Flexible Division and Unification Control Strategies for Resilience Enhancement in Networked Microgrids

Topic: Flexible Division and Unification Control Strategies for Resilience Enhancement in Networked Microgrids

Time: 14:00 p.m., Monday, Nov. 11th

Speaker: Mohammad Shahidehpour, Member of US National Academy of Engineering

Venue: Room 201, Electric Engineering Building 

Abstract: 

Networking a series of autonomous microgrids (MGs) is a strategic effort toward the resilience enhancement in extreme conditions. We consider flexible division and unification control strategies to help networked MGs prepare adequately for extreme events and adapt comprehensively to subsequent changing conditions, which enhance the system resilience. Networked MGs can switch between two distinct modes of division and unification by utilizing a sparse communication network without requiring any additional communication infrastructures or controllers. In division mode, each MG is regulated by its local master controller (MC) for active power sharing, which ensures that disruptions are handled effectively by local energy resources without utilizing those in adjacent MGs. Thus, any islanding or resynchronization of individual MGs would not introduce further disruptions to the remaining networked system. In unification mode, the remaining networked MGs, which are still functional, share all available energy resources and adapt to continuously changing operating conditions in order to respond to extreme events. The proposed control algorithm for devising a flexible networked MG system is a cost-effective scheme that can fully exploit the system operation flexibility corresponding to different operation stages for enhancing the resilience. The proposed control strategies are applied to a networked MG system and the performance is tested using time-domain PSCAD/EMTDC simulations.

About the speaker:

Dr. Mohammad Shahidehpour is a University Distinguished Professor, Bodine Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director of the Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). He has also been the Principal Investigator of $60M research grants and contracts on power system operation and control. His project on Perfect Power Systems has converted the entire IIT Campus to an islandable microgrid. His CSMART (Center for Smart Grid Applications, Research, and Technology) at IIT has promoted the smart grid cybersecurity research for managing the resilience of wireless networked communication and control systems in smart cities. His SPIKE initiative facilitated the design and the implementation of affordable microgrids in impoverished nations. He is the recipient of the 2009 honorary doctorate from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest.  Dr. Shahidehpour was the recipient several technical awards including of the IEEE Burke Hayes Award for his research on hydrokinetics, IEEE/PES Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award, IEEE/PES Ramakumar Family Renewable Energy Excellence Award, IEEE/PES Douglas M. Staszesky Distribution Automation Award, and the Edison Electric Institute’s Power Engineering Educator Award. He has co-authored 6 books and 650 technical papers on electric power system operation and planning, and served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.  Dr. Shahidehpour is a Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE).