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Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / Anil Pahwa / Power distribution systems are transitioning from traditional centralized-control distribution grids to the modern distribution grids that are more customer-interactive and include microgrids (MGs) as well as various unpredictable and multi-scale distributed energy resources (DERs). However, power fueled by renewable DERs such as wind and solar is highly variable and high penetration of renewable DERs in distribution system may potentially degrade the grid reliability and power quality. Moreover, the growth of such generation sources will increase the number of variables and cause scalability concerns for distribution system operators (DSOs) in handling system optimization problems. Further, with development of MGs, DSO and MG may have different owners and schedule renewable and non-renewable DERs based on their own economic rules and policies while secure and economic operation of the entire system is necessary. The widespread integration of wind and solar and deployment of MGs in distribution system make the task of distribution system operation management quite challenging especially from the viewpoint of variability, scalability, and multi-authority operation management. This research develops unique models and methodologies to overcome such issues and make distribution grid operation, optimization and control more robust against renewable intermittency, intractability, and operation complexity. The objectives of this research are as follows: 1) to develop a three-phase unbalanced large-scale distribution system to serve as a benchmark for studying challenges related to integration of DERs, such as scalability concerns in optimization problems, incremental power losses, voltage rise, voltage fluctuations, volt/var control, and operation management; 2) to develop a novel hierarchical and multilevel distributed optimization for power loss minimization via optimal reactive power provisioning from rooftop PVs which addresses the scalability issues with widespread DER integration in large-scale networks; 3) to develop a dynamic operational scheme for residential PV smart inverters to mitigate the fluctuations from rooftop PV integration under all-weather-condition (fully sunny, overcast and transient cloudy days) while increasing network efficiency in terms of power losses, and number of transformer load tap changer (LTC) operation; 4) to develop a stochastic energy management model for multi-authority distribution system operating under uncertainty from load and wind generation, which is able to precisely account interactions between DSO and MGs.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Cellular networks in Africa have grown exponentially over the past 10 years and their data centres (DCs) on average consume 3 MW of electrical power. They require a reliable electrical power supply and can have a downtime loss of over a million dollars per hour. Power quality, reliability and availability have emerged as key issues for the successful operation of a data centre. Investigations are carried out into emerging technologies and their application in data centre power distribution systems for cellular networks in Africa. Best practices are applied to develop a power distribution system (PDS) with the objective of achieving optimal reliability and availability. Analytical techniques are applied to determine and compare the reliability and availability of various power systems. Minimal cut set simulations identify system weak points and confirm component selection. Components’ inherent characteristics (CIC) and system connectivity topology (SCT) are key factors in the improvement of data centre availability. The analysis practices can be used by engineers and managers as a basis for informed decision making in determining power system reliability and the availability of an existing or a new data centre design. Weak points in the PDS of a data centre causing downtime are identified through analysis, and accurate solutions can be determined to prevent or minimise downtime. System connectivity topology (SCT) techniques were identified that could increase the reliability and availability of data centres for cellular networks in Africa. These techniques include multiple incomers from the utility company, redundancy levels of critical equipment and parallel distribution paths. Two case studies were carried out on data centres for a cellular network, one in Nigeria and one in Cameroon. The reliability and availability of both data centres was improved, with substantial reduction in downtime per year. The outcome of the case studies shows the importance of designing and implementing the power distribution system with sufficient levels of redundancy for critical equipment, and parallel distribution paths. / MSc (Engineering Sciences in Nuclear Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Cellular networks in Africa have grown exponentially over the past 10 years and their data centres (DCs) on average consume 3 MW of electrical power. They require a reliable electrical power supply and can have a downtime loss of over a million dollars per hour. Power quality, reliability and availability have emerged as key issues for the successful operation of a data centre. Investigations are carried out into emerging technologies and their application in data centre power distribution systems for cellular networks in Africa. Best practices are applied to develop a power distribution system (PDS) with the objective of achieving optimal reliability and availability. Analytical techniques are applied to determine and compare the reliability and availability of various power systems. Minimal cut set simulations identify system weak points and confirm component selection. Components’ inherent characteristics (CIC) and system connectivity topology (SCT) are key factors in the improvement of data centre availability. The analysis practices can be used by engineers and managers as a basis for informed decision making in determining power system reliability and the availability of an existing or a new data centre design. Weak points in the PDS of a data centre causing downtime are identified through analysis, and accurate solutions can be determined to prevent or minimise downtime. System connectivity topology (SCT) techniques were identified that could increase the reliability and availability of data centres for cellular networks in Africa. These techniques include multiple incomers from the utility company, redundancy levels of critical equipment and parallel distribution paths. Two case studies were carried out on data centres for a cellular network, one in Nigeria and one in Cameroon. The reliability and availability of both data centres was improved, with substantial reduction in downtime per year. The outcome of the case studies shows the importance of designing and implementing the power distribution system with sufficient levels of redundancy for critical equipment, and parallel distribution paths. / MSc (Engineering Sciences in Nuclear Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Orientador: José Roberto Sanches Mantovani / Banca: Fabio Bertequini Leão / Banca: Luis Gustavo Wesz da Silva / Resumo: Neste trabalho propõe-se um algoritmo baseado na meta-heurística busca dispersa para o problema de reconfiguração de redes de distribuição de energia elétrica radiais, considerando como sistema de codificação uma estrutura