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Active Management of Distributed Energy Resources Using Standardized Communications and Modern Information Technologies
Adrian Timbus, Member, IEEE, Mats Larsson, Member, IEEE, and Cherry Yuen, Member, IEEE
AbstractDue to high penetration level in some regions of distributed generators (DGs) based on renewable energy resources, information about their power delivery capabilities is becoming essential for planning and allocating resources and reserves in power system. This paper discusses the modeling of DGs in the utility control and information technology infrastructures of power system operators. The communication standards International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61400-25 and IEC 61850 and their extensions for DGs are rst introduced, followed by an example of mapping wind turbine components onto a communication data model. A distribution network comprising several distributed-generation sources is then described from the control and communication point of view. Simulation results of production cost minimization and network constraint management are presented at the end, illustrating the new possibilities that a system-wide approach can provide for distributed generation. Index TermsCommunication standards, distributed generation, IEC 61850, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61400-25, wind turbines (WTs).

I. I NTRODUCTION HE INTEGRATION of wind energy resources into the electric networks has become one of the most challenging and important tasks of the power industry for the next decade. Integration has to take place at three different levels. First, correct regulation and market mechanisms should be enforced to ensure the competitiveness and rentability of wind farms. Currently, the installation of wind facilities has been encouraged by the use of subsidies and special feed-in tariffs, which might not be the appropriate way for the future. Second, new wind energy resources must be operated in a way that power system stability, operational constraints, as well as control and protection strategies are respected [1][3]. The advancement of power electronics in wind turbine (WT) control [4] ensures that wind power is a reliable technology that can be part of every modern power system [5], [6]. In general, the addon controllability helps the integration of DGs, even in weak power networks [7], and wind farms can contribute to network stability [8], [9].
Manuscript received October 31, 2008; revised February 17, 2009. First published March 31, 2009; current version published September 16, 2009. The authors are with Corporate Research, ABB Switzerland Ltd., 5405 Baden-Daettwil, Switzerland (e-mail: adrian.timbus@ch.abb.com; mats.larsson@ch.abb.com; cherry.yuen@ch.abb.com). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIE.2009.2017123

These two aforementioned issues were studied rather thoroughly in the past. The third issue, i.e., the proper integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) into the utility information and control systems, is still an open topic. The high penetration of DERs in some utilities around the globe leads to the necessity of coordinated operation of DERs in order to maintain power system stability. Although DERs using power electronics have extended control capabilities [10], [11], communication between the network control center and wind power generators plays an important role in achieving a smooth integration of alternative energy. This paper focuses on the third issue and, more particularly, on how standards such as International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61850 [12] and IEC 61400-25 [13] can support the integration of wind energy into the utility control and IT systems. The current status of IEC standards 61850 and 61400-25 and their applicability to wind energy resource modeling are rst addressed. An example of modeling a WT in a communication context is then presented. It is followed by the presentation of the application of a network management system (NMS) comprising a supervisory controller, which is capable of necessary control and coordination of distributed energy resources. Additionally, a hardware-in-the-loop simulation environment and results of a constraint management situation are also presented. This paper extends our earlier work [14] with more details on the relevant standards and their applications to renewable energy. Moreover, a more comprehensive description of the optimization algorithm for cost minimization and constraint management is given. II. IEC C OMMUNICATION S TANDARDS R ELATED TO D ISTRIBUTED G ENERATION A. Open Communication Standards With the replacement of electromechanical devices by intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), the automation of distribution systems has made a signicant step forward. IEDs are capable of protection, local and remote monitoring and control, etc., and therefore, communication between IEDs and the central controller plays an important role for maintaining, controlling, and monitoring a distribution system. Traditionally, IEDs were using proprietary protocols developed by vendors, and this made the interoperability in a distribution grid difcult in cases when equipment from different manufacturers is used. Consequently, the industry realized the necessity of developing an

