Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
6.8
3.3
Journals
Sustainability
Special Issues
Unlocking the Flexibility of Local Energy Systems for Supporting Carbon...
sustainability-logo
Submit to Sustainability Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Unlocking the Flexibility of Local Energy Systems for Supporting Carbon Reduction

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2024) | Viewed by 8839

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yu Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210018, China
Interests: power system planning; operation and control; integrated energy systems; microgrid; demand-side management
Dr. Chuanshen Wu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
Interests: microgrid; energy systems; electric vehicles; renewable energy
Dr. Ningyu Zhang

E-Mail
Guest Editor
State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Co. Ltd. Research Institute, Nanjing 210000, China
Interests: power system optimization and operation; applications of FACTS; offshore wind power

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the net-zero transition aimed to be reached globally by 2050, more renewable power generation systems are to be installed in local energy systems to keep up with the increased electricity demands. Power systems face multiple challenges in balancing supply and demand, e.g., increased peak demands, unbalanced load distributions, unexpected network congestion, etc.

The flexibility of local energy systems, i.e., the ability to change normal electricity generation/consumption patterns, such as adjusting the renewable power generation onsite to provide auxiliary services to the networks, can be utilized to address these challenges. Flexible resources have been shown to have great potential when it comes to the decarbonized industrial and electricity sectors in promoting renewable integration and consumption, ensuring power supply reliability, and optimizing network operations. However, the scheduling and control of flexible resources are difficult tasks due to associated significant uncertainties and computational complexity. The key is to handle these issues while utilizing local flexibility to optimally schedule and control the energy systems.

By making the most of flexibilities in local energy systems, the utilization of onsite renewable power generation can be maximized, the electricity dependence on the bulk electricity system can be reduced, and additional revenue can be generated by providing auxiliary services. For the electricity system, the peak demand can be reduced, and the capability in balancing supply and demand, as well as addressing network issues, can be improved upon.

The Special Issue “Unlocking the Flexibility of Local Energy Systems for Supporting Carbon Reduction” calls for high-quality research articles highlighting recent contributions. Original research papers, industrial practices, reviews, opinions, and perspectives are also all welcomed. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Modelling and simulation of local energy systems;
  • Optimal scheduling and control of flexible resources;
  • Renewable energy absorption in local energy systems;
  • Uncertainty analysis of industrial plants, energy carriers, and renewable power generation;
  • Advanced sensing, communication, simulation, optimization, and control technologies.

Dr. Yu Liu
Dr. Chuanshen Wu
Dr. Ningyu Zhang
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
  • flexibility
  • renewable energy
  • scheduling
  • control

