(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-04-03)
Costley, Mitcham Hudson
The contributions of this research are a scalable formulation and solution method for decentralized unit commitment, experimental results comparing decentralized unit commitment solution times to conventional unit commitment methods, a demonstration of the benefits of faster unit commitment computation time, and extensions of decentralized unit commitment to handle system network security constraints. We begin with a discussion motivating the shift from centralized power system control architectures to decentralized architectures and describe the characteristics of such an architecture. We then develop a formulation and solution method to solve decentralized unit commitment by adapting an existing approach for separable convex optimization problems to the nonconvex domain of unit commitment. The potential computational speed benefits of the novel decentralized unit commitment approach are then further investigated through a rolling-horizon framework that represents how system operators make decisions and adjustments online as new information is revealed. Finally, the decentralized unit commitment approach is extended to include network contingency constraints, a crucial function for the maintenance of system security. The results indicate decentralized unit commitment holds promise as a way of coordinating system operations in a future decentralized grid and also may provide a way to leverage parallel computing resources to solve large-scale unit commitment problems with greater speed and model fidelity than is possible with conventional methods.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2013-04-12)
Sandoval, Marcelo
The world faces the unprecedented challenge of the need change to a new energy era. The introduction of distributed renewable energy and storage together with transportation electrification and deployment of electric and hybrid vehicles, allows traditional consumers to not only consume, but also to produce, or store energy.
The active participation of these so called "prosumers", and their interactions may have a significant impact on the operations of the emerging smart grid. However, how these capabilities should be integrated with the overall system operation is unclear.
Intelligent energy management systems give users the insight they need to make informed decisions about energy consumption. Properly implemented, intelligent energy management systems can help cut energy use, spending, and emissions.
This thesis aims to develop a consumer point of view, user-friendly, intelligent energy management system that enables vehicle drivers to plan their trips, manage their battery pack and under specific circumstances, inject electricity from their plug-in vehicles to power the grid, contributing to frequency regulation.