Sharif Digital Repository

This paper presents a priority based dynamic programming approach for long term maintenance scheduling of overhead distribution networks. The proposed approach is based on risk management approach and utilizes the model of decoupled risk factors. Two heuristic factors are defined and utilized in order to establish a maintenance priority list and to curtail the dynamic programming search space. The proposed methodology yields a significant computational saving compare to the previously reported dynamic programming. Risk management approach enables the asset managers to consider the actual condition of electrical equipments and expected consequence of their failures. Furthermore, the decoupled... 

A widely dispersed asset, electric grid has enormous impacts on people’s lives. Recently occurred various high-impact low-probability (HILP) threats have raised the concerns about the classical reliability-oriented view. Therefore, withstanding unexpected and less frequent severe situations still remain a significant challenge. As a critical infrastructure (CI), power systems are more and more expected to be resilient to HILPs. So, utilities put their endeavours to harden enough their networks against HILPs. In this regard, there is a great need to a methodology able to optimise the hardening programme investments. This scheme could potentially save a large amount of money, as well as... 

A widely dispersed asset, electric grid has enormous impacts on people’s lives. Recently occurred various high-impact low-probability (HILP) threats have raised the concerns about the classical reliability-oriented view. Therefore, withstanding unexpected and less frequent severe situations still remain a significant challenge. As a critical infrastructure (CI), power systems are more and more expected to be resilient to HILPs. So, utilities put their endeavours to harden enough their networks against HILPs. In this regard, there is a great need to a methodology able to optimise the hardening programme investments. This scheme could potentially save a large amount of money, as well as... 

Distribution automation (DA) application for fault management in the electricity distribution networks is one of the main potential remedial actions to reduce customers' outage times and hence improve service reliability. As a result, various automation schemes have been developed and introduced in different countries and by different venders. The impacts of implementing a specific automation scheme on reliability indices of a given distribution system can be different from other available automation schemes. For this reason, when comparing the available automation schemes with each other or with the other reliability improvement measures, it is necessary to perform a course of reliability... 

Distribution automation (DA) application for fault management in the electricity distribution networks is one of the main potential remedial actions to reduce customers' outage times and hence improve service reliability. As a result, various automation schemes have been developed and introduced in different countries and by different venders. The impacts of implementing a specific automation scheme on reliability indices of a given distribution system can be different from other available automation schemes. For this reason, when comparing the available automation schemes with each other or with the other reliability improvement measures, it is necessary to perform a course of reliability... 

In the past decade, enhancing the reliability of distribution networks by means of optimal switch placement has attracted much attention. In the case of failures in a distribution feeder, such disconnect switches will isolate the faulted section, and the customers downstream of the faulted point can be supplied by neighboring feeders through tie lines. Nevertheless, such reserve branches not only might experience failures themselves but also may not even exist prior to the switch placement. Accordingly, this paper presents a mathematical-programming-based model for the concurrent placement of disconnect switches and tie lines in the distribution networks to enhance the service reliability,... 

Technical virtual power plant (TVPP) aggregates distributed energy resources in order to trade in wholesale electricity market while taking operational constraints of network into account and offering services to distribution system operator. This article presents a new framework to incorporate the reliability of distribution network into designing the optimal bidding strategy of a TVPP in day-ahead energy market. In the proposed framework, the TVPP determines the multisteps biddings as pairs of power and price aiming at maximizing its profit in market while minimizing the outage costs due to contingency occurrences. The model is formulated as a bilevel optimization problem in which the... 

Technical virtual power plant (TVPP) aggregates distributed energy resources in order to trade in wholesale electricity market while taking operational constraints of network into account and offering services to distribution system operator. This article presents a new framework to incorporate the reliability of distribution network into designing the optimal bidding strategy of a TVPP in day-ahead energy market. In the proposed framework, the TVPP determines the multisteps biddings as pairs of power and price aiming at maximizing its profit in market while minimizing the outage costs due to contingency occurrences. The model is formulated as a bilevel optimization problem in which the... 

In this paper the reliability of distribution network is modeled in joint multistage expansion planning of distribution network assets and distributed generations (DGs). The imposed costs due to network reliability weakness are considerable in the distribution level. Therefore in the proposed model distribution network operator (DNO) considers the costs associated with load interruptions in the planning problem. In this regard, reliability evaluation of the network is modeled in the joint multistage distribution network expansion planning (MDNEP) problem in an integrated manner while the network topology is unknown until the planning problem is not solved. In the proposed joint MDNEP problem... 

In this paper, a multi-agent framework is proposed to address the expansion planning problem in a restructured active distribution network. In this framework, the objective and techno-economic constraints of participating agents are addressed in the expansion planning of power network and DER assets as well as the network and DERs optimal operation management. The agents include distributed generator owners and load aggregators which participate along with the distribution network operator (DNO) in the active distribution network planning. The proposed framework is formulated as a bi-level optimization problem with multi-lower levels in which the DNO optimizes the network expansion planning... 

