A review of socio-technical barriers to Smart Microgrid development

Smart MicroGrids (SMGs) can be seen as a promising option when it comes to addressing the urgent need for sustainable transition in electric systems from the current fossil fuel-based centralised system to a low-carbon, renewable-based decentralised system. Unlike previous studies that were restricted to a limited number of actors and only took...

An Adaptive Control Strategy for Dynamic Response of an Autonomous DC system

The dynamic behaviour - steady-state and transient - of the DC Microgrids during power disturbance can affect the system’s general performance. A hybrid combination of energy storage devices with slow frequency response, like a Fuel Cell, and with a fast dynamic response, like a Super-Capacitor, provides an improved dynamic response to stabilise...

Techno-economical Model based Optimal Sizing of PV-Battery Systems for Microgrids

Microgrid with integrated photo-voltaics (PV) and battery storage system (BSS) is a promising technology for future residential applications. Optimally sizing the PV system and BSS can maximise self-sufficiency, grid relief, and at the same time can be cost-effective by exploiting tariff incentives. To that end, this paper presents a...

A State-Space Approach to Modelling DC Distribution Systems

Many modelling methods for the analysis of dc distribution grids only consider monopolar configurations and do not allow for mutual couplings to be taken into account. The modelling method presented in this paper aims to deal with both of these issues. A state-space approach was chosen for its flexibility and computational speed. The derived...

Stability and Decentralized Control of Plug-and-Play DC Distribution Grids

Changes in distribution grids pose significant challenges with respect to the control and management of these grids. Stability and decentralized control are vital to ensure the availability and accessibility of plug-and-play dc distribution grids that are (temporarily) without communication. Therefore, this paper presents guidelines for these...

Detection of series arcs using load side voltage drop for protection of low voltage DC Systems

Low voltage dc distribution grids face issues associated with arc faults, aggravated by the absence of current zero crossing. The focus of this paper is to comprehensively develop a method of series arc fault detection at the load side power electronics, based on the electrode dependent initial voltage drop occurring at the arc initiation....

Toward the Universal DC Distribution System

AbstractDue to an increasing number of power generation units and load devices operating with direct current (DC) at distribution level, there is a potential benefit of leading efforts toward building a DC distribution system. However, the implementation of DC distribution systems faces important challenges, including the market inertia of AC...

Characterization of Series Arcs in LVdc Microgrids

This paper provides an empirical study on series arc behavior in low voltage dc microgrids. The response of an R-L-C dc microgrid abstraction towards series arcs is studied experimentally for varying grid inductance, dc voltages, load capacitances and load currents. In order to account for the stochastic nature of arcs, experiments are...

From DC nano- and microgrids towards the universal DC distribution system - a plea to think further into the future

The traditional ac power system is challenged by the increased amount of distributed energy resources. Enormous changes and investments are necessary in order to achieve an ac smart grid capable of coping with the challenges introduced. In dc, solutions seem to be more straightforward since most of the distributed energy sources and most of the...

PV architectures for DC microgrids using buck or boost exclusive microconverters

DC microgrids can connect directly dc renewable energy sources with increasing amount of dc loads. In this paper it is looked for possible architectures for integrating PV panels into dc microgrids, by means of microconverter strings. Three topologies are considered, featuring only buck microconverters and only boost microconverters, since they...