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Energy Systems Integration: From Policy-Makers to Consumers

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 23168

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vahid Vahidinasab

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Guest Editor

School of Science and Technology, Department of Engineering, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
Interests: energy systems integration; whole energy systems; operation of smart grids/microgrids/building; energy markets; transactive energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Behnam Mohammadi-Ivatloo

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, 29 Bahman Boulevard, Iran
Interests: integrated energy systems; smart grid; energy storage; optimization of energy systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Philip Taylor

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Guest Editor

School of Computer Science, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Engineering Maths, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
Interests: Whole Energy Systems; Distribution Network Control; Smart Grids; Micro Grids

Dr. Sara L Walker

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
Interests: energy systems integration; energy networks; active buildings

Dr. Damian Giaouris

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
Interests: control of energy systems; active buildings; control theory

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleague,

Decarbonization is one of the hottest subjects of the last decade, which has caused a revolution in most parts of the world, and is at the center of this goal is energy sustainability. Whilst the energy systems, including gas, power, transport, heating and cooling, are extremely important to the future of the world, the energy trilemma (i.e. keeping the balance among sustainability, the security of supply and affordability) brings many complex challenges. Energy systems integration (ESI) is one of the most important research areas of recent years.

All the stakeholders and active players of this area emphasize not seeing the energy sectors in isolation, and they all believe that the interaction of the different energy sectors is of great importance to successfully meet the energy trilemma. A whole energy system is an approach to facing these conflicting challenges, and it is a necessity for shaping the transition to decarbonization targets. This field of study addresses the interactions and inter-dependencies within the energy landscape and its connections with other sectors and systems and integrating social, economic, technical and environmental issues.

This Special Section will target numerous prospects in energy systems integration. We welcome both the review and research articles to make this Special Issue more resourceful. Real-world use cases and demonstrators discussing new application areas and resulting new developments are especially welcome.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Policy, regulation and market issues in ESI;
Social issues in ESI;
Economic aspects of ESI;
A holistic approach in modelling of the energy systems;
The impact of zero energy and net-zero carbon policies on ESI;
Challenges in planning and operation of integrated energy systems;
Energy systems resilience;
Energy forecasting;
The role of vector-coupling technologies in ESI;
The role of storage systems in ESI;
Uncertainty aware energy management systems;
Transactive energy management in integrated energy systems;
Cyber-physical security in ESI.

Dr. Vahid Vahidinasab
Prof. Behnam Mohammadi-Ivatloo
Prof. Philip Taylor
Dr. Sara L. Walker
Dr. Damian Giaouris
Guest Editors

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. Sustainability 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

energy systems integration
policy, regulation and market
supply
energy markets and transactive energy, technologies
demand
forecasting
pilots
cyber-physical security

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 3273 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Landscape and Roadmap of the Research and Innovation Infrastructures in Energy: A Review of the Case Study of the UK

by Zoya Pourmirza, Seyed Hamid Reza Hosseini, Sara Walker, Damian Giaouris and Philip Taylor

Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7197; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127197 - 12 Jun 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1788

Abstract

Research and development are critical for driving economic growth. To realise the UK government’s Industrial Strategy, we develop an energy research and innovation infrastructure roadmap and landscape for the energy sector looking to the long term (2030). This study is based on a picture of existing UK infrastructure on energy. It shows the links between the energy sector and other sectors, the distribution of energy research and innovation infrastructures, the age of these infrastructures, where most of the energy research and innovation infrastructures are hosted, and the distribution of energy research and innovation infrastructures according to their legal structure. Next, this study identifies the roadmap of energy research and innovation infrastructures by 2030, based on a categorisation of the energy sector into seven subsectors. Challenges and future requirements are explored for each of the sub-sectors, encompassing fossil fuels and nuclear energy to renewable energy sources and hydrogen, and from pure science to applied engineering. The study discusses the potential facilities to address these challenges within each sub-sector. It explores the e-infrastructure and data needs for the energy sector and provides a discussion on other sectors of the economy that energy research and innovation infrastructures contribute to. Some of the key messages identified in this study are the need for further large-scale initiative and large demonstrators of multi-vector energy systems, the need for multi-disciplinary research and innovation, and the need for greater data sharing and cyber-physical demonstrators. Finally, this work will serve as an important study to provide guidance for future investment strategy for the energy sector. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Systems Integration: From Policy-Makers to Consumers)