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open standard for communication in distribution systems. Apart from providing interoperability between devices of different manufacturers, the objective of standardization is to develop a communication standard that will meet functional and performance requirements while supporting future technological developments of the equipment involved. Hence, the standard should ensure, among others, the following features. 1) The complete communication prole is based on existing IEC/IEEE/ISO/OSI communication standards, if available. 2) The protocols used will be open and will support selfdescriptive devices. It should be possible and easy to add new functionality. 3) The standard is based on data objects related to the needs of the electric power industry. 4) The communication syntax and semantics are based on the use of common data objects related to power system. In 2003, the IEC released the IEC 61850 standard designated to communication in substations. The approach of this standard is to blend the strengths of the following three methods: 1) functional decompositionused to understand the logical relationship between components of a distributed function and is presented in terms of logical nodes (LNs) that describe the functions, subfunctions, and functional interfaces; 2) data owused to understand the communication interfaces that must support the exchange of information between the distributed functional components and the functional performance requirements; 3) information modelingused to dene the abstract syntax and semantics of the information exchanged and is presented in terms of data object classes and types, attributes, abstract object methods (services), and their relationships. The functionality of IEDs are modeled by LNs, which are dened by four-letter abbreviations. The rst letter species the class of physical equipment that the LN belongs to. For example, in the case of a circuit breaker, the LN describing the operation of the breaker is XCBR, with X denoting that the breaker belongs to the switchgear class. Moreover, the CSWI LN describes the control of the breaker, meaning that, in order to open or close the breaker, the control data object Pos of CSWI has to be changed. The XCBR LN will subscribe to CSWI data and will update its data objects accordingly. Aggregation of related LNs and data sets for communication purposes forms a logical device (LD). An LD is a virtual device that can represent a single or a group of physical devices or can represent a functionality (e.g., protection and monitoring), which is provided by LNs of multiple IEDs. Some LNs are mandatory and must appear in the communication model of a particular IED, while others are optional and can be neglected. The LN zero (LLNO) provides common information about the LD (e.g., LD nameplate and health) while the LN physical device (LPHD) represents the common data of the physical device that hosts the LD (e.g., physical device nameplate and health). Both LLNO and LPHD are mandatory

in an LD. All LNs have a standardized and similar table structure, and inside an LN, information is specied by data classes (DCs). DCs specify what type of data is used by the information contained in different attributes inside LNs. For example, the position of the circuit breaker is determined by the Pos attribute, and this is a DPC class, meaning a controllable double point. Double here stands for the fact that two digits are necessary for expressing the position of the switch, which, in this case, can have four states, i.e., intermediate, off, on, and bad states. B. Extensions for Distributed Generation Due to increasing energy demand and the move toward clean energy production, distributed generation based on renewable energy resources had a large growth in the last decade. WT, photovoltaic (PV), and combined heat and power (CHP) systems are installed at different levels in power systems, including the distribution level. Due to the desire of monitoring and, possibly, remotely controlling distributed generators (DGs), the IEC 61850 standard has been extended. The communication data model for DGs such as PV, CHP, hydro, etc., has been introduced in two extensions of IEC 61850, i.e., IEC 61850-7-410 [15] and IEC 61850-7-420 [16]. While IEC 61850-7-410 (for hydropower plants) has been incorporated in the main standard, the part related to small-size dispersed generators such as PV, CHP, storage, etc., is still in draft form and is expected to be approved any time soon. These two extensions dene also new LNs that are characteristic to DGs, like PV panel technology, turbine type in a CHP, or battery type of a storage system. The IEC 61400-25 standard, which belongs to the 61400 standard family related to wind power generation, provides the information model and LNs that are characteristic to WTs. The two extensions of IEC 61850 and the IEC 61400-25 can be used to model in detail, from the communication point of view, the DGs and their interconnection with the utility network. Fig. 1 shows the mapping of WT components and their functionality into the IEC-61400-25-based communication structure. WT is divided in small entities representing its functionality (e.g., rotor, generator, tower, yaw system, etc.), and these are modeled as LNs (WGEN, WROT, WYAW, etc.). Using data objects (e.g., position and speed), the characteristics and data for each component are set inside LNs. Although WTs can be modeled using IEC 61400-25, their interconnection with the utility network uses LNs dened in IEC 61850. Fig. 2 shows the boundaries between using IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25. Mapping of WT components onto LDs and LNs is made using IEC 61400-25, while the interconnection with the utility network is done using IEC 61850 LNs. This could not be realized if consistency in structure and name tagging between the two standards would not have been implemented. C. Standardization Toward Smart Grids The standardization of communication with DERs and distributed network devices provides a step closer to the idea

