Frontiers in Resilient Smart Grid System: Microgrid and Distributed Network

Dear Colleagues,

Recent years have witnessed an increasing occurrence frequency of extreme events (e.g., natural disasters and man-made attacks), which could bring tremendous threats to power distribution systems. Presently, it is a fundamental and urgent requirement for the distribution networks to be resilient, i.e., the capability to prevent, resist, adapt to, and promptly recover from extreme disturbances. On the other hand, microgrids, as essential components of smart distribution systems, demonstrate great potential for improving grid resiliency and sustainability. In the case of extreme events, a microgrid can operate as a self-adequate islanding system to preserve critical loads and support the service restoration. Moreover, a group of microgrids can be adaptively interconnected or partitioned through a dynamic feeder reconfiguration, which would effectively improve the load survivability. Therefore, it is important to discuss and fully exploit the advantages of microgrids for building a resilient smart grid under a carbon-neutral and sustainable perspective.

This Special Issue seeks original thoughts and novel approaches that leverage the intrinsic flexibility, self-generation and quick response capability of microgrids to enhance the grid resiliency on power distribution level. Contributions to this Special Issue are expected to address the energy safety and disaster management challenges for future smart grid development.

The main topics of interest for this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• Carbon-free, green and sustainable ways of resilience enhancement for distribution networks;
• Distribution-level energy and reserve scheduling method during disastrous occasions;
• Resilience-oriented planning and network design of microgrids that integrate renewable energy sources, energy storage, flexible loads, and mobile equipment;
• High-resilience distribution system with multi-energy carriers, e.g., the synergy of electricity network, natural-gas pipelines, district heating system, and hydrogen supply chain;
• Real-time emergency response and control strategy of microgrids under extreme disturbances;
• Analytical optimization tools for resilience analysis of microgrids and distribution networks;
• Economic, environmental and social benefits analysis of microgrid applications in the service restoration of distribution networks.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Xiaoyu Cao
Dr. Tao Ding
Guest Editors

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• resilience
• distribution network
• microgrids
• renewable energy
• multi-energy synergy
• energy system planning
• emergency scheduling
• service restoration
• cost–benefit analysis
• optimization method