Submit to Energies Review for Energies Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A1: Smart Grids and Microgrids".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 23048

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Amjad Anvari-Moghaddam

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Interests: power system operation and planning; microgrids and active energy networks; energy markets and analytics; operations research and its applications to energy systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Frede Blaabjerg

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Interests: power electronics and its applications in motor drives; wind turbines; PV systems; harmonics; reliability of power electronic systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The energy transition is shifting from large national energy systems to local energy systems in communities, neighborhoods, districts, villages, and business parks. During this process, each local system requires its own sustainable, reliable, and affordable design, operation, and control scheme. Novel approaches are also needed to optimize network architecture, planning, and development based on the opportunities offered by integrated local energy systems and enabled by digitalization and power electronics (PE).

This Special Issue offers a major forum for the reporting of advances in modeling, control, optimization, and application of local energy systems as building blocks of future smart, flexible, and low-carbon energy systems. Similarly, the Special Issue also focuses on recent advances in cross-border cooperation in the energy sector on a wide range of topics, including the following:

Models and designs for regional and local energy systems
Energy planning and management
Distributed energy solutions
Innovative controls for renewable source integration
Novel renewable energy converter/inverter systems
Advanced power electronic technologies and front-ends for local energy systems
Energy storage systems
Microgrids and local energy communities
Analysis of energy systems
Local energy systems for electric mobility
Low-carbon community energy systems
Market integration and business model innovation for local energy
Energy hubs and multi-carrier energy systems/energy islands
Local cyberphysical systems, information and communication infrastructure, and data analytics
Real-world applications of local energy systems

Prof. Dr. Amjad Anvari-Moghaddam
Prof. Dr. Frede Blaabjerg
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. Energies 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 2600 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

Models and designs for regional and local energy systems
Energy planning and management
Distributed energy solutions
Innovative controls for renewable source integration
Novel renewable energy converter/inverter systems
Advanced power electronic technologies and front-ends for local energy systems
Energy storage systems
Microgrids and local energy communities
Analysis of energy systems
Local energy systems for electric mobility
Low-carbon community energy systems
Market integration and business model innovation for local energy
Energy hubs and multi-carrier energy systems/energy islands
Local cyberphysical systems, information and communication infrastructure, and data analytics
Real-world applications of local energy systems

Published Papers (8 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

24 pages, 2244 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reliability Optimization of Multi-Energy System Considering Energy Storage Devices Effects under Weather Uncertainties

by Ziyan Liao and Alessandra Parisio

Energies 2022, 15(3), 696; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15030696 - 18 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2027

Abstract

Multi-energy systems (MES) allow various energy forms, such as electricity, gas, and heat, to interact and achieve energy transfer and mutually benefit, reducing the probability of load cutting in the event of a failure, increasing the energy utilization efficiency, and improving the reliability and robustness of the overall energy supply system. Since energy storage systems can help to restore power in the case of failure and store the surplus energy to enhance the flexibility of MES, this work provides a methodology for reliability optimization, considering different energy storage configuration schemes under weather uncertainties. First of all, a reliability evaluation model of a multi-energy system under weather uncertainties based on a sequential Monte Carlo simulation is established. Then, the reliability optimization problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem to minimize the reliability index, SAIDI (system average interruption duration index), and the reliability cost. Finally, a case study implemented on a typical MES layout is used to demonstrate the proposed methodology. A comparative analysis of three widely adopted multi-objective metaheuristic algorithms, including NSGA-II (non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II), MOPSO (multiple objective particle swarm optimization), and SPEA2 (strength Pareto evolution algorithm 2), is performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The simulation results show that the NSGA-II algorithm leads to better optimal values and converges the fastest compared to the other two methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 4041 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Short-Circuit Analysis of DER-Based Microgrids in Connected and Islanded Modes of Operation

by Nikola Simic, Luka Strezoski and Boris Dumnic

Energies 2021, 14(19), 6372; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196372 - 05 Oct 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2733

