CURENT Industry Seminar – Operation of Distribution Systems with PEVs and Smart Loads

Date: March 6, 2015

Time: 12:20-1:10pm EST

Location: Room 124 Min H. Kao Building, Knoxville, TN

Title: Operation of Distribution Systems with PEVs and Smart Loads

Presenter: Dr. Isha Sharma, ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Abstract: With the evolving concept of smart grids, Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) are gradually integrating advanced technologies and intelligent infrastructures to maximize distribution system capability, modernize the grid, and lay the foundation for smart loads. With the development of smart grids, utilities and customers will be able to coordinately send, retrieve, visualize, process and/or control their energy needs for the benefit of both. This talk will first present a novel smart distribution system operation framework for smart charging of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Thus, a three-phase Distribution Optimal Power Flow (DOPF) model is proposed, which incorporates comprehensive models of underground cables, transformers, voltage dependent loads, taps and switch capacitors, and their respective limits, to determine optimal feeder voltage-control settings and PEV smart-charging schedules. Furthermore, mathematical models for price-responsive and controllable loads will be presented to study for the first time the smart operation of unbalanced distribution systems with these types of smart loads, based on the previously proposed DOPF model. The price-responsive load models are represented using linear and exponential functions of the price, while a constant energy load model, controllable by the LDC, is proposed to model critical and deferrable loads. Finally, a load model of an EHMS residential micro-hub using neural networks (NN), based on measured and simulated data will be presented. The inputs of the NN are weather, Time-of-Use (TOU) tariffs, time, and a peak demand cap imposed by the LDC. Various NN structures are trained, tested, validated, and compared to obtain the best fit for the given data.

Bio: Isha Sharma received her B.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada in 2009; the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada in 2014. She is currently working at the Oak Ridge National Lab. Her research interests are in distribution system modeling and analysis, demand response, smart loads and DERs in the context of smart grids.