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Fig. 1.

Mapping of WT components to logical nodes and devices using the IEC 61400-25 standard.

distribution or transmission level) plays an important role for power system management. A. Model of Active Distribution Grid For demonstrating the benecial aspects of IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 standards, an example of communication and remote control within an active distribution network is presented in the following section. The network model is derived from the IEEE 37-bus distribution test system [17], that has been extended with a few DGs of different types. Two wind power plants, a CHP plant, a PV plant, and a storage unit have been included, as shown in Fig. 4. B. Local Control of DGs The PV power plant is operating always on maximum power point, extracting the maximum power available from the panels, while the storage unit operation is ruled by energy prices, i.e., charges when prices are low and discharges when energy prices are high. As the storage unit is a exible unit for providing/consuming energy, its output power can also be controlled by the central supervisory controller for meeting different requirements in the grid, e.g., primary and secondary reserves, local voltage control, compensating for the error in generation and load forecast, etc. With supervisory control, which keeps track of the network conditions across the whole network, energy storage can also be useful to avoid curtailment of generation due to the capability constraints of the distribution grid. Wind power plants have the following various remote control options with regard to active-power control [18][20], as shown in Fig. 3: 1) maximum power control; 2) power limiter control; 3) delta control; 4) balance control. Meanwhile, reactive power can be controlled to provide a xed power factor, a xed reactive-power export or can be used for controlling the voltage at the point of interconnection with the utility grid. Fig. 3(a) shows the situation when WT extracts the maximum power available from the wind, according to its power curve

Fig. 2. Mapping of WT functionality using the IEC 61400-25 and IEC 61850 standards.

of smart grids. A standardized communication model facilitates the development of remote monitoring and supervisory operation applications residing in the distribution management system (DMS) independent of vendors of DMS or DERs. Into a future smart grid framework, such applications will become core applications for managing optimally and running safely the distribution grid. III. A CTIVE D ISTRIBUTION G RIDS W ITH I NTEGRATION OF DGs IN U TILITY C ONTROL AND I NFORMATION I NFRASTRUCTURE With increasing penetration of DGs in distribution grids, these grids are not anymore a passive energy sink, whose power demand can be predicted by analyzing the patterns of loads presented in the grid. On the contrary, the capacity of power exchange between the transmission and distribution grids can uctuate drastically, particularly if large amounts of DGs inside the distribution grid are based on renewable energy resources such as wind and solar. In such a situation, communication between DGs and the energy management system (at either