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24 pages, 5318 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Risk-Averse Scheduling of Combined Heat and Power-Based Microgrids in Presence of Uncertain Distributed Energy Resources

by Abbas Rabiee, Ali Abdali, Seyed Masoud Mohseni-Bonab and Mohsen Hazrati

Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7119; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137119 - 24 Jun 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1529

Abstract

In this paper, a robust scheduling model is proposed for combined heat and power (CHP)-based microgrids using information gap decision theory (IGDT). The microgrid under study consists of conventional power generation as well as boiler units, fuel cells, CHPs, wind turbines, solar PVs, heat storage units, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) as the set of distributed energy resources (DERs). Additionally, a demand response program (DRP) model is considered which has a successful performance in the microgrid hourly scheduling. One of the goals of CHP-based microgrid scheduling is to provide both thermal and electrical energy demands of the consumers. Additionally, the other objective is to benefit from the revenues obtained by selling the surplus electricity to the main grid during the high energy price intervals or purchasing it from the grid when the price of electricity is low at the electric market. Hence, in this paper, a robust scheduling approach is developed with the aim of maximizing the total profit of different energy suppliers in the entire scheduling horizon. The employed IGDT technique aims to handle the impact of uncertainties in the power output of wind and solar PV units on the overall profit. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Systems Integration: From Policy-Makers to Consumers)

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24 pages, 1822 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy Transition at Home: A Survey on the Data and Practices That Lead to a Change in Household Energy Behavior

by Jacopo Gaspari, Ernesto Antonini, Lia Marchi and Vincenzo Vodola

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5268; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095268 - 08 May 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3018

Abstract

Since energy transition depends significantly on reducing the built environment’s energy needs, many regulations and incentives have been implemented globally over the last three decades. Despite some positive results, many scholars suggest that households’ behavioral change could greatly accelerate progress. People’s levels of awareness and willingness to change, as well as the provision of feedback technologies, are important factors affecting the process. In spite of the extent of this body of literature, household consumption keeps rising. Our thesis is that the subject has been investigated without considering some important correlations among factors. Therefore, this study developed a survey to investigate actual consumers’ perspectives on the topic by combining people’s awareness of energy use, interaction with metering devices, and user motivation into a coherent framework. A testing session involving 500 people was held as a validation phase for a future large-scale launch of the questionnaire. The test yielded some early outcomes on how people become more interested in changing as they gain more knowledge and are offered suggestions. However, despite their supposedly advanced knowledge as educators and students, the sample’s level of awareness was low, suggesting that a more user-centered approach is needed for wide-scale progress. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Systems Integration: From Policy-Makers to Consumers)

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18 pages, 2511 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Flexible Continuous-Time Modeling for Multi-Objective Day-Ahead Scheduling of CHP Units

by Elnaz Davoodi, Salar Balaei-Sani, Behnam Mohammadi-Ivatloo and Mehdi Abapour

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5058; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095058 - 30 Apr 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1433

Abstract

Increasing applications of CHP units have turned the problem of finding the best optimization model into a significant subject for scholars. In this respect, this paper is aimed at driving a novel formulation to the multi-objective day-ahead scheduling of CHP units using Bernstein polynomials, which more optimally schedules power and heat generations as well as ramping trajectories. This procedure includes yielding an affine function that closely approximates real-time net-load and generation trajectories, which is demonstrated to have a superior performance to the conventional hourly day-ahead scheduling of CHP units based on discrete-time approximation. The problem of how to handle various objective functions by function space method is also addressed. The simulations conducted on the sample test systems, which consist of CHP systems, thermal and heat-only units, as well as thermal and electrical loads, show that the suggested multi-objective model can perfectly cover the total heat and electrical loads in terms of economic and environmental criteria. More importantly, the results indicate that the accuracy of the proposed approach renders cost saving of 1.67% and emission saving of 1.46% in comparison with the conventional hourly-based model, apart from leading to fewer ramping scarcities in real-time operations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Systems Integration: From Policy-Makers to Consumers)