denominada representação nó profundidade (RNP). O problema é modelado como não linear inteiro misto e considera como objetivo principal minimizar as perdas de potência ativa nos alimentadores do sistema de distribuição. Utiliza-se neste trabalho o modelo de cargas com potência constante, como também o modelo exponencial de cargas. O algoritmo proposto é implementado em linguagem de programação C++ e testado em quatro sistemas conhecidos na literatura, 14, 84, 136 e 202 barras. A partir dos resultados obtidos, verifica-se o bom desempenho do algoritmo, pois é capaz de gerar soluções de boa qualidade atendendo a todas as restrições físicas e operacionais do problema. / Abstract: This work proposes a scatter search algorithm to solve the electric power distribution system reconfiguration problem, considering the encoding system node depth representation. The problem is a mixed-integer nonlinear programming and the objective is to minimize the real power losses in the distribution system. It is used in the work load model with constant power, but also exponential model load. The proposed algorithm is implemented in C + +. The validity of the methodology is verified through four commonly case studies such as 14, 84, 136 and 202 bus system. Results show the effectiveness and good performance of the proposed algorithm, where it obtains the good quality solution satisfying the operational and physics constraints of problem. / Mestre

Fault location is very important for distribution systems, and quickly identifying the fault and restoring the system can help reduce the outage time and make the system more reliable. In this thesis, a method for locating faults on distribution systems is introduced to quickly identify the faulted feeder sections by using the overcurrent information from the switches in the system. Fuzzy logic is utilized. The proposed method can quickly and accurately locate faulted sections with different fault locations, fault types and fault resistances. The method is applicable to cases with single-faults or multi-faults, and is applicable to networks with multi-sources. The case study has demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In recent decades, interest in placing renewable resources in conventional power systems has increased because of their ability to reduce fossil fuel consumption, which leads to the preservation of the environment. The rapid increase in employing these renewable resource-based DGs drives the system to be more dynamic, and causes many obstacles that need to be overcome. Power system planners and operators should look at the distribution system from another angle, taking into consideration the intermittent behavior of most renewable resources. Furthermore, solid models that are able to handle the uncertainty in generation levels are required. This thesis presents a comprehensive probabilistic model for representing renewable energy resources in long term planning problems. This model utilized large historical data sets, grouping technique, and statistical analysis in order to handle the fluctuations that are caused by the variations in wind speed or solar irradiance. In this research, renewable resources (wind and PV based DGs) ae well as dispatchable units are optimally allocated and sized using a probabilistic optimization model. This model incorporates the intermittent nature of wind speed and solar radiation into the deterministic optimal power flow equations. The variability from the load side and the uncertainty from the feeding side are considered. Genetic algorithm is used in order to minimize the annual energy losses of a distribution system. This thesis proposes a new iterative-based optimization algorithm is proposed in order to determine the minimum number of states that can precisely describe or represent the behavior of wind speed and solar irradiance in operational planning problems. This algorithm is evaluated using a power system planning problem. The proposed algorithm takes into account the annual energy losses and the total DG penetration level and considers them as an indication of how far the proposed method's outcomes are from the actual results. Three di fferent data groupings are applied (hourly, seasonally, and yearly) to investigate the variety of weather and electricity demands on the proposed method. The obtained results should be maintained within an acceptable limit of error which is in this thesis, 2:5%, and any violation of this limit will interrupt the algorithm sequences. The importance of this method actually lies in its ability to reduce the complexity in reliability analysis such that the number of overall system states will be minimized when the analytical evaluation methods are utilized.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-08-30Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:28:06Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 rupolo_d_me_ilha.pdf: 1818136 bytes, checksum: 666bb79c31569f91ad006d6801bf47c0 (MD5) / Neste trabalho propõe-se um algoritmo baseado na meta-heurística busca dispersa para o problema de reconfiguração de redes de distribuição de energia elétrica radiais, considerando como sistema de codificação uma estrutura denominada representação nó profundidade (RNP). O problema é modelado como não linear inteiro misto e considera como objetivo principal minimizar as perdas de potência ativa nos alimentadores do sistema de distribuição. Utiliza-se neste trabalho o modelo de cargas com potência constante, como também o modelo exponencial de cargas. O algoritmo proposto é implementado em linguagem de programação C++ e testado em quatro sistemas conhecidos na literatura, 14, 84, 136 e 202 barras. A partir dos resultados obtidos, verifica-se o bom desempenho do algoritmo, pois é capaz de gerar soluções de boa qualidade atendendo a todas as restrições físicas e operacionais do problema. / This work proposes a scatter search algorithm to solve the electric power distribution system reconfiguration problem, considering the encoding system node depth representation. The problem is a mixed-integer nonlinear programming and the objective is to minimize the real power losses in the distribution system. It is used in the work load model with constant power, but also exponential model load. The proposed algorithm is implemented in C + +. The validity of the methodology is verified through four commonly case studies such as 14, 84, 136 and 202 bus system. Results show the effectiveness and good performance of the proposed algorithm, where it obtains the good quality solution satisfying the operational and physics constraints of problem.

This thesis describes the application of microprocessor based relays with internet communication capabilities in distribution protection systems. The traditional distribution protection system (recloser, sectionalizers) was configured to automatically isolate faulted circuits as well as to reenergize unfaulted loads after a certain number of reclosing operations. Internet Peer-to-Peer communication enables distribution relays to communicate with others connected to the communication network without having a master device. According to the results, the addition of peer-to-peer communication to a traditional distribution protection system significantly enhances its general performance eliminating undesired losses of unfaulted load. Additionally, it reduces outage duration as well as thermal and mechanical stress due to successive re-energizations under faults condition. / Master of Science