To address the model inaccuracy and uncertainty of virtual power plants (VPPs), a model-free economic dispatch approach for multiple VPPs is studied in this article, which does not rely on an accurate environmental model. An adversarial safe reinforcement learning approach is proposed, which promotes the safety of the actions and makes the model robust to deviations between the training and testing environments. Moreover, a two-stage reinforcement learning framework is formulated based on the proposed algorithm. The dispatch policy is pretrained in the simulator and then fine-tuned in the real-world environment. The numerical simulations illustrate that the proposed approach is adaptive to the deviation between the training and testing environments, and it provides higher robustness to the noise of the network parameters and uncertainty of the VPPs’ power outputs. The scalability and superiority of the proposed approach are verified by comparing it with existing methods.

With an increase in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) and battery storage systems (BSSs), there are major challenges in the distribution grid to maintain a scaling control structure. Also, with the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, EVs can now inject power into the grid for voltage regulation. This article proposes a new distributed real-time alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) technique to control EVs and BSSs for voltage regulation while maximizing their utility function. More specifically, a continuous-domain real-time optimization and control algorithm is developed in closed form, which exchanges relevant information among the neighboring nodes through the communication network and optimizes a combined convex objective of EVs and BSSs welfare and voltage regulation with power flow equations as constraints. Convergence analysis is provided using the Lyapunov direct approach, and simulation results are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Note to Practitioners —This article is motivated by the problems that an electric distribution system is facing today due to the penetration of electric vehicles and battery storage systems (BSSs). The presence of a large number of electric vehicles (EVs) and BSSs is causing a substantial degradation of the quality and reliability of the power grid. Despite the adverse effects, EVs and BSSs can be controlled and used as a power source to benefit the grid. Also, this control of EVs and BSS cannot be done by a centralized body since this would be nonscalable and would require huge communication bandwidth. To tackle this ever scaling problem, this article develops a continuous-domain multiagent distributed algorithm to control the EVs and BSSs and utilize them to maintain the grid voltage within the normal operating range while also satisfying the consumers by maximizing their welfare. The algorithm was developed in the continuous domain since, in most of the other algorithms that are iterative and in discrete time, the accuracy of the optimal solution greatly depends on the sampling time, and thus, it is not robust to changes that are prevalent with distributed energy resources such as EVs and BSSs.

In recent years, the development of hydrogen energy has been widely discussed, particularly in combination with renewable energy sources, enabling the production of “green” hydrogen. With the significant increase in wind power generation, a promising solution for obtaining green hydrogen is the development of wind-to-hydrogen (W2H) systems. However, the high proportion of wind power and electrolyzers in a large-scale W2H system will bring about the problem of renewable energy consumption and frequency stability reduction. This paper analyzes the operational characteristics and economic feasibility of mainstream electrolyzers, leading to the proposal of a coordinated hydrogen production scheme involving both a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer and an alkaline (ALK) electrolyzer. Subsequently, a coordinated control based on Model Predictive Control (MPC) is proposed for system frequency regulation in a large-scale W2H islanded microgrid. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the system under PEM/ALK electrolyzers coordinated control not only flexibly accommodates fluctuating wind power but also maintains frequency stability in the face of large disturbances. Compared with the traditional system with all ALK electrolyzers, the frequency deviation of this system is reduced by 25%, the regulation time is shortened by 80%, and the demand for an energy storage system (ESS) is reduced. The result validates the effectiveness of MPC and the benefits of the PEM/ALK electrolyzers coordinated hydrogen production scheme.

Under extreme weather events represented by severe convective weather (SCW), the adaptability of power system and service restoration have become paramount. To this end, this paper presents a novel planning method of stationary-mobile integrated battery energy storage system (SMI-BESS) capable of spatial flexibility. This designed system can flexibly switch between stationary and mobile modes to cope with normal operation and extreme weather events. Considering the multitude of threats posed of SCW, such as extreme wind speed, lightning strikes, and hail, a comprehensive fragility model of the distribution network is established to quantify adverse impacts of the extreme event. Uncertainties in renewable energy generation and distribution network failures are characterized using two types of ambiguity sets. A two-stage adaptive distributionally robust optimization (2S-ADRO) model is developed to plan the SMI-BESS in detail, meeting the requirements of mobile energy storage. Finally, case studies are conducted using weather and grid data from some regions in China to validate the effectiveness of the proposed structure and method.

With the emerging technology for distributed generation and urge of improving quality of service of power supply for energy users, more and more Microgrids (MGs) are integrated into the distributed networks to serve the energy users. These Microgrids are gradually formulating a Multi-Microgrid System (MMGS, Multi-Microgrid System), which will play an important role for the future energy supply. Building a centralized control center not only increases the expense of investment, but also brings the issues of maintaining fairness among energy users. To address these problems, this paper proposes a peer-to-peer method for energy trading of MMGS, based on the idea of decentralized trading. An auction-based trading mechanism suitable for peer-to-peer energy trading is proposed first. For this mechanism, the MGs firstly declare their energy buying bids or selling quotations. Then, the market-clearing price is determined by using a unified weight clearing algorithm in a decentralized manner. By applying the edge technology of Blockchain, the implementation of the proposed peer-to-peer energy trading method, including the architecture, procedures, security check, etc., is also discussed. The proposed Blockchain-based energy trading platform can realize the decentralized and autonomous energy trading of MGs within an MMGS. A case study with an MMGS with 10 MG units is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

A novel wide-area control design is presented to mitigate inter-area power frequency oscillations. A large-scale power system is decomposed into a network of passivity-short subsystems whose nonlinear interconnections have a state-dependent affine form, and by utilizing the passivity shortage framework, a two-level design procedure is developed. At the lower level, any generator control can be viewed as one that makes the generator passivity-short and L2 stable, and the stability impact of the lower-level control on the overall system can be characterized in terms of two parameters. While the system is nonlinear, the impact parameters can be optimized by solving a data-driven matrix inequality (DMI), and the high-level wide-area control is then designed by solving another Lyapunov matrix inequality in terms of the design parameters. The proposed methodology makes the design modular, and the resulting control is adaptive to operating conditions of the power system. Standard test systems are used to illustrate the proposed design, including DMI and the wide-area control, and simulation results demonstrate its effectiveness in damping out inter-area oscillations.