Automation can greatly enhance distribution-network reliability by speeding up service restoration and thus significantly reduce customer-outage time. The paper presents an approach to assess quantitatively the adequacy of a particular automated distribution scheme designated as the 'low interruption system' (LIS). Owing to the use of a high-speed communication system and line sensors, this automated scheme can reduce drastically the number of interruptions, the service interruption time and also the area affected by the fault. This scheme provides a simple and cost-effective way to automate distribution systems in which the remotely controlled switches speed up isolation of faulted sections... 

Traditionally, to handle security for stand-alone computers and small networks, user authentication and access control mechanisms would be almost enough. However, considering distributed networks such as the Internet and pervasive environments, these kinds of approaches confront with flexibility challenges and scalability problems. This is mainly because of that open environments lack a central control, and users in them are not predetermined, in such ubiquitous computing environments, issues concerning security and trust become crucial. Adding trust to the existing security infrastructures would enhance the security of these environments. Although many trust models have been proposed to... 

A microgrid (MG) is a small-scale version of the power system which makes possible the integration of renewable resources as well as achieving maximum demand side management (DSM) utilization. The future power system will be faced with severe uncertainties owing to penetration of renewable resources. Consequently, the uncertainty assessment of system performance is essential. The conventional energy scheduling in an MG may not be suitable for active distribution networks. Hence, this study focuses on the probabilistic analysis of optimal power dispatch considering economic aspects in a multi-carrier networked microgrid. The aim is to study the impact of uncertain behavior of loads, renewable... 

Natural Gas Distribution Networks (NGDNs) are complex infrastructure systems that play an essential role in ensuring the welfare and prosperity of many communities by serving their residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors. Earthquakes can damage the critical components of NGDNs and disrupt their services. The disruption of NGDN services can lead to significant economic and social losses. These losses can be mitigated by adopting appropriate resilience enhancement measures. This study puts forward a probabilistic framework to quantify the seismic resilience of NGDNs. This framework comprises multiple interconnected probabilistic models that work in harmony to... 

Proliferation of grid-connected photovoltaic systems (PVSs) causes technical problems due to their variable and non-dispatchable generated power. High penetration of PVS in distribution networks can result in overvoltage in some operating conditions. Although this situation occurs rarely, it limits the installed capacity of PVS. In this paper, adaptive droop-based control algorithms are presented to regulate active and reactive power of PVS, with the objectives of loss minimization and increasing the PVS capacity installation without unallowable overvoltage. Operating voltage range of the PVS is divided into several intervals, and a specific control algorithm is presented for each of them.... 

This paper presents a novel profit-based model for multistage distribution network expansion planning. In the proposed model, some capabilities of the distribution automation system are considered to achieve a plan that is more compatible with the strategic plan towards a smart distribution grid. Moreover, a method for reliability evaluation of a distribution network in the planning studies is proposed. The objective function of the planning problem is the net present value of the company's profit. The problem is solved by employing the genetic algorithm approach as a promising technique in solving the mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem. The proposed method is evaluated on an... 

An important application of 3-D integration technology is stacked processor-DRAM systems. One of the major design issues in 3-D processor-DRAM stacks is power delivery. Presence of hot spots, high density power regions, in processor die poses serious challenges to the design of power distribution network (PDN). In this paper, we investigate solutions to ensure power integrity in the hot spot regions  

In deregulated power systems, the distribution network operator (DNO) is not responsible for investment in distributed generation (DG) units, and they are just concerned about the best architecture ensuring a good service quality to their customers. The investment and operating decisions related to DG units are then taken by entities other than DNO which are exposed to uncertainty. The DNO should be able to evaluate the technical effects of these uncertain decisions. This paper proposes a fuzzy evaluation tool for analyzing the effect of investment and operation of DG units on active losses and the ability of distribution network in load supply at presence of uncertainties. The considered... 

Implementing automation system in distribution networks needs a huge investment that usually cannot be funded entirely in a short period of time. So distribution companies (DISCOs) should develop long-term plans to equip their network with automation technologies as far as economically justifiable. Aiming to provide a methodology for development such plans, this paper presents a novel multistage planning model for implementing distribution automation system considering all main hardware and software infrastructures. The proposed method optimally determines the type, location, and time in which an equipment or infrastructure must be added to network considering the network capacity expansion... 

The need for independent power generation has increased in recent years, especially with the growing demand in microgrid systems. In a microgrid with several generations of different types and with all kinds of loads of variable nature, an optimal power balance in the system has to be achieved. This optimal objective, which results in minimal energy losses over a specific period of time, requires an optimal location and sizing of the distributed generations (DGs) in a microgrid. This paper proposes a new optimization method in which both optimal location of the DGs and their generation profile according to the load demand profile as well as the type of DG are determined during the life time...