Electrification of transport compounded with climate change will transform hourly load profiles and their response to weather. Power system operators and EV charging stakeholders require such high-resolution load profiles for their planning studies. However, such profiles accounting whole transportation sector is lacking. Thus, we present a novel approach to generating hourly electric load profiles that considers charging strategies and evolving sensitivity to temperature. The approach consists of downscaling annual state-scale sectoral load projections from the multi-sectoral Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM) into hourly electric load profiles leveraging high resolution climate and population datasets. Profiles are developed and evaluated at the Balancing Authority scale, with a 5-year increment until 2050 over the Western U.S. Interconnect for multiple decarbonization pathways and climate scenarios. The datasets are readily available for production cost model analysis. Our open source approach is transferable to other regions.
This paper proposes a model for energy flexibility of cold climate air source heat pumps (ccASHPs) in both heating and cooling seasons. The proposed model ensures satisfying the customer comfort in terms of the desired temperature range while providing the energy flexibility as a function of the input power of ccASHPs. The proposed flexibility model is a linear programming problem, integrated into the home energy management system that maximizes the flexibility provision potential of ccASHPs by obtaining accurate models of ccASHPs’ power consumption, and heating and cooling capacity that are dependent on setpoint and indoor temperatures. The numerical results of implementing the proposed model in a sample house demonstrate the capability of the model in capturing the flexibility of ccASHPs without violating the comfortable temperature range of residents while lowering electricity consumption of heating and cooling by 7% and 11% in heating and cooling season, respectively.
This study investigates the operation of inverter-based resource (IBR) plants in a bulk power system, under different grid-strength conditions and for various penetration levels of static and dynamic loads. For this purpose, Monte-Carlo EMT simulations have been performed on a combined transmission-distribution network in PSCAD/EMTDC software. The four active distribution feeders are connected at different locations of the bulk power system. Each active distribution feeder comprises three-phase static and induction motor loads, single-phase and three-phase average-model distributed energy resources. The results show that operating the IBR plants in weak transmission-distribution networks leads to short-term voltage instability. But by increasing the induction motor loads share of the active distribution feeders total gross load, this IBR-driven instability phenomenon has been mitigated. As a result, this can improve weak transmission-distribution network operations that accommodate a high share of grid-following IBR plants.
Energy is a critical element to support the activities and well-being of society and it can provide a mechanism for strategic investment and development. This paper describes a framework to explore the role of electricity prosumers in regenerative communities. Electricity prosumers are electricity consumers who have acquired the means of local energy production and have strategic energy and economic objectives. We illustrate how an initial investment on managed solar PV by a community prosumer could be utilized to support regenerative community objectives, where the community is empowered to revitalize itself. We show how the proposed model realizes higher levels of resilience and enables improvement of other regenerative community capitals.
Fault location, isolation, and service restoration of a self-healing, self-assembling microgrid operating off-grid from distributed inverter-based resources (IBRs) can be a unique challenge because of the fault current limitations and uncertainties regarding which sources are operational at any given time. The situation can become even more challenging if data sharing between the various microgrid controllers, relays, and sources is not available. This paper presents an innovative robust partitioning approach, which is used as part of a larger self-assembling microgrid concept utilizing local measurements only. This robust partitioning approach splits a microgrid into sub-microgrids to isolate the fault to just one of the sub-microgrids, allowing the others to continue normal operation. A case study is implemented in the IEEE 123-bus distribution test system in Simulink to show the effectiveness of this approach. The results indicate that including the robust partitions leads to less loss of load and shorter overall restoration times.