Abstract

Since microgrids should be able to smoothly operate in two distinct modes—grid-connected and islanded, their fault currents can widely fluctuate depending on the operational mode. When the microgrid is connected to the grid, the highest fault current, by far, is supplied by the utility grid. In this mode, the fault current contribution from distributed energy resources (DERs) is less than 20%. However, when the microgrid switches to the islanded mode, the fault current contribution from the utility grid is lost and DERs are the sole fault current sources. Thus, the overall fault current in the islanded mode is multiple times lower when compared to the grid connected mode. Moreover, most of the DERs are inverter-based, with limited fault currents, which further reduces the overall fault current in the islanded mode. With the rapid rise of the microgrid penetration around the globe, this phenomenon can adversely influence the relay protection, and thus the microgrid fault current needs to be precisely analyzed. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to thoroughly analyze the fault current differences in two distinct operation modes of a microgrid, and to consequently derive conclusions regarding the required improvements in fault calculations and relay protection analysis in emerging microgrids. A representative microgrid test bed is developed and modelled using the in-house developed software as well as in a state-of-the-art hardware-in-the-loop environment. Several different short-circuit faults were simulated and analyzed in both grid-connected and islanded modes. The results show that the fault currents significantly differ depending on the operating mode, and thus highly influence the protection system. Moreover, test results show that the fault calculation algorithms aimed at radial distribution grids, mostly used for microgrid fault calculations in the available literature, need to be further improved to provide precise and time-efficient results when the emerging microgrids are considered. These results provide a valuable insight into the current state of the microgrids’ fault calculation and protection and reveal several important directions for future research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 14402 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cost-Optimized Heat and Power Supply for Residential Buildings: The Cost-Reducing Effect of Forming Smart Energy Neighborhoods

by Christoph Bahret and Ludger Eltrop

Energies 2021, 14(16), 5093; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14165093 - 18 Aug 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1310

Abstract

The Clean Energy for all Europeans Package by the EU aims, among other things, to enable collective self-consumption for various forms of energy. This step towards more prosumer-based and decentralized energy systems comes at a time when energy planning at a neighborhood scale is on the rise in many countries. It is widely assumed that—from a prosumer’s cost-perspective—shared conversion and storage technologies supplying more than a single building can be advantageous. However, it is not clear whether this is the case generally or only under certain conditions. By analyzing idealized building clusters at different degrees of urbanization (DOU), a linear-optimization approach is used to study the cost difference between shared energy infrastructure (smart energy neighborhoods, SENs) and individually planned buildings. This procedure is carried out for various emission reduction targets. The results show, that with higher emission reduction targets the advantage of SENs increases within rural environments and can reach up to 16%. Nevertheless, there are constellations in which the share of energetic infrastructure among buildings does not lead to any economic advantages. For example, in the case of building clusters with less than four buildings, almost no cost advantage is found. The result of this study underlines the importance of energy system planning within the process of urban planning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 6315 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Decentralized Optimal Control for Photovoltaic Systems Using Prediction in the Distribution Systems

by Chi-Thang Phan-Tan and Martin Hill

Energies 2021, 14(13), 3973; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14133973 - 02 Jul 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1961

Abstract

The high penetration of photovoltaic (PV) systems and fast communications networks increase the potential for PV inverters to support the stability and performance of microgrids. PV inverters in the distribution network can work cooperatively and follow centralized and decentralized control commands to optimize energy production while meeting grid code requirements. However, there are older autonomous inverters that have already been installed and will operate in the same network as smart controllable ones. This paper proposes a decentralized optimal control (DOC) that performs multi-objective optimization for a group of PV inverters in a network of existing residential loads and autonomous inverters. The interaction of independent DOC groups in the same network is considered. The limit of PV inverter power factor is included in the control. The DOC is done by the power flow calculation and an autoregression prediction model for estimating maximum power point and loads. Overvoltage caused by prediction errors resulting in non-optimal commands from the DOC is avoided by switching to autonomous droop control (ADC). The DOC and ADC operate at different time scales to take account of communication delays between PV inverters and decentralized controller. The simulation of different scenarios of network control has proved the effectiveness of the control strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

34 pages, 2682 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Distributed Thermal Energy Storage Configuration of an Urban Electric and Heat Integrated Energy System Considering Medium Temperature Characteristics

by Wei Wei, Yusong Guo, Kai Hou, Kai Yuan, Yi Song, Hongjie Jia and Chongbo Sun

Energies 2021, 14(10), 2924; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14102924 - 18 May 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1856

Abstract

Distributed thermal energy storage (DTES) provides specific opportunities to realize the sustainable and economic operation of urban electric heat integrated energy systems (UEHIES). However, the construction of the theory of the model and the configuration method of thermal storage for distributed application are still challenging. This paper analyzes the heat absorption and release process between the DTES internal heat storage medium and the heat network transfer medium, refines the relationship between heat transfer power and temperature characteristics, and establishes a water thermal energy storage and electric heater phase change thermal energy storage model, considering medium temperature characteristics. Combined with the temperature transmission delay characteristics of a heat network, a two-stage optimal configuration model of DTES for UEHIES is proposed. The results show that considering the temperature characteristics in the configuration method can accurately reflect the performance of DTES, enhance wind power utilization, improve the operation efficiency of energy equipment, and reduce the cost of the system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

21 pages, 3990 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Multi-Agent Based Optimization Model for Microgrid Operation with Hybrid Method Using Game Theory Strategy

by Ji-Won Lee, Mun-Kyeom Kim and Hyung-Joon Kim

Energies 2021, 14(3), 603; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14030603 - 25 Jan 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2664

