The electrical power industry is undergoing rapid transformation, and Smart Grids technologies can facilitate the growing penetration of renewable energies, as well as the necessity of providing flexibility to variable generation. Furthermore, their widespread installation results in a modernization of the electric grid, opening up new operation possibilities. This Master Thesis Project is formulated to study the resilience enhancements that can be achieved in the electric grid, by means of integrating distributed generation within Smart Microgrids.
Several guidelines that should lead the design of microgrids in order to improve the survivability and restoration capacities of the system are provided in this project. Optimization of current features such island mode of operation and advanced metering infrastructure are studied. In addition, the concept of a meshed set of loop-based microgrids and self-healing procedures are proposed.
Furthermore, a versatile RSCAD microgrid model has been developed, implementing the aforemen- tioned resilience-related guidelines. It accounts for a microgrid with diverse distributed generation, which integrates a number of city facilities modelled as loads. Making use of the RTDS simulator, sev- eral simulations have been run on the model, validating its normal functioning and testing the response given to critical situations.