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

21 pages, 3640 KiB  
Article
Demand Response Strategy Based on the Multi-Agent System and Multiple-Load Participation
by Pingliang Zeng, Jin Xu and Minchen Zhu
Sustainability 2024, 16(2), 902; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020902 - 20 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1109
Abstract
In order to improve the utilization of user-side power resources in the distribution network and promote energy conservation, this paper designs a distributed system suitable for power demand response (DR), considering multi-agent system (MAS) technology and consistency algorithms. Due to the frequent changes [...] Read more.
In order to improve the utilization of user-side power resources in the distribution network and promote energy conservation, this paper designs a distributed system suitable for power demand response (DR), considering multi-agent system (MAS) technology and consistency algorithms. Due to the frequent changes in the power system structure caused by changes in the load of a large number of users, this paper proposes using cluster partitioning indicators as communication weights between agents, enabling agents to utilize the distribution network for collaborative optimization. In order to achieve the integration of multiple load-side power resources and improve the refinement level of demand-side management (DSM), two types of agents with load aggregator (LA) functions are provided, which adopt the demand response strategies of Time-of-Use (TOU) or Direct Load Control (DLC) and model the uncertainty of individual device states using Monte Carlo method, so that the two typical flexible loads can achieve the target load-reduction requirements under the MAS framework. The research results demonstrate that this method achieves complementary advantages of the two types of loads participating in DR on a time scale, reducing the costs of power companies and saving customers’ electricity bills while peak shaving. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unlocking the Flexibility of Local Energy Systems for Supporting Carbon Reduction)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 6785 KiB  
Article
Design and Control of Two-Stage DC-AC Solid-State Transformer for Remote Area and Microgrid Applications
by Amer Bineshaq, Md Ismail Hossain, Hamed Binqadhi, Aboubakr Salem and Mohammad A. Abido
Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7345; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097345 - 28 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2164
Abstract
The critical challenges with integrating renewable energy into the grid are smooth power flow control, isolation between the high-voltage and low-voltage networks, voltage regulation, harmonic isolation, and power quality regulation. This paper considers the design and construction of a two-stage DC-AC solid-state transformer [...] Read more.
The critical challenges with integrating renewable energy into the grid are smooth power flow control, isolation between the high-voltage and low-voltage networks, voltage regulation, harmonic isolation, and power quality regulation. This paper considers the design and construction of a two-stage DC-AC solid-state transformer based on wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technologies, an optimized medium-frequency transformer, and PI and dq controllers for supplying urban area electric drive systems and microgrid applications. The designed SST consists of a dual active bridge (DAB) DC-DC converter followed by a DC-AC three-phase inverter. Each stage of the SST was simulated with independent controllers. The proposed system was initially developed in MATLAB/Simulink and a laboratory prototype was constructed to verify the results experimentally. Resistive and inductive load were used to test the load disturbance to evaluate the voltage regulation performance. This work has comprehensively provided the performance of a double stage (DC-DC and DC-AC converter) by taking into consideration input voltage, load disturbance, and voltage tracking both in simulation and experiment. The dual active bridge with its controller is able to maintain the desired output reference voltage with minimal voltage ripples under input voltage fluctuations and load variations. Similarly, the three-phase DC-AC converter’s controller exhibits better performance in tracking the desired reference voltage and producing well-regulated AC voltage with low harmonic distortion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unlocking the Flexibility of Local Energy Systems for Supporting Carbon Reduction)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 4523 KiB  
Article
The Design and Application of Microgrid Supervisory System for Commercial Buildings Considering Dynamic Converter Efficiency
by Wenshuai Bai, Dian Wang, Zhongquan Miao, Xiaorong Sun, Jiabin Yu, Jiping Xu and Yuqing Pan
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6413; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086413 - 10 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1501
Abstract
This paper presents a supervisory system that considers converter efficiency for local microgrids of commercial buildings to solve the uncertainty problem of the sources and loads while also optimizing local microgrid operating costs and maintaining power supply quality for commercial buildings. The supervisory [...] Read more.
This paper presents a supervisory system that considers converter efficiency for local microgrids of commercial buildings to solve the uncertainty problem of the sources and loads while also optimizing local microgrid operating costs and maintaining power supply quality for commercial buildings. The supervisory system includes an energy management layer and a power management layer. In the energy management layer, a long-term optimization approach is used to reduce the operating costs by considering the dynamic converter efficiency. In the power management layer, a real-time power optimization method is structured to deal with the uncertainty problem of the sources and loads, and to ensure that the direct current bus power is balanced while also guaranteeing the power quality by considering the dynamic converter efficiency. Four cases are proposed for the supervisory system, and these cases are simulated in MATLAB/Simulink under three typical weather conditions: cloud, sunshine, and rain. The comparison of simulation results for cases 1 and 2 illustrates the impact of converter efficiency on energy coordination in microgrids. The simulation results of cases 3 and 4 verify that the performance—in terms of the power supply quality and the operating costs—of the proposed microgrid supervisory system considering dynamic converter efficiency outperforms that of the microgrid supervisory system considering fixed converter efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unlocking the Flexibility of Local Energy Systems for Supporting Carbon Reduction)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 2121 KiB  
Article
Optimized Operation Plan for Hydrogen Refueling Station with On-Site Electrolytic Production
by Di Lu, Jing Sun, Yonggang Peng and Xiaofeng Chen
Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 347; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010347 - 26 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3255
Abstract
The cost reduction of hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs) is very important for the popularization of hydrogen vehicles. This paper proposes an optimized operation algorithm based on hydrogen energy demand estimation for on-site hydrogen refueling stations. Firstly, the user’s hydrogen demand was estimated based [...] Read more.
The cost reduction of hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs) is very important for the popularization of hydrogen vehicles. This paper proposes an optimized operation algorithm based on hydrogen energy demand estimation for on-site hydrogen refueling stations. Firstly, the user’s hydrogen demand was estimated based on the simulation of their hydrogenation behavior. Secondly, mixed integer linear programming method was used to optimize the operation of the hydrogen refueling station to minimize the unit hydrogen energy cost by using the peak–valley difference of the electricity price. We then used three typical scenario cases to evaluate the optimized operation method. The results show that the optimized operation method proposed in this paper can effectively reduce the rated configuration of electrolyzer and storage tank for HRS and can significantly reduce the unit hydrogen energy cost considering the construction cost compared with the traditional method. Therefore, the optimization operation method of a local hydrogen production and hydrogen refueling station proposed in this paper can reduce the cost of a hydrogen refueling station and accelerate the popularization of hydrogen energy vehicles. Finally, the scope of application of the proposed optimization method and the influence of the variation of the electricity price curve and the unit cost of the electrolyzer are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unlocking the Flexibility of Local Energy Systems for Supporting Carbon Reduction)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop