Scheduling and Operation of Virtual Power Plants: Technical Challenges and Electricity Markets provides a multidisciplinary perspective on recent advances in VPPs, ranging from required infrastructures and planning to operation and control. The work details the required components in a virtual power plant, including smartness of power system, instrument and information and communication technologies (ICTs), measurement units, and distributed energy sources. Contributors assess the proposed benefits of virtual power plant in solving problems of distributed energy sources in integrating the small, distributed and intermittent output of these units. In addition, they investigate the likely technical challenges regarding control and interaction with other entities. Finally, the work considers the role of VPPs in electricity markets, showing how distributed energy resources and demand response providers can integrate their resources through virtual power plant concepts to effectively participate in electricity markets to solve the issues of small capacity and intermittency. The work is suitable for experienced engineers, researchers, managers and policymakers interested in using VPPs in future smart grids. - Explores key enabling technologies and infrastructures for virtual power plants in future smart energy systems - Reviews technical challenges and introduces solutions to the operation and control of VPPs, particularly focusing on control and interaction with other power system entities - Introduces the key integrating role of VPPs in enabling DER powered participative electricity markets

The assembly of this study started in 2013 during the preparation of the foundation of the Flexible Electrical Networks (FEN) Research Campus, an institution supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Science, concentrating on DC technology in power grids as an enabler for the energy transition. It reflects the state-of-the-art and research needs of DC technology against the background of application in public grids up until the year 2015. Topics as components, control, management and automation, high-, medium, and low-voltage grid concepts as well as social dimensions, economics, and impact on living beings are considered. After substantial editorial effort, its first public edition has become ready now. The aim of FEN is to investigate and to develop flexible power grids. Such grid will safeguard the future energy supply with a high share of fluctuating and decentralized renewable energy sources. At the same time, these grids will enable a reliable and affordable energy supply in the future. The objective is to provide new technologies and concepts for the security and quality of the energy supply in the transmission and distribution grids. To pursue this goal, the use of direct-current (DC) technology, based on power electronics, automation and communication technologies, plays an important role. Although DC technology is not yet established as a standard technology in the public electrical power supply system, its high potential has been widely recognized. The use of DC is an enabler to make the future energy supply system more economical than a system based on alternating-current (AC), because of its superior properties in handling distributed and fluctuation power generation. Indeed, DC connections are already the most cost-efficient solution in cases of very high-power long-distance point-to-point transmission of electricity or via submarine cables. The objective of the FEN Research Campus is now to achieve and demonstrate feasibility of DC as a standard solution for future electrical grids, as described in this study.

From a scientific point of view, several challenges to renewable energy come from the intermittent nature of energy sources such as wind, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal. These problems are currently being addressed with research on power electronics converters, storage systems, Artificial Intelligence techniques, new materials and production technologies, numerical analysis techniques, among others. This research endeavours to reduce costs and find alternative energy sources that are competitive with fossil fuels. Consequently, these efforts of the scientific community will contribute to improving the quality of life on the planet. This book summarises ten years of contributions to these topics, and contains a selection of the best papers presented at the International Conferences on Renewable Energy and Power Quality (ICREPQ) from 2003 to 2012. These contributions have been selected by a team of voluntary reviewers, with two to four reviewers assigned to each paper. At the end of this process only about 5% of all presented papers were selected. Considering each paper had been reviewed before, in order to be accepted for the conference, the selected papers represent “the best of the best”. The contributors to this book represent some of the leading authorities in their areas of expertise. This book will be of particular interest to professional engineers and researchers dealing with renewable energy exploitation, but will also prove useful to postgraduate level students. In addition, it can be used as a reference book for engineers, physicists and mathematicians who are interested and involved in the operation, project management, design, and analysis of renewable sources equipment.

Operation of Distributed Energy Resources in Smart Distribution Networks defines the barriers and challenges of smart distribution networks, ultimately proposing optimal solutions for addressing them. The book considers their use as an important part of future electrical power systems and their ability to improve the local flexibility and reliability of electrical systems. It carefully defines the concept as a radial network with a cluster of distributed energy generations, various types of loads, and energy storage systems. In addition, the book details how the huge penetration of distributed energy resources and the intermittent nature of renewable generations may cause system problems. Readers will find this to be an important resource that analyzes and introduces the features and problems of smart distribution networks from different aspects. - Integrates different types of elements, including electrical vehicles, demand response programs, and various renewable energy sources in distribution networks - Proposes optimal operational models for the short-term performance and scheduling of a distribution network - Discusses the uncertainties of renewable resources and intermittent load in the decision-making process for distribution networks

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies, MATES 2013, held in Koblenz, Germany, in September 2013. The 29 revised full papers and 3 keynote talks presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers cover a broad area of topics of interest ranging from issues of agent-based coordination to simulation to negotiation.

The book consists of 8 parts: Energy Informatics, Electric Power Engineering, Heat Power Engineering, Nuclear Power Engineering, Renewable Power Engineering, Fuels, Transport, and Environmental Safety. The results presented in this book are aimed at solving some of the technical issues proposed by the Ukraine Recovery Plan and other important scientific and applied problems in the field of energy. Scientists from leading Ukrainian academic institutions and universities are working on this book. This book is for scientists, researchers, engineers, as well as lecturers and postgraduates of higher education institutions dealing with energy sector, power systems, ecological safety, etc.

This authoritative new resource explores the power grid from its classical role as a utility or service provider towards its new role as an application development platform. This book gives insight into the vision, problems and solutions, and risks of the smart grid model. The evolution of the power grid as it develops into an application-centric environment is explained in this book. This resource guides readers to better understand the primary motivation of the smart grid, and to explore how new technologies are creating a cleaner and more sustainable ecosystem for new business models to blossom. Key topics include the basics of electricity and the conventional grid structure, as well as the relationships between conventional economic models and emerging models based on transactive energy and the sharing economy. This book presents the orchestration of smart grid technologies as they are transforming the utility sector toward a human-centric grid. Readers gain insight into how they are playing an active role in the operation of the utility business as well as in the transfer of electrons. This book demonstrates how the new smart grid is becoming a distributed system that supports decentralized services through modern trends and distributed system architectures. Readers learn how grid intelligence and energy production migrates to the edge of the network. This book explores how consumers are transformed to “prosumers” of energy and providers of critical data that are dramatically changing the relationship with the electric utility business in order to enable new applications and services.

This book presents the latest findings and ongoing research in the field of green information systems as well as green information and communication technology (ICT). It provides insights into a whole range of cross-cutting concerns in ICT and environmental sciences and showcases how information and communication technologies allow environmental and energy efficiency issues to be handled effectively. Offering a selection of extended and reworked contributions to the 30th International Conference EnviroInfo 2016, it is essential reading for anyone wanting to extend their expertise in the area.