Power grid complex network evolutions for the smart grid

Abstract

h i g h l i g h t s• Network design for smart grid.• Complex network for power grid design.• Effects of topology on the cost of electricity distribution.• Complex network literature topologies comparison for smart grid. a r t i c l e i n f o b s t r a c tThe shift towards an energy grid dominated by prosumers (consumers and producers of energy) will inevitably have repercussions on the electricity distribution infrastructure. Today the grid is a hierarchical one delivering energy from large scale facilities to endusers. Tomorrow it will be a capillary infrastructure at the medium and low voltage levels that will support local energy trading among prosumers. We investigate how different network topologies and growth models facilitate a more efficient and reliable network, and how they can facilitate the emergence of a decentralized electricity market. We show how connectivity plays an important role in improving the properties of reliability and pathcost reduction. Our results indicate that a specific type of evolution balances best the ratio between increased connectivity and costs to achieve the network growth.

Optimizing the Structure of Distribution Smart Grids with Renewable Generation against Abnormal Conditions: A Complex Networks Approach with Evolutionary Algorithms

“…The SG paradigm has been modeled very recently as a complex network in a series of papers by Pagani et al [16,30,35,[46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. The approach adopted in these works is based on the need for improving the low voltage power grid, motivated in Section 1, and aims to analyze and adapt the already deployed distribution power grids on the basis of complex network approaches [30].…”

“…The ultimate goal of such a series of papers consists of putting into practice a decision support system to guide operators, utilities and policy makers to evolve the current grid to a more efficient smart grid. These works cover a significant variety of research topics appearing in smart grids: the study of the potential of the SG to generate big data [48], the search for topological vulnerabilities [50], the study of the optimal spatial distribution [49], the use of agent-based systems for deregulated smart grids [52], the modeling of dynamic prices [51], the study of the last mile of the SG [47] and other technological aspects of SGs as CNs [16,30,46]. With regard to the latter, the authors carried out a topological analysis of some representative medium and low voltage power grids [46] and obtained a set of metrics based on topological properties in the effort of including their influence on the cost of electricity distribution.…”

“…With regard to the latter, the authors carried out a topological analysis of some representative medium and low voltage power grids [46] and obtained a set of metrics based on topological properties in the effort of including their influence on the cost of electricity distribution. In the next step in this line of research, [16] has studied complex models to evaluate to what extent these allow for local electricity exchange, finding out that: (1) increasing the connectivity from the current value of the average degree ( k ≈ 2) to higher values is beneficial; and (2) the small-world complex network with average degree k ≈ 4 fulfills a feasible balance between performance enhancement and cost. The key, more recent work [30] explores a variety of feasible evolution strategies towards the SG and applies them to the real Dutch distribution system.…”

“…While the aforementioned research line [16,30,35,[46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53] proposes successful strategies to evolve the already deployed conventional grids into smart grids, the research line [39][40][41] has a different approach that consists of generating synthetic structures for smart grids. In these papers, the so-called "RT-nested-small world" model, based on analyses of real grid topologies and their electrical properties, has been proposed to create a large number of synthetic power grid test structures, with scalable size and the similar small-world topology and electrical features found in some real power grids [40].…”

“…Efficiently integrating distributed RE generation systems [3][4][5] is a key research topic because the most used renewable energies-photovoltaic (PV) solar energy [6,7], wind energy [8,9] and marine energy [10]-are intermittent and more difficult to store [11] and integrate without affecting the quality of the electrical network [12] or the electricity prices [13]. The current proliferation of small-scale urban PV in buildings [14] and urban wind generators [15] can help home electricity consumers become also producers ("prosumers") [16] using the smart grid (SG) [17,18] and micro-grids (µ−Gs) [19] concepts.…”