Optimization Strategy of Configuration and Scheduling for User-Side Energy Storage

In order to reduce the impact of load power fluctuations on the power system and ensure the economic benefits of user-side energy storage operation, an optimization strategy of configuration and scheduling based on model predictive control for user-side energy storage is proposed in this study. Firstly, considering the cost and benefits of energy storage comprehensively, an energy storage configuration optimization model with the highest annualized net income as the goal is built to determine the parameters for configuring energy storage. Then, with the goal of maximizing the profit during the scheduling period, pre-month scheduling optimization model, day-ahead scheduling optimization model and intra-day scheduling optimization model are established. The goal of the pre-month scheduling optimization model is to determine the maximum monthly demand; part of the scheduling results in the day-ahead scheduling optimization model directly participate in the intra-day scheduling; the intra-day rolling optimization relies on the advantages of real-time feedback and closed-loop scheduling to smooth out power fluctuations caused by load forecast errors. Finally, the configuration and economic benefit of lithium iron phosphate batteries, lead-carbon batteries and sodium-sulfur batteries are analyzed and compared, and scheduling analysis is performed. The simulation results show that the proposed optimization method can cut peaks and fill valleys, ensure the economic benefits of users, and provide guidance for users to invest in energy storage.

A New Methodology for Smoothing Power Peaks Produced by Electricity Demand and a Hydrokinetic Turbine for a Household Load on Grid Using Supercapacitors

The power fluctuations produced by electric vehicles represent a drawback in large-scale residential applications. In addition to that, short power peaks could pose a risk to the stability of the electrical grid. For this reason, this study presents a feasibility analysis for a residential system composed of electric vehicle chargers. The objective is focused on smoothing the power fluctuations produced by the charge by a supercapacitor through adequate energy control; in addition, self-consumption is analyzed. Data sampling intervals are also analyzed; the modeling was performed in Matlab software. The results show that there are errors of up to 9% if the data are measured at different sampling intervals. On the other hand, if the supercapacitor is considered, the system saves 59.87% of the energy purchased from the utility grid per day, and the self-consumption of electricity by prosumers can increase up to 73%. Finally, the hydrokinetic/supercapacitor/grid system would save up to 489.1 USD/year in the cost of purchasing electricity from the grid and would increase by 492.75 USD/year for the sale electricity.

A Bi-Level Control Strategy for PV-BES System Aiming at the Minimum Operation Cost of BES

With the increased penetration of the photovoltaic (PV) energy, the power system stability problem becomes an issue, as the output power of PV plants has unpredictable fluctuations. To maintain the power stability of the PV plants, battery energy storages (BESs) play an important role due to their fast and accurate response speed. However, it is challenging that the BES with multiple sub-modules responds well to the PV power fluctuations resulting from the various influence factors, such as defects, faults, and partial shading. Therefore, a bi-level control strategy is proposed in this paper, aiming at minimizing the operation cost of BES in maintaining power stability. The control strategy consists of the PV power fluctuations identification block and the mitigation block. In specific, the identification block can output the power fluctuation of a PV system by the PV power fluctuation identification technique. The technique is developed based on the characteristics of PV-string current under electrical faults and partial shading conditions. Meanwhile, the mitigation block can manage the multiple battery sub-modules with different regulation characteristics to meet the power fluctuations. At last, the promising results are obtained by MATLAB\Simulink with the coordinated operation of those two blocks, including the precise condition of the PV system and the optimal power output of each battery sub-module. Therefore, a comprehensive bi-level control strategy is developed to regulate the operation of battery sub-modules for PV-BES systems.

Variable-Gain Higher-Order Sliding Mode Pitch Control of Floating Offshore Wind Turbine

A variable-gain higher-order sliding mode pitch control strategy is proposed for a strongly nonlinear and coupled floating offshore wind power system. The main goal of the proposed strategy is to suppress platform motion caused by random disturbances such as waves and wind speed and to reduce fatigue loads and power fluctuations. Feedback control and super-twisting second-order sliding mode algorithm were adopted to carry out collective pitch control and track the rated rotor speed, which involves the factor of platform pitch. To adaptively adjust the collective pitch control parameters according to random wave and wind speed disturbances, the barrier function method was used to conceive adaptive sliding mode control gains. For comparison purposes, the proposed control strategy and PI control were executed under different wind and wave conditions on a FAST and MATLAB/Simulink platform. Furthermore, the fatigue load was calculated by Mlife. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is effective and robust. Moreover, it has advantages in resisting external disturbances, especially in suppressing the platform pitch and roll, as well as reducing the power fluctuations and the fatigue load on the blade root.

Exploring the Regulation Reliability of a Pumped Storage Power Plant in a Wind–Solar Hybrid Power Generation System

In the coming decades, the proportion of wind–solar energy in power system significantly increases, resulting to uncertainties of power fluctuation in abundant wind–solar energy regions. The flexibility operation of Pumped Storage Power Plants (PSPPs) has already been widely recognized to regulate wind–solar power fluctuations; however, less is known about the regulation reliability of the PSPP affected by them. It is a challenge, since various uncertainties exist during this regulation process. Here, a mathematical model with a solar–wind–hydro hybrid power generation system is adopted to investigate the regulation reliability of PSPP. The uncertainties and limitations of model parameters are considered during this process. Five regulation indexes, i.e., rise time, settling time, peak value, peak time and overshoot of the reactive power generator terminal voltage, guide vane opening and angular velocity, are extracted to evaluate the PSSP’s regulation quality. Finally, the PSPP reliability probability affected by parametric uncertainties is presented. The obtained results show that the inertia coefficient is the most sensitivity parameters for the settling time, peak value and peak time with sensitivity index 33.7%, 72.55% and 71.59%, respectively. The corresponding total contribution rate of the top 10 sensitive parameters are 74.45%, 93.45% and 87.15%, respectively. Despite some types of uncertainties not being considered, the results of this research are important for the regulation reliability evaluation of PSPPs in suppressing power fluctuations of wind and solar generation.

Lightsaber: A Simulator of the Angular Sensing and Control System in LIGO

The suspended test masses of gravitational-wave (GW) detectors require precise alignment to be able to operate the detector stably and with high sensitivity. This includes the continuous counter-acting of seismic disturbances, which, below a few Hertz, are not sufficiently reduced by the seismic isolation system. The residual angular motion of suspended test masses is further suppressed by the Angular Sensing and Control (ASC) system. However, in doing so, the angular motion can be enhanced by the ASC at higher frequencies where the seismic isolation system is very effective. This has led to sensitivity limitations between about 10 Hz and 25 Hz of the LIGO detectors in past observation runs. The observed ASC noise was larger than simple models predict, which means that more accurate detector models and new simulation tools are required. In this article, we present Lightsaber, a new time-domain simulator of the ASC in LIGO. Lightsaber is a nonlinear simulation of the optomechanical system consisting of the high-power cavity laser beam and the last two stages of suspension in LIGO including the ASC. The main noise inputs are power fluctuations of the laser beam at the input of the arm cavities, read-out noise of sensors used for the ASC, displacement noise from the suspension platforms, and noise introduced by the suspension damping loops. While the plant simulation uses local degrees of freedom of individual suspension systems, the control is applied on a global angular basis, which requires a conversion between the local and global bases for sensing and actuation. Some of the studies that can be done with this simulation concern mis-centering of the beam-spot (BS) position on the test masses, the role of laser power fluctuations for angular dynamics, and the role of the various nonlinear dynamics. The next important step following this work will be a detailed comparison between Lightsaber results and data from the control channels of the LIGO detectors.