Jacob Hansen

Evaluating transactive controls of integrated transmission and distribution systems using the Framework for Network Co-Simulation

With an ever-evolving power grid, concerns regarding how to maintain system stability, efficiency, and reliability remain constant because of increasing uncertainties and decreasing rotating inertia. To alleviate some of these concerns, demand response represents a viable solution and is virtually an untapped resource in the current power grid. This work describes a hierarchical control framework that allows coordination between distributed energy resources and demand response. This control framework is composed of two control layers: a coordination layer that ensures aggregations of resources are coordinated to achieve system objectives and a device layer that controls individual resources to assure the predetermined power profile is tracked in real time. Large-scale simulations are executed to study the hierarchical control, requiring advancements in simulation capabilities. Technical advancements necessary to investigate and answer control interaction questions, including the Framework for Network Co-Simulation platform and Arion modeling capability, are detailed. Insights into the interdependencies of controls across a complex system and how they must be tuned, as well as validation of the effectiveness of the proposed control framework, are yielded using a large-scale integrated transmission system model coupled with multiple distribution systems.

Hierarchical decentralized control strategy for demand-side primary frequency response

The Grid Friendly™ Appliance (GFA) controller was proposed to autonomously switch off appliances by detecting under-frequency events. In this paper, a new frequency responsive load (FRL) controller is proposed by extending the functionality of the existing GFA controller. The proposed FRL controller can autonomously switch on (or off) end-use loads by detecting over-frequency (or under-frequency) events through local frequency measurement. Using the proposed FRL controller, a hierarchical decentralized control strategy is also developed for engaging the end-use loads to provide primary frequency response. The developed control strategy consists of two decision making layers including supervisory and device layers, and has several desirable features for primary frequency control. The FRL controller at the device layer preserves the autonomous operation of the enduse loads. The coordinator at the supervisory layer coordinates autonomous response to overcome the stability issue associated with high penetration of FRLs. The simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the developed hierarchical decentralized control strategy in providing primary frequency response with the proposed FRL controller.

Auction design for power markets based on standardized contracts for energy and reserves

The wholesale power markets have undergone substantial change over the past few years to deal with increasing penetrations of variable energy resources. The market design and processes have become more complex because of introduction of new products and services to deal with the variability and intermittency of renewable resources. Additionally, the increasing adoption of distributed energy resources presents new challenges for the power grid operations, requiring additional flexibility to ensure stable, reliable, and resilient grid operations. The current market designs, however, do not explicitly value flexibility from resources. This paper presents a novel unit commitment/economic dispatch problem formulation that explicitly values the flexibility offered by resources. The market design is based on the concept of two-part pricing where resources are first paid to make their capacities available, including the flexibility, in the day-ahead markets and subsequently paid performance payments based on real-time dispatch.