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20 pages, 1602 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Event Matching Classification Method for Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring

by Elnaz Azizi, Mohammad T. H. Beheshti and Sadegh Bolouki

Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 693; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020693 - 12 Jan 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2534

Abstract

Nowadays, energy management aims to propose different strategies to utilize available energy resources, resulting in sustainability of energy systems and development of smart sustainable cities. As an effective approach toward energy management, non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM), aims to infer the power profiles of appliances from the aggregated power signal via purely analytical methods. Existing NILM methods are susceptible to various issues such as the noise and transient spikes of the power signal, overshoots at the mode transition times, close consumption values by different appliances, and unavailability of a large training dataset. This paper proposes a novel event-based NILM classification algorithm mitigating these issues. The proposed algorithm (i) filters power signals and accurately detects all events; (ii) extracts specific features of appliances, such as operation modes and their respective power intervals, from their power signals in the training dataset; and (iii) labels with high accuracy each detected event of the aggregated signal with an appliance mode transition. The algorithm is validated using REDD with the results showing its effectiveness to accurately disaggregate low-frequency measured data by existing smart meters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Systems Integration: From Policy-Makers to Consumers)

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Review

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28 pages, 4507 KiB

Open AccessReview

On the Way of Policy Making to Reduce the Reliance of Fossil Fuels: Case Study of Iran

by Morteza Aien and Omid Mahdavi

Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10606; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410606 - 18 Dec 2020

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4239

Abstract

Nowadays, fossil fuels are well known as a predominant source of energy in the planet. Located in the Middle East region, Iran holds one of the largest fossil fuel reservoirs in the world. The country has abundant oil and natural gas fields in various regions; some of them are shared between other countries and have not reached their operational capacity yet. Meanwhile, during recent years and due to global warming followed by environmental global contracts such as Kyoto protocol, using fossil fuels is being criticized to a large extent around the world. Therefore, the global interest has been focused toward clean energy resources. Furthermore, endowed with sundry geographical pattern throughout its land, Iran has adequate renewable energy potentials. So, there will be a serious paradox affecting its whole energy policy: more exploration and extraction of conventional fossil fuels or take advantage of renewable and sustainable energy resources? In this paper, energy structure of Iran is generally overviewed, followed by study of renewable energy potentials in various parts of the country. Afterwards, policy making in renewable energy market, systems, and applicable strategies are elaborated. Furthermore, a number of barriers obstructing the development path of renewable energy schemes and initiatives are presented and discussed in detail. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Systems Integration: From Policy-Makers to Consumers)

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24 pages, 1648 KiB

Open AccessReview

Power Systems Resilience Metrics: A Comprehensive Review of Challenges and Outlook

by Habibollah Raoufi, Vahid Vahidinasab and Kamyar Mehran

Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9698; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229698 - 20 Nov 2020

Cited by 59 | Viewed by 7045

Abstract

Recently, there has been a focus on natural and man-made disasters with a high-impact low-frequency (HILF) property in electric power systems. A power system must be built with “resilience” or the ability to withstand, adapt and recover from disasters. The resilience metrics (RMs) are tools to measure the resilience level of a power system, normally employed for resilience cost–benefit in planning and operation. While numerous RMs have been presented in the power system literature; there is still a lack of comprehensive framework regarding the different types of the RMs in the electric power system, and existing frameworks have essential shortcomings. In this paper, after an extensive overview of the literature, a conceptual framework is suggested to identify the key variables, factors and ideas of RMs in power systems and define their relationships. The proposed framework is compared with the existing ones, and existing power system RMs are also allocated to the framework’s groups to validate the inclusivity and usefulness of the proposed framework, as a tool for academic and industrial researchers to choose the most appropriate RM in different power system problems and pinpoint the potential need for the future metrics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Systems Integration: From Policy-Makers to Consumers)

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