The recently released report of the International Energy Outlook (IEO2009) projects an increase of 44% in the world energy demand from 2006 to 2030, and 77% rise in the net electricity generation worldwide in the same period. However, threatening in the said report is that 80% of the total generation in 2030 would be produced from fossil fuels. This global dependence on fossil fuels is dangerous to our environment in terms of their emissions unless specific policies and measures are put in place. Nevertheless, recent research reveals that a reduction in the emissions of these gases is possible with widespread adoption of distributed generation (DG) technologies that feed on renewable energy sources, in the generation of electric power. This paper gives a detailed overview of distributed energy resources technologies, and also discusses the devastating impacts of the conventional power plants feeding on fossil fuels to our environment. The study finally justifies how DG technologies could substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions when fully adopted; hence, reducing the public concerns over human health risks caused by the conventional method of electricity generation.

This paper presents a novel step-up DC to AC converter with only one power supply. These types of converters are suitable for renewable and sustainable energy applications with low input DC sources. The proposed topology has the ability of self-voltage balancing and does not apply end side H-bridge to produce a bipolar staircase waveform. Consequently, switching losses and voltage stress of semiconductor components are reduced to a great extent. A small DC voltage source can be used to achieve a high voltage high quality AC waveform through switching the pre-charged capacitors in series and in parallel. Circuit configuration and its operation principle, capacitors' charging process, thermal model, capacitances and losses calculations are discussed in details. Moreover, the comparison of the proposed circuit with the other single source multilevel converters shows that the proposed topology reduces the number of circuit elements. Finally, a laboratory 9-level prototype is built to verify the theoretical analyses and feasibility of the proposed topology. The experimental results show that the converter efficiency at 1 KW output power is 92.75 %.

This paper presents a smart Transactive energy (TE) framework in which home microgrids (H-MGs) can collaborate with each other in a multiple H-MG system by forming coalitions for gaining competitiveness in the market. Profit allocation due to coalition between H-MGs is an important issue for ensuring the optimal use of installed resources in the whole multiple H-MG system. In addition, considering demand fluctuations, energy production based on renewable resources in the multiple H-MG can be accomplished by demand-side management strategies that try to establish mechanisms to allow for a flatter demand curve. In this regard, demand shifting potential can be tapped through shifting certain amounts of energy demand from some time periods to others with lower expected demand, typically to match price values and to ensure that existing generation will be economically sufficient. It is also possible to obtain the maximum profit with the coalition formation. In essence the impact of the consumption shifting in the multiple H-MG schedule can be considered while conducting both individual and coalition operations. A comprehensive simulation study is carried out to reveal the effectiveness of

This paper aims at enhancing the resilience of a photovoltaic-based microgrid equipped with battery storage, supplying a typical commercial building. When extreme weather conditions such as hurricane, tsunami and similar events occur, leading to islanding of the microgrid from the main power grid, it is not expected that the microgrid would be taken out of service for a long time. At the same time, it is not cost effective to make the electrical system to be absolutely reliable to provide service for the customers. The main contribution of this paper lies in its ability to determine the optimal point between the operational cost and grid resilience. In other words, this work proposes an optimal management system of battery energy storage in a way to enhance the resilience of the proposed microgrid while maintaining its operational cost at a minimum level. The optimization is achieved by solving a linear optimization programming problem while the Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) is incorporated in the objective function. The CVaR is used to account for the uncertainty in the intermittent PV system generated power and that in the electricity price. Simulation analyses are carried out in MATLAB to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Results reveal that the commercial building microgrid resilience is improved remarkably at a slight increase in the operational cost.

The concept of Transactive energy (TE) been adapted in the regulation of electricity market within the context of economic planning and control for grid reliability enhancement. The objective is to improve productivity and participation of the players in the market that is composed of distributed energy resources (DER). The main goal of implementing a market structure based on TE is to secure permission for the market players so that they could attain a higher payoff. In this study, an optimization-based algorithm in which an objective function premised on economic strategies, distribution limitations and the overall demand in the market structure is proposed. The objective function is solved for near global optima using four heuristically guided optimization algorithms. The proposed algorithm which ensures that

The inclusion of plug-in electrical vehicles (PEVs) in microgrids not only could bring benefits by reducing the on-peak demand, but could also improve the economic efficiency and increase the environmental sustainability. Therefore, in this paper a two stage energy management strategy for the contribution of PEVs in demand response (DR) programs of commercial building microgrids is addressed. The main contribution of this work is the incorporation of the uncertainty of electricity prices in a model predictive control (MPC) based plan for energy management optimization. First, the optimization problem considers the operation of PEVs and wind power in order to optimize the energy management in the commercial building. Second, the total charged power reference which is computed for PEVs in this stage is sent to the PEVs control section so that it could be allocated to each PEV. Therefore, the power balance can be achieved between the power supply and the load in the proposed microgrid building while the operational cost is minimized. The predicted values for load demand, wind power, and electricity price are forecasted by a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model. In addition, the conditional value at risk (CVaR) is used for the uncertainty in the electricity prices. In the end, the results confirm that the PEVs can effectively contribute in the DR programs for the proposed microgrid model. Index Terms-Demand response (DR), model predictive control (MPC), conditional value at risk (CVaR), plug-in electric vehicles (PEV), wind power, commercial building microgrids. I. NOMENCLATURE

Abstract:The growing demand for electricity is a challenge for the electricity sector as it not only involves the search for new sources of energy, but also the increase of generation capacity of the existing electrical infrastructure and the need to upgrade the existing grid. Therefore, new ways to reduce the consumption of energy are necessary to be implemented. When comparing an average house with an energy efficient house, it is possible to reduce annual energy bills up to 40%. Homeowners and tenants should consider developing an energy conservation plan in their homes. This is both an ecological and economically rational action. With this goal in mind, the need for the energy optimization arises. However, this has to be made by ensuring a fair level of comfort in the household, which in turn spawns a few control challenges. In this paper, the ON/OFF, proportional-integral-derivative (PID) and Model Predictive Control (MPC) control methods of an air conditioning (AC) of a room are compared. The model of the house of this study has a PV domestic generation. The recorded climacteric data for this case study are for Évora, a pilot Portuguese city in an ongoing demand response (DR) project. Six Time-of-Use (ToU) electricity rates are studied and compared during a whole week of summer, typically with very high temperatures for this period of the year. The overall weekly expense of each studied tariff option is compared for every control method and in the end the optimal solution is reached.

This paper reports a general overview of current research on analysis and control of the power grid with grid scale PV-based power generations as well as of various consequences of grid scale integration of PV generation units into the power systems. Moreover, the history of PV renewable growth, deregulation of power system and issues related to grid-connected PV systems considering its contribution to various responsibilities like frequency control, virtual inertia capabilities and voltage regulation are discussed. Moreover, various outcomes of the high-penetrated grid with PV power plants such as power quality, active and reactive power control, protection, balancing and reliability under various loading conditions are reviewed and discussed.