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on network constraints and energy prices received from the market pool. This functionality is achieved using the output of a state estimation routine and modifying the settings of switches, shunt capacitors, tap changers, and load disconnectors. Additionally, the supervisory controller has the option to schedule the DG active-power production and voltage control set points. D. Communication Data Model As shown in Fig. 4, the network elements are modeled and represented at the supervisory control using the IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 data models. In the case of remote control of a wind power plant, the supervisory controller can access the information provided by the WT active-power controller, which is the information given by the LN WAPC. This LN contains status information about which control mode (from those shown in Fig. 3 and some others) is enabled in WT at current time given by data objects like PIWLimEn for power limiter control, PIWDelEn for delta control, etc. In addition to the status information, the supervisory controller also has an access to and can change the control information. For example, it can change the value of SetPIW, which will set the output power of the wind power plant to the updated value. Moreover, by changing the value of SetPIDel, the reference value for an active-power reserve offered by the delta control of the wind power plant will be changed. In the case of wind farms, these can be modeled as a single large WT that aggregates the power of all the turbines in the farm. This will substantially simplify the communication framework by the fact that NMS will not communicate with all turbines in the farm and relies on the wind farm controller to dispatch the settings to individual turbines. Similar information and control options are available for other DGs too, i.e., PV power plants, storage units, CHP, or micro hydro. By accessing all of them, the supervisory controller can schedule and optimize their power output according to power system needs. IV. S IMULATION E NVIRONMENT For the development of control and scheduling applications for wind and other distributed energy resources, it is desirable to do laboratory testing. Since it is impractical to build up a complete distribution grid and associated DERs in the laboratory environment, a soft environment, where physical IEDs are connected to a simulation model instead of the actual distribution network and DER equipment, has been developed. In addition, the communication infrastructure is implemented in a physical device consisting of an industrial PC that acts as a gateway. A rough architecture of the simulator can be seen in Fig. 5. The model of the power distribution network is developed using a model library of power system components available in Modelica [21], which was extended with representations of distributed energy resources and their local controllers. The recorded load patterns, as well as the recordings of solar radiation and wind speed, are used to construct realistic scenarios

Fig. 3. Illustration of active-power control possibilities for WTs. (a) Maximum power control. (b) Power limiter control. (c) Delta control. (d) Balance control.

data. This way, wind power is most utilized. However, some grid codes request curtailment of wind power in contingency situations, so other control options have to be provided by WT manufacturers. Fig. 3(b) shows the principle of a control method that limits the power output of the turbine to a preset value, so WT is not allowed to produce more than this value. In Fig. 3(c), a control method that runs the turbine under the maximum available wind power is shown. The gap (delta) between the available wind power and the actual power produced by the turbine can be set remotely, and the power difference can be used as a spinning reserve for network management. Fig. 3(d) shows a control option that sets the output power of WTs according to power system needs in terms of power balance. Because wind power is considered free, its curtailment is not desired, unless power system stability is threatened. Consequently, the previously listed control options that curtail wind power should be used as the last resort for power system management. On the other hand, as CHP has the highest running costs due to high cost of fuels, the unit is run on a necessity basis. The available option for active-power control is responsive to megawatt demand, while reactive-power control allows a xed export and local voltage control. C. Supervisory Controller In addition to local controllers of DGs, there is an energy management system located in the substation bay that has communication links to all DG sources, to the switchgear equipment, to tap changers of transformers, to load disconnectors, etc., and employs a supervisory control to remotely coordinate the devices in the network. The supervisory controller takes care of the optimal power ow in the network, as well as volt/VAr optimization, and schedules the DGs based

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Fig. 4.

Graphical representation of an active distribution grid based on the IEEE 37-bus model with additional distributed-generation sources.

the simulation environment, as shown in Fig. 5. The gateway computer contains the communication model that uses LDs, LNs, and DOs provided by the IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25 standards to describe the physical devices in the network model. All important network data, such as load measurements, position of switches, tap changer position, and generation measurements, are represented by LNs in the communication model. These data are then accessed by the supervisory controller that calculates the next setting points for controllable devices such that the network operates securely and optimally. Once the calculation is nished, the data are updated in the communication structure and further retrieved by the network model, and hence, the loop is closed. V. A PPLICATION E XAMPLE : A CTIVE M ANAGEMENT OF D ISTRIBUTED E NERGY R ESOURCES
Fig. 5. Simulation setup and links between the simulation environment and real communication device where the communication data model is implemented.

in simulation. The simulator uses a power-ow-type representation of the network and is, in its present form, capable of simulating the example IEEE 37-bus distribution test feeder [17] that is about 20 times faster than real time. The supervisory controller is implemented in a simulation environment, i.e., Simulink. It communicates with the power system model through the gateway hardware and not through

