Abstract:
Electricity grid of the future is envisioned as ‘smart’ and ‘green’ thanks to increasing renewable energy (RE) penetration and advancements in information technologies that allow control of energy flow with respect to associated data such as load profiling and real-time energy prices. Demand Response (DR) is a key component of a smart grid control strategy to ensure system stability and reliable energy delivery. DR is the process of controlling end-use customers (load) for the provision of power balance, while maintaining consumer comfort. It can be used to mitigate power imbalance following a contingency such as loss of largest generation/load. Significant research has been carried out previously to suggest DR based power balance provision i.e. contingency reserve provision, however the focus has been on active power balancing or on the distribution systems (Voltage level less than 132kV). There is, however, a dearth of literature concerning DR activity impacts on high voltage transmission system (230kV and above) and system reactive power. Therefore, this thesis has focused on investigating the transmission system impacts of DR with respect to both active and reactive power balancing. A sensitivity-based analysis has been carried out, investigating the impacts of DR based load composition, magnitude and location. The analysis has been carried out in the open source environment of MATPOWER tool and focused on dependent variables such as real and reactive power losses, bus voltages and angles. Based on the sensitivity analysis, DR load optimization in terms of magnitude, composition and location has been carried out so as to maximize system reliability and efficiency.
