PNNL

Abstract

Electric power grid is one of the complex infrastructures and because of it’s complex nature there is simply no way that outages can be completely avoided. Thus, a modern society that depends on reliable electric supply requires a resilient electric system that can recover from disruptions while integrating the emerging smart grid technologies. This paper presents a novel approach for service restoration in a modern power distribution system with controllable switches and distributed generation (DGs) resources for any kind of outage. The proposed framework supports both the traditional service restoration using feeder reconfiguration and the gridforming DG-assisted intentional islands that are dynamically sized using the algorithms based on the fault scenario, available resources, and priority of loads. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) that incorporates critical system connectivity and operating constraints. Simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach using a large-scale four-feeder 1069-bus three-phase unbalanced distribution test system. It is demonstrated that the framework: (1) is effective in utilizing all available resources in quickly restoring the power supply to improve resiliency during extreme events, and (2) is scalable for a large-scale unbalanced power distribution system.