Areal power plant: aggregation system to control a multitude of distributed generators during power system restoration - demonstration results

Abstract

Power system restoration (PSR) is an unlikely but critical event, that requires new approaches to cope with increasing shares of distributed generators (DG) like photovoltaic (PV), especially in low-and medium-voltage grids. One possible solution to tackle this challenge, a so called "Flächenkraftwerk" / areal power plant (APP), will be examined in its prototype stage. The core idea behind an APP is the provision of large(r) scale power plant characteristics with aggregated DG especially during PSR. For testing the APP it has been deployed in a virtual laboratory (virtual lab) including PV emulators which are capable to simulate active power behaviour as well as ICT aspects. Furthermore, the virtual lab has been manually interlinked with a proven training system for control centre personnel to allow the look and feel of a real restoration situation. The main result of two extreme scenarios, a worst case scenario with no DG remote controllability and a best case scenario with partial controllability, shows the APP's capability to allow a higher re-supply of loads if the assumed high PV feed-ins occur. Therefore, the APP could be a cornerstone of future PSR in PV dominated regions if the DG's bidirectional remote controllability increases.