Design, development and demonstration of an active network management testbed

The push to accommodate Distributed Generation (DG) has led to the requirement of better investing in the planning and operation of power networks. Geographically, in the UK, the most suitable areas of Distributed Generation typically exist in locations not previously designed for larger or reverse power flows. This leads to the need to costly and timely upgrades the physical infrastructure. Active Network Management (ANM) has been presented as a method of controlling existing assets in a real-time deterministic manner to allow it to operate closer to its limits thus deferring or avoiding investment. Active Network Management makes use of real time measurements to control generation or load to ensure the network remains within a set of safe, pre-defined limits, allowing network design rules to be relaxed. Introducing new control techniques to power networks has a number of challenges. One such challenge is the time taken for utilities to adopt the technology and sufficient testing platforms to ensure safe and reliable operation. A current deployment, as implemented by Smarter Grid Solutions Ltd., took over 5 years to reach closed loop control. An area of research intended to speed up time to adoption and advance testing, amongst other objectives, is co-simulation: the real-time dynamic simulation of both the power system, the devices connected to it; and the communications infrastructure required for ANM. This thesis describes work undertaken as part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between University of Strathclyde and Smarter Grid Solutions Ltd, which has resulted in the design, development and demonstration of a prototype testbed for ANM which utilises co-simulation. Challenges and opportunities for further research into co-simulation for ANM have also been identified.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mphil

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters-pg

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Strathclyde

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Breaden, Craig

DOI

10.48730/pfj5-pm84

Identifier

T14130

Author Identifier

201284482

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:strathclyde:tt44pm85x