Abstract

Owing to the increases of energy loads and penetration of renewable energy with variability, it is essential to determine the optimum capacity of the battery energy storage system (BESS) and demand response (DR) within the microgrid (MG). To accomplish the foregoing, this paper proposes an optimal MG operation approach with a hybrid method considering the game theory for a multi-agent system. The hybrid method operation includes both BESS and DR methods. The former is presented to reduce the sum of the MG operation and BESS costs using the game theory, resulting in the optimal capacity of BESS. Similarly, the DR method determines the optimal DR capacity based on the trade-off between the incentive value and capacity. To improve optimization operation, multi-agent guiding particle swarm optimization (MAG-PSO) is implemented by adjusting the best global position and position vector. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach not only affords the most economical decision among agents but also reduces the utilization cost by approximately 8.5%, compared with the base method. Furthermore, it has been revealed that the proposed MAG-PSO algorithm has superiority in terms of solution quality and computational time with respect to other algorithms. Therefore, the optimal hybrid method operation obtains a superior solution with the game theory strategy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 1437 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Model Reference Adaptive System with Finite-Set for Encoderless Control of PMSGs in Micro-Grid Systems

by Mohamed Abdelrahem, Christoph M. Hackl, José Rodríguez and Ralph Kennel

Energies 2020, 13(18), 4844; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13184844 - 16 Sep 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2011

Abstract

In micro-grid systems, wind turbines are essential power generation sources. The direct-driven surface-mounted permanent-magnet synchronous generators (SMPMSGs) in variable-speed wind generation systems (VS-WGSs) are promising due to their high efficiency/power density and the avoidance of using a gearbox, i.e., regular maintenance and noise are averted. Usually, the main goal of the control system for SMPMSGs is to extract the maximum available power from the wind turbine. To do so, the rotor position/speed of the SMPMSG must be known. Those signals are obtained by the help of an incremental encoder or speed transducer. However, the system reliability is remarkably reduced due to the high failure rate of these mechanical sensors. To avoid this problem, this paper presents a model reference adaptive system with finite-set (MRAS-FS) observer for encoderless control of SMPMSGs in VS-WGSs. The motif of the presented MRAS-FS observer is taken from the direct-model predictive control (DMPC) principle, where a certain number of rotor position angles are utilized to estimate the stator flux of the SMPMSG. Subsequently, a new optimization criterion (also called quality or cost function) is formulated to select the best rotor position angle based on minimizing the error between the estimated and reference value of the stator flux. Accordingly, the traditional fixed-gain proportional-integral regulator generally employed in the classical MRAS observers is not needed. The proposed MRAS-FS observer is validated experimentally, and its estimation response has been compared with the conventional MRAS observer under different conditions. In addition to that, the robustness of the MRAS-FS observer is tested at mismatches in the parameters of the SMPMSG. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

31 pages, 7703 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Robust Control Strategy for Parallel Operated Inverters in Green Energy Applications

by Bilal Naji Alhasnawi, Basil H. Jasim, Walid Issa, Amjad Anvari-Moghaddam and Frede Blaabjerg

Energies 2020, 13(13), 3480; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13133480 - 06 Jul 2020

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 5890

Abstract

This research work puts forward a hybrid AC/DC microgrid with renewable energy sources pertaining to consumer’s residential area for meeting the demand. Currently, the power generation and consumption have experienced key transformations. One such tendency would be integration of microgrids into the distribution network that is characterized by high penetration of renewable energy resources as well as operations in parallel. Traditional droop control can be employed in order to get an accurate steady state averaged active power sharing amongst parallel inverters pertaining to hybrid AC/DC microgrid. It is presumed that there would be similar transient average power responses, and there would be no circulating current flowing between the units for identical inverters possessing the same droop gain. However, the instantaneous power could be affected by different line impedances considerably and thus resulting in variation in circulating power that flows amongst inverters, especially during unexpected disturbances like load changes. This power, if absorbed by the inverter, could result in sudden DC-link voltage rise and trip the inverter, which in turn causes performance degradation of the entire hybrid microgrid. When the hybrid generators act as unidirectional power source, the issue worsens further. In this research work, we have put forward a new distributed coordinated control pertaining to hybrid microgrid, which can be applied for both grid connected and islanded modes that include variable loads and hybrid energy resources. Also, in order to choose the most effective controller scheme, a participation factor analysis has been designed for binding the DC-link voltage as well as reducing the circulating power. Moreover, to both photovoltaic stations and wind turbines, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques have been used in order to extract the maximum power from hybrid power system when there is discrepancy in environmental circumstances. Lastly, the feasibility and effectiveness pertaining to the introduced strategy for hybrid microgrid in various modes are confirmed via simulation results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Local Energy Systems: Modeling, Control, Optimization, and Applications

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (8 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI