all participants can be maximized. To prevent one of the drivers from trying to disrupt the social welfare concept in their favor by reporting false preferences, the incentive mechanism is proposed as well. The case studies show that the incentive mechanism results in the increased cost of the participant trying to disrupt the social welfare while decreasing the cost of all the others. Therefore, truth-telling and thus maximizing the social welfare of all participants in the system is an optimal strategy for each of them. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Grid Innovation in the Era of Smart Grids)
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31 pages, 3548 KiB  
Article
A Combined Forecasting System Based on Modified Multi-Objective Optimization for Short-Term Wind Speed and Wind Power Forecasting
by Qingguo Zhou, Qingquan Lv and Gaofeng Zhang
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(20), 9383; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11209383 - 09 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1882
Abstract
Wind speed and wind power are two important indexes for wind farms. Accurate wind speed and power forecasting can help to improve wind farm management and increase the contribution of wind power to the grid. However, nonlinear and non-stationary wind speed and wind [...] Read more.
Wind speed and wind power are two important indexes for wind farms. Accurate wind speed and power forecasting can help to improve wind farm management and increase the contribution of wind power to the grid. However, nonlinear and non-stationary wind speed and wind power can influence the forecasting performance of different models. To improve forecasting accuracy and overcome the influence of the original time series on the model, a forecasting system that can effectively forecast wind speed and wind power based on a data pre-processing strategy, a modified multi-objective optimization algorithm, a multiple single forecasting model, and a combined model is developed in this study. A data pre-processing strategy was implemented to determine the wind speed and wind power time series trends and to reduce interference from noise. Multiple artificial neural network forecasting models were used to forecast wind speed and wind power and construct a combined model. To obtain accurate and stable forecasting results, the multi-objective optimization algorithm was employed to optimize the weight of the combined model. As a case study, the developed forecasting system was used to forecast the wind speed and wind power over 10 min from four different sites. The point forecasting and interval forecasting results revealed that the developed forecasting system exceeds all other models with respect to forecasting precision and stability. Thus, the developed system is extremely useful for enhancing forecasting precision and is a reasonable and valid tool for use in intelligent grid programming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Grid Innovation in the Era of Smart Grids)
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14 pages, 560 KiB  
Article
Economic Assessment and Control Strategy of Combined Heat and Power Employed in Centralized Domestic Hot Water Systems
by Peijun Zheng, Peng Liu and Yeqi Zhang
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(10), 4326; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11104326 - 11 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1749
Abstract
With the increasing application of CHP and an industry transition to distributed energy, it is necessary to make a comprehensive economic analysis and comparison of the entire lifetime of CHP from the net present value (NPV), payback period, and cost-saving ratio (CSR). Five [...] Read more.
With the increasing application of CHP and an industry transition to distributed energy, it is necessary to make a comprehensive economic analysis and comparison of the entire lifetime of CHP from the net present value (NPV), payback period, and cost-saving ratio (CSR). Five systems, including micro-CHP, gas boiler (GB), air-source heat pump (ASHP), domestic gas-fired heater and domestic electric hot water-heater, are simulated. First, this paper takes annual heat use efficiency (AHUE) into account to compare the economy of each domestic hot water (DHW) system. The results show that a domestic gas-fired heater system is the most economical option in the AHUE of 31.28%. The economic influence of CHP and gas-fired heater under different AHUE are then analyzed. The results show that the DHW system based on CHP is the best when the AHUE is more than 55.35%. Finally, three different operation strategies of CHP are considered in this paper. From the perspective of annual energy cost and payback, the internal combustion-based CHP with thermal energy system (TES) is superior to the other two strategies being studied. Considering the optimal economic benefits, the CSR of the three different operation strategies is 41.3%, 69.69% and 69.77%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Grid Innovation in the Era of Smart Grids)
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14 pages, 14783 KiB  
Article
Energy Blockchain for Public Energy Communities
by Marco Galici, Mario Mureddu, Emilio Ghiani, Gianni Celli, Fabrizio Pilo, Paolo Porcu and Beatrice Canetto
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(8), 3457; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11083457 - 12 Apr 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2744
Abstract
This paper suggests an application of blockchain as an energy open data ledger, designed to save and track data regarding the energy footprint of public buildings and public energy communities. The developed platform permits writing energy production and consumption of public buildings using [...] Read more.