The power distribution system is the interface between the power transmission network and the electricity end-customers. The network is composed of a number of primary substations that are connected to secondary substations via power lines and switches. The primary substations contain transformers that reduce the voltage from the high-voltage level of the transmission or subtransmission grid down to medium-voltage (MV) levels suitable for regional distribution. Fig. 4 shows a typical regional distribution grid [17]. Each of the nodes in the diagram signies a secondary substation to which consumers are attached via low-voltage

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(LV) feeders. These customers introduce a load demand that must be covered at all times, either by power infeed through the primary substation or through decentralized production by the DER. To control the voltage and maintain the reactivepower balance, a number of switched tap changers and switched capacitor banks are available. The operational cost of the grid, to a large extent, depends on the running costs of the different distributed-generation units. As discussed in the previous sections, some plants, like windand PV-based DERs, have very low moving costs since they do not rely on fuel, but their production capacity varies based on external factors such as wind speed and solar radiation. As a general rule, these DERs should be scheduled to produce the maximum amount of active power that they can provide at the moment, as long as it will not lead to violations of network capacity constraints. However, high penetration of DERs can also lead to increased losses on the distribution grid, meaning that a maximum dispatch of the DERs is not always the most economical option. On the other hand, some DERs, notably combined cycle and fuel-cell-based DERs, have rather high fuel costs but are always controllable as long as they are online. These units should, as a rule, only be used to avoid violation of network constraints. There are also energy storage devices that can temporarily store energy for later consumption, when it cannot be transported to consumers due to network constraints. Mainly, these network constraints relate to the maximum current or power transfer capability of individual transformers and lines in the distribution grid. There are also network constraints on the minimum and maximum allowed bus operational voltages that can be controlled through the switched tap changer and controls. First, this can be used to balance reactive power such that distribution-grid active-power losses are minimized. Second, the voltage references of the DERs can be used to adjust the voltage. However, their capacity to provide active power is dependent on how much they contribute to voltage and the other way around. Therefore, the selection of voltage set points for the DERs and the control of the tap changers and capacitors signicantly affect the operational costs of the grid, also in other ways than contributing to loss minimization. A. Mathematical Problem Formulation This section describes an efcient method to optimally coordinate the control actions of decentralized generation with the network controllers, such as tap changers and capacitor banks, to minimize the operational costs of the distribution grid. This can be done through the formulation of the control problem using, as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem (MINLP) minimize : f (x, ud , uc ) subject to : g (x, ud , uc ) = 0 h(x, ud , uc ) 0. (1) (2) (3)

TABLE I DER DATA USED IN NETWORK OPTIMIZATION APPLICATION

TABLE II LINE CAPABILITY CONSTRAINTS (Sbase = 10 MVA)

grid. The vector ud can include controllable switched control variables such as positions of tap changers, network switches, and switched capacitors and reactors. Similarly, the vector uc contains the continuous control variables, which can include, for example, reference values for the DER active-power production and terminal voltages. Together, the switched and continuous control variables are used to minimize a cost criterion (1) that reects the objective of optimization and typically includes the production costs of the DER units and the cost associated with the infeed of power via the primary substation, as well as the costs associated with power losses on the power distribution lines. This cost criterion is then optimized using combinatorial optimization techniques while adhering to constraints given by power balance equations specied by (2) and network and production capacity constraints specied by (3). The optimization problem is initialized with the solution of a state estimator that species the contents of the power balance constraints and via the communication gateway that provides information about the available minimum/maximum dispatchable active power in real time (see Fig. 5). Written out in more detail, the objective function (1)(3) can be formulated as follows: f (x, ud , uc ) =
iG

cg,i Pg,i +
iG

cv,i |vi Vref ,i | +

iL

,i i .

