With the tremendous demand for connectivity anywhere and anytime, existing network architectures should be modified. To cope with the challenges that arise due to the increasing flood of devices/users and a diverse range of application requirements, new technologies and concepts must be integrated to enable their benefits. Service providers and business companies are looking for new areas of research to enhance overall system performance. This article gives a detailed survey about the recent 5G technologies, the solutions they provide, and the effect caused by their addition to current cellular networks. It is based on the three most important 5G concepts: Device to Device (D2D), Network Slicing (NS), and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). This study proposes to design the future 5G networks by the integration of all three technologies. It is believed that spectrum efficiency, energy efficiency, and overall throughput will be greatly improved by using D2D. The system delay and computational load will be reduced as tasks will be handled by edge routers located at the base stations. Thus offloading the core network and the system capital expenses and operational expenses will be reduced significantly by slicing the network.

Around the world, countries are integrating photovoltaic generating systems to the grid to support climate change initiatives. However, solar power generation is highly uncertain due to variations in solar irradiance level during different hours of the day. Inaccurate modelling of this variability can lead to non-optimal dispatch of system resources. Therefore, accurate characterization of solar irradiance patterns is essential for effective management of renewable energy resources in an electrical power grid. In this paper, the Weibull distribution based probabilistic model is presented for characterization of solar irradiance patterns. Firstly, Weibull distribution is utilized to model inter-temporal variations associated with reference solar irradiance data through moving window averaging technique, and then the proposed model is used for irradiance pattern generation. To achieve continuity of discrete Weibull distribution parameters calculated at different steps of moving window, Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN) is employed. Goodness of Fit (GOF) techniques are used to calculate the error between mean and standard deviation of generated and reference patterns. The comparison of GOF results with the literature shows that the proposed model has improved performance. The presented model can be used for power system planning studies where the uncertainty of different resources such as generation, load, network, etc., needs to be considered for their better management.

The transformation of a conventional power system to a smart grid has been underway over the last few decades. A smart grid provides opportunities to integrate smart homes with renewable energy resources (RERs). Moreover, it encourages the residential consumers to regulate their home energy consumption in an effective way that suits their lifestyle and it also helps to preserve the environment. Keeping in mind the techno-economic reasons for household energy management, active participation of consumers in grid operations is necessary for peak reduction, valley filling, strategic load conservation, and growth. In this context, this paper presents an efficient home energy management system (HEMS) for consumer appliance scheduling in the presence of an energy storage system and photovoltaic generation with the intention to reduce the energy consumption cost determined by the service provider. To study the benefits of a home-to-grid (H2G) energy exchange in HEMS, photovoltaic generation is stochastically modelled by considering an energy storage system. The prime consideration of this paper is to propose a hybrid optimization approach based on heuristic techniques, grey wolf optimization, and a genetic algorithm termed a hybrid grey wolf genetic algorithm to model HEMS for residential consumers with the objectives to reduce energy consumption cost and the peak-to-average ratio. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated through simulations performed for a residential consumer with several domestic appliances and their scheduling preferences by considering real-time pricing and critical peak-pricing tariff signals. Results related to the reduction in the peak-to-average ratio and energy cost demonstrate that the proposed hybrid optimization technique performs well in comparison with different meta-heuristic techniques available in the literature. The findings of the proposed methodology can further be used to calculate the impact of different demand response signals on the operation and reliability of a power system.

Parameters associated with electrical equivalent models of the photovoltaic (PV) system play a significant role in the performance enhancement of the PV system. However, the accurate estimation of these parameters signifies a challenging task due to the higher computational complexities and non-linear characteristics of the PV modules/panels. Hence, an effective, dynamic, and efficient optimization technique is required to estimate the parameters associated with PV models. This paper proposes a double exponential function-based dynamic inertia weight (DEDIW) strategy for the optimal parameter estimation of the PV cell and module that maintains an appropriate balance between the exploitation and exploration phases to mitigate the premature convergence problem of conventional particle swarm optimization (PSO). The proposed approach (DEDIWPSO) is validated for three test systems; (1) RTC France solar cell, (2) Photo-watt (PWP 201) PV module, and (3) a practical test system (JKM330P-72, 310 W polycrystalline PV module) which involve data collected under real environmental conditions for both single- and double-diode models. Results illustrate that the parameters obtained from proposed technique are better than those from the conventional PSO and various other techniques presented in the literature. Additionally, a comparison of the statistical results reveals that the proposed methodology is highly accurate, reliable, and efficient.

The development of offshore wind farms (WF) is inevitable as they have exceptional resistance against climate change and produce clean energy without hazardous wastes. The offshore WF usually has a bigger generation capacity with less environmental impacts, and it is more reliable too due to stronger and consistent sea winds. The early offshore WF installations are located near the shore, whereas most modern installations are located far away from shore, generating higher power. This paradigm shift has forced the researchers and industry personnel to look deeper into transmission options, namely, high voltage AC transmission (HVAC) and high voltage DC transmission (HVDC). This evaluation can be both in terms of power carrying capability as well as cost comparisons. Additionally, different performance requirements such as power rating, onshore grid requirements, reactive power compensation, etc., must be considered for evaluation. This paper elaborately reviews and explains the offshore wind farm structure and performance requirements for bulk offshore power transfer. Based on the structure and performance requirements, both HVDC and HVAC transmission modes are compared and analyzed critically. Finally, a criterion for selection and increasing popularity of HVDC transmission is established.