Microgrid implementation requires effective and efficient strategies for controlling the grid parameters. Various problems are encountered with the deployment of distributed generation in terms of reverse power, an imbalance between power generation and nonlinear load. This paper is focused on the existing controllers in terms of their merits and limitations. Furthermore, the state of the art of the local power distribution system especially on renewable energy resources along with energy storage methods is explored. Reliability and stability of power flow between sources and consumers via voltage source inverter are also considered. The emerging microgrid concept in islanding and grid‐connected mode using different controller along with soft computing algorithm are presented. This paper gives the reader fast insight into the context of the controller and its application.

Due to the lack of inertia and uncertainty in the selection of optimal Proportional Integral (PI) controller gains, the voltage and frequency variations are higher in the islanded mode of the operation of a Microgrid (MG) compared to the grid-connected mode. This study, as such, develops an optimal control strategy for the voltage and frequency regulation of Photovoltaic (PV) based MG systems operating in islanding mode using Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (GOA). The intelligence of the GOA is utilized to optimize the PI controller parameters. This ensures an enhanced dynamic response and power quality of the studied MG system during Distributed Generators (DG) insertion and load change conditions. A droop control is also employed within the control architecture, alongside the voltage and current control loops, as a power-sharing controller. In order to validate the performance of the proposed control architecture, its effectiveness in regulating MG voltage, frequency, and power quality is compared with the precedent Artificial Intelligence (AI) based control architectures for the same control objectives. The effectiveness of the proposed GOA based parameter selection method is also validated by analyzing its performance with respect to the improved transient response and power quality of the studied MG system in comparison with that of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Whales Optimization Algorithm (WOA) based parameter selection methods. The simulation results establish that the GOA provides a faster and better solution than PSO and WOA which resulted in a minimum voltage and frequency overshoot with minimum output current and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).

Non-technical losses (NTLs) have been a major concern for power distribution companies (PDCs). Billions of dollars are lost each year due to fraud in billing, metering, and illegal consumer activities. Various studies have explored different methodologies for efficiently identifying fraudster consumers. This study proposes a new approach for NTL detection in PDCs by using the ensemble bagged tree (EBT) algorithm. The bagged tree is an ensemble of many decision trees which considerably improves the classification performance of many individual decision trees by combining their predictions to reach a final decision. This approach relies on consumer energy usage data to identify any abnormality in consumption which could be associated with NTL behavior. The key motive of the current study is to provide assistance to the Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) in Punjab, Pakistan for its campaign against energy stealers. The model developed in this study generates the list of suspicious consumers with irregularities in consumption data to be further examined on-site. The accuracy of the EBT algorithm for NTL detection is found to be 93.1%, which is considerably higher compared to conventional techniques such as support vector machine (SVM), k-th nearest neighbor (KNN), decision trees (DT), and random forest (RF) algorithm.

Electricity theft and fraud in energy consumption are two of the major issues for power distribution companies (PDCs) for many years. PDCs around the world are trying different methodologies for detecting electricity theft. The traditional methods for non-technical losses (NTLs) detection such as onsite inspection and reward and penalty policy have lost their place in the modern era because of their ineffective and time-consuming mechanism. With the advancement in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), newer and efficient NTL detection methods have been proposed by different researchers working in the field of data mining and AI. The AI-based NTL detection methods are superior to the conventional methods in terms of accuracy, efficiency, time-consumption, precision, and labor required. The importance of such AI-based NTL detection methods can be judged by looking at the growing trend toward the increasing number of research articles on this important development. However, the authors felt the lack of a comprehensive study that can provide a one-stop source of information on these AI-based NTL methods and hence became the motivation for carrying out this comprehensive review on this significant field of science. This article systematically reviews and classifies the methods explored for NTL detection in recent literature, along with their benefits and limitations. For accomplishing the mentioned objective, the opted research articles for the review are classified based on algorithms used, features extracted, and metrics used for evaluation. Furthermore, a summary of different types of algorithms used for NTL detection is provided along with their applications in the studied field of research. Lastly, a comparison among the major NTL categories, i.e., data-based, network-based, and hybrid methods, is provided on the basis of their performance, expenses, and response time. It is expected that this comprehensive study will provide a one-stop source of information for all the new researchers and the experts working in the mentioned area of research.

Electricity fraud in billing are the primary concerns for Distribution System Operators (DSO). It is estimated that billions of dollars are wasted annually due to these illegal activities. DSOs around the world, especially in underdeveloped countries, still utilize conventional time consuming and inefficient methods for Non-Technical Loss (NTL) detection. This research work attempts to solve the mentioned problem by developing an efficient energy theft detection model in order to identify the fraudster customers in a power distribution system. The key motivation for the present study is to assist the DSOs in their fight against energy theft. The proposed computational model initially utilizes a set of distinct features extracted from the monthly consumers’ consumption data, obtained from Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) Pakistan, to segregate the honest and the fraudulent customers. The Pearson’s chi-square feature selection algorithm is adopted to select the most relevant features among the extracted ones. Finally, the Boosted C5.0 Decision Tree (DT) algorithm is used to classify the honest and the fraudster consumers based on the outcomes of the selected features. To validate the superiority of the proposed NTL detection approach, its performance is matched with that of few state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms (one of most exciting recent technologies in Artificial Intelligence), like Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Extreme Gradient Bossting (XGBoost). The proposed NTL detection method provides an accuracy of 94.6%, Sensitivity of 78.1%, Specificity of 98.2%, F1 score 84.9% and Precision of 93.2% which are significantly higher than that of the same for the above-mentioned algorithms.

This work introduces a novel approach to modeling the photothermal behavior of semiconducting materials by developing a Moore-Gibson-Thompson (MGT) fractional photothermal model that incorporates a generalized Caputo fractional derivative with a tempering parameter. This advanced model is specifically designed to analyze elastic plasmonic wave systems in photothermal environments, offering deeper insights into the interactions between thermal, mechanical, and electromagnetic fields in semiconductors. By including the two-parameter tempered-Caputo fractional derivative, the model accounts for memory effects inherent in the thermal and mechanical behavior of materials exposed to high-energy processes. The model is applied to an infinite semiconducting medium with a drag-free spherical cavity subjected to a dynamically changing thermal field. This setup is highly relevant to semiconductor technology applications, where precise control over thermal and mechanical responses is crucial. The findings of this study could have significant implications for the design and analysis of semiconductor devices, particularly those operating under extreme thermal or electromagnetic conditions.