A distribution system may include distributed energy resources (DER), capacitors, and power electronic devices such as active filters and power factor correctors. A central controller has a supervisory role over the local controllers. In the process of designing the central and local controllers, one key requirement is their evaluation with simulation tools. Traditionally, the controllers are evaluated with either offline or real-time simulators. The first approach is not comprehensive since it can not interface to the physical controller hardware, and the second approach is expensive. This project develops a software-based real-time simulator, which is a simple but useful tool forevaluating the controller hardware that will eventually implement the control algorithms in the field. In this project, the distributed system is simulated in PSCAD (an offline power system simulator) and the control algorithms are implemented in physical controller hardware. Two structures are developed for interfacing the simulation environment with the controller hardware. An algorithm is proposed that enforces PSCAD to run in real-time. Therefore, the developed interfacing structure and real-time enforcement scheme provide a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) real-time simulation tool that can test the performance of controllers in a system.

Final PSERC Report for Project T-54G. Uploaded August 16, 2015.

Executive Summary for PSERC Final Report for Project T-54G. Uploaded August 26, 2015.

Executive Summary from the PSERC Final Report for Project S-61G. Uploaded: September 4, 2015.

With the stringent fleet challenges introduced by renewable resources, the need for flexible resources in power systems is higher than ever. Since energy storage has energy shifting and fast-ramping capabilities, it provides an attractive solution to facilitate the integration of high levels of renewable resources. While there are growing interests in energy storage in recent years, the existing market structure does not always account for the characteristics of energy storage. As a result, the full flexibility of energy storage is not being used by the existing energy management systems and market management systems. In this report, the primary goal is to develop commitment and dispatch optimization models that optimally utilize large-scale storage at multiple time scales and horizons as well as to have scalable formulations and algorithms. Due to its significance as the most common form of large-scale energy storage, the work is focused on pumped hydro storage (PHS). The report is presented in two parts: (1) A Study of Adjustable-Speed Pumped Storage Hydro Operation in the US Day-ahead Market and (2) Enhanced Pumped Hydro Storage Model in Real-Time Operations.

Final PSERC Report for Project S-61G. Uploaded: September 4, 2015.

Executive Summary for PSERC Final Report for Project M-30. Uploaded on September 25, 2015.

The current transmission planning practice in the electric power industry is mainly based on the deployment of deterministic techniques. However, transmission planning, by its very nature, is faced with a wide range of sources of uncertainty, including growth in demand, renewable energy generation, fuel price, environmental requirements and legislation and new generation investment, to name just a few. The analytic characterization of the various sources of uncertainty is often a challenge and, typically, cannot be expressed in terms of probability distributions. Past data may allow the estimation of the ranges of values that the uncertain variables may attain so as to make possible the deployment of robust optimization approaches. We make use of such approaches to develop a decision support system for transmission planners to allow the explicit consideration of uncertainty in the formulation of transmission plans.

Final PSERC Report for Project M-30. Uploaded on September 25, 2015.

Today, system operators enable constraint relaxations by allowing the constraint to be violated for a set penalty, i.e., price. Including constraint relaxation practices in market models provides several benefits, such as providing a mechanism to cap the market clearing prices in the energy market models, possible gains in social welfare (market surplus), and assisting the market model to find good feasible solutions. The primary goal of this report is to examine the impact of constraint relaxation practices on market outcomes, system reliability, and system stability. In addition, the report investigates the market implications of enabling constraint relaxations with appropriate price cap on shadow prices and proposes alternative mechanisms. Finally, this report investigates the practice of risk-based constraint relaxation in handling infeasibility in real-time market model.

Final PSERC Report for Project M-29. Uploaded on September 29, 2015.

Executive Summary for PSERC Final Report for Project M-29. Uploaded on September 29, 2015.

The Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC), an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, and the National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering invited leaders from the utility industry, vendors, government, and the academic community to participate in a PSERC/NSF Executive Forum and Workshop on Physical and Cyber Infrastructure to Support the Future Grid. The Forum and Workshop were held at the Waterview Conference Center in Arlington, Virginia, on May 4-5, 2015. This is the final report on that event.

Executive Forum and Workshop Final Report. Uploaded October 5, 2015.

In this project we worked on challenges in building an information-sharing framework for the AMI-enabled communication/control/information layer, with special emphasis on customer privacy and its potential impact on smart meter adoption and utility operations. As part of the design of such a privacy-aware information-sharing framework, we studied the interactions between the data collection needs of the utility and the preservation of privacy. The report has four parts: (1) Scalable Meter Data Collection in Smart Grids through Message Concatenation; (2) Impacts of Communication and Control on Distribution System; (3) Preserving Privacy of Advanced Metering Data using Efficient Aggregation and Prediction Techniques; and (4) Incentivizing Privacy-Guaranteed Data-Sharing by Consumers using AMI.

Final PSERC Report for Project S-54. Uploaded on October 5, 2015.

Executive Summary from the PSERC Final Report for Project S-54. Uploaded on October 5, 2015.

This project focused on selected big data uses in power systems. The report describes (1) the use of big data for improved fault location using lightning data for transmission networks; (2) an evaluation of how past lightning strikes affect equipment condition over time to develop an early warning system for prediction of insulation breakdown; (3) a big data application for short-term, spatio-temporal wind power forecasting and look-ahead power system dispatch; and (4) implementation of a distributed database for the future grid using smart meter data.

Final PSERC Report for Project T-51. Uploaded on October 5, 2015.

Executive Summary for PSERC Final Report for Project T-51. Uploaded on October 5, 2015.

The main impediment in designing the framework for the next generation Energy Management System (EMS) and analytics is not the lack of ideas but a way to compare these ideas and determine which ideas are better than others. Ultimately, a flexible platform is needed that can simulate the layers of high voltage hardware, the IT hardware, and the various software packages that forms the base on which the applications for operating the grid can run. Such a simulation platform is needed to test myriads of ideas from individual components (e.g., a new electronic controller) to operational procedures (e.g., fast wide-area control schemes to avoid blackouts), but will require significant resources and time to put together. In this project we proposed the building of a simple platform that incorporates the different layers without the multiplicity of details to determine the feasibility and complexity of building the simulation platform that can mimic a real continent-wide grid interconnection.

Final PSERC Report for Project S-62G. Uploaded on November 25, 2015.

Executive Summary for PSERC Final Report for Project S-62G. Uploaded on November 25, 2015.