Addressing Future Distribution Systems Challenges

Ali Abur

ECE Professor Ali Abur was awarded a $380K NSF grant for designing “A Comprehensive Approach to Monitoring Active Distribution Systems.” The goal of the project is to address challenges in monitoring future distribution systems. Distribution systems have been treated in isolation until recently, however, their composition and required analysis tools have drastically changed in recent years due to the renewable energy sources, non-conventional loads, and energy storage facilities creating bi-directional power flows between distribution and transmission systems. Thus, effective management of these systems requires reliable and efficient monitoring of the state, topology, and model parameters. The project comprehensively investigates the monitoring challenges for mixed-phase distribution systems containing different types of measurements, non-radial configurations, and errors in both measurements and network model parameters.


Abstract Source: NSF

This project aims to facilitate efficient and reliable operation of next generation active distribution systems. This will be accomplished by improved monitoring, control and optimization of their operation. The overall impact will be more reliable, less costly and environmentally cleaner energy delivery to the end users. Furthermore, implementation and utilization of the project’s results will provide job and training opportunities for the next generation of power engineers in the nation. The intellectual merits of the project include improved reliability of network applications that use the network model, by detecting both measurement and network model errors; using novel compensation and calibration methods that enable unbiased tracking of the system’s operating states; and facilitating incorporation of renewable energy sources in overall generation dispatch of large power grids. The broader impacts of the project include training and education of students from underrepresented and minority groups via REU programs in the summers and as student researchers during regular semesters; and transformation of the monitoring and operation of future distribution systems making them more reliable.

The goal of the project is to address challenges in monitoring future distribution systems. Distribution systems have been treated in isolation until recently, however their composition and required analysis tools have drastically changed in the recent years due to the renewable energy sources, non-conventional loads, and energy storage facilities creating bi-directional power flows between distribution and transmission systems. Thus, effective management of these systems requires reliable and efficient monitoring of the state, topology and model parameters. Thus, the project comprehensively investigates the monitoring challenges for mixed-phase distribution systems containing different types of measurements, non-radial configurations, and errors in both measurements and network model parameters. Detailed mathematical formulation for mixed phase distribution system state estimation which exploits modal decomposition, extension of Lagrangian based parameter error detection method for mixed-phase network models, dynamic tracking of line model and decoding them to detect and locate different types of faults and disturbances; remote calibration of three phase synchronized phasor measurements and localizing topology errors by recursive multi-area estimation constitute the technical innovations associated with the project.

This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Related Faculty: Ali Abur

Related Departments:Electrical & Computer Engineering