This paper suggests an application of blockchain as an energy open data ledger, designed to save and track data regarding the energy footprint of public buildings and public energy communities. The developed platform permits writing energy production and consumption of public buildings using blockchain-enabled smart meters. Once authenticated on the blockchain, this data can be made available to the public domain for techno-economic analyses for either research studies and internal or third parties audits, increasing, in this way, the perceived transparency of the public institutions. A further feature of the platform, starting on the previously disclosed raw data, allows calculating, validating, and sharing sustainability indicators of public buildings and facilities, allowing the tracking of their improvements in sustainability goals. The paper also provides the preliminary results of a field-test experimentation of the proposed platform on a group of public buildings, highlighting the possible benefits of its widespread exploitation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Grid Innovation in the Era of Smart Grids)
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24 pages, 3183 KiB  
Article
IGNORE: A Policy Server to Prevent Cyber-Attacks from Propagating to the Physical Domain
by Yatin Wadhawan, Clifford Neuman and Anas AlMajali
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(18), 6236; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10186236 - 08 Sep 2020
Viewed by 1592
Abstract
We present the intelligent governor for the smart grid system (IGNORE) to limit the success of attacks when a grid’s cyber system has been compromised and leveraged by an adversary to mount attacks on the physical system. IGNORE is based on the concept [...] Read more.
We present the intelligent governor for the smart grid system (IGNORE) to limit the success of attacks when a grid’s cyber system has been compromised and leveraged by an adversary to mount attacks on the physical system. IGNORE is based on the concept of the security reference monitor. It is a component that serves to protect a system from attacks that are more severe and frequent than is acceptable by enforcing security policies on the actions of the system’s higher-level functions. It enforces security and safety policies by ignoring commands issued by a system’s higher-level functions if by executing those commands may cause violations of its security and safety constraints. The underlying principle for generating security policies is the requirement and safety property that evaluates whether commands issued by a cyber system are required and safe in/for the physical system. Our key contribution is to present the methodology to design a governor for a grid’s higher-level function, that is, demand response. We define a set of attacks prevented by the governor, a set of rules that define the governor, and demonstrate its effectiveness through empirical results. This work sheds light upon how a higher-level functionality of a smart grid system is protected by analyzing the system’s cyber and physical aspects even when some parts of the cyber system are compromised. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Grid Innovation in the Era of Smart Grids)
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Review

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34 pages, 15518 KiB  
Review
Research Needs for Realization of Zero-Carbon Power Grids with Selected Case Studies
by Young-Jin Kim, Hakju Lee, Sungwook Hwang, Wookwon Kim, Seokwoong Kim, Sung-Yul Kim and Sungwoo Bae
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(5), 2533; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052533 - 28 Feb 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1745
Abstract
The attainment of carbon neutrality requires a research agenda that addresses the technical and economic challenges that will be encountered as we progress toward 100% renewable electricity generation. Increasing proportions of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources (such as wind turbines and photovoltaic systems) [...] Read more.
The attainment of carbon neutrality requires a research agenda that addresses the technical and economic challenges that will be encountered as we progress toward 100% renewable electricity generation. Increasing proportions of variable renewable energy (VRE) sources (such as wind turbines and photovoltaic systems) render the supply-and-demand balance of VRE-dominated power grids difficult. The operational characteristics and effects of VRE inverters also require attention. Here, we examine the implications of the paradigm shift to carbon neutrality and summarize the associated research challenges in terms of system planning, operation, and stability, and the need for energy storage integration, demand-side participation, distributed control and estimation, and energy sector coupling. We also highlight the existing literature gaps, and our recent studies that can fill in the gaps, thereby facilitating the improvement of grid operation and estimation. The numerical results of comparative case studies are also provided on the operational stability and economics of power grids with a high level of VRE sources, assisting stakeholders in establishing specific roadmaps and making relevant decisions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Grid Innovation in the Era of Smart Grids)
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