(4) The rst summation in (4) accounts for the moving costs of the generation and is modeled by the dispatch level Pg,i and the associated moving cost coefcient cg,i of each unit. At least one of the units shall represent a ctitious generator that is present in the boundary between the MV distribution network and the (sub-)transmission network (bus 1 in the example grid shown in Fig. 4). The bus or buses are referred to as slack buses and typically take their value of the cost coefcients from the spot market electricity price, whereas for other units, it is based on the production cost. The employed parameters of the cost function are given in Tables I and II. The voltage references Vref ,i s and power references Pg,i s are controllable variables, together with the tap settings of the tap-changing transformers ni s and the switch status of the capacitor banks Bi s.

Here, x = [vi i ] signies a vector of dependent (only indirectly controllable) variables, which contains the voltage and voltage angles of the nodes in the power distribution

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The second summation adds a linear penalty based on the voltage deviation from a reference value Vref at each site with distributed generation operating in voltage control mode. Finally, the last summation adds a penalty to the slack variable that is used to soften some of the constraints, as will be discussed later in this section. The set G denotes the buses with generation connected, the set L represents the load buses, LN stands for the set of lines with capability limitations, and S denotes the set of buses modeled as slack buses. The equality constraints essentially model the power balance at each bus and the constraints on voltage levels. Buses with distributed-generation units connected are modeled with xed voltage magnitude and xed active-power injection (PV buses), and the slack bus is modeled with xed voltage magnitude and xed voltage angle. All other buses, including most load buses, are modeled as xed active- and reactive-power injections (PQ buses). Mathematically, the equality constraint vector is formulated by stacking the individual constraints for each bus as Pl,i + Pi = 0 i (L) Ql,i + Qi = 0 i (L) Vref ,i vi = 0 i (G ) Pl,i Pg,i + Pi = 0 i (G ) Vref ,i vi = 0 i (S ) ref ,i i = 0 i (S ). (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Fig. 6. nodes.

Display of the normalized power production/consumption at different

Here, Pl,i and Ql,i refer to the active and reactive load demands, Pg,i is the active-power generation injected, vi is the voltage magnitude, and i is the voltage angle at bus i. The quantities Pi and Qi denote the bus power injections computed from the system state using the matrix equation Pi + j Qi = diag(V)(Ybus V) (11)

where the nodal voltage vector is dened as V = [v1 ej1 , . . . , vN ejN ] and n = [n1 , . . . , nn ]. The denition of the bus admittance matrix Ybus is described, for example, in [22] and is dependent on switching control variables in ud that do not appear in other ways in the optimization problem formulation. The nodal bus power injection vectors themselves are dened as Pi = [P1 , . . . , PN ] and Qi = [Q1 , . . . , QN ]. The inequality constraints are used to model capability constraints and are dened as follows: Pg,i Pmax,i 0 Pg,i + Pmin,i 0 Vref ,i Vmax,i 0 Vref ,i + Vmin,i 0 Sb,i (Sbmax,i + i ) 0 Sg,i (Sgmax,i ) 0 iG iG iG iG i LN i G. (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17)

and Vmax,i are the minimum/maximum allowed voltages at bus i. Furthermore, Sb,i and Sbmax,i are the actual and maximum allowed apparent power branch ows through branch i. Through the combination of (4)(17), setting uc = [Vref ,1 , . . . , Vref ,i Pg,1 , . . . , Pg,i ] and ud = [n1 , . . . , nn B1 , . . . , Bn ], it is straightforward to formulate the optimization problem in the form (1)(3). Through the addition of slack variables i s, it can be guaranteed that there is always a feasible solution to the MINLP. By adding a large penalty to the relaxation term in (4), it can be ensured that, normally, the slack variables are forced to zero, unless there is a necessity to violate one of the line constraints. In this paper, Matlab and its nonlinear programming solver FMINCON have been used to solve the MINLP. Note that Matlab only solves NLP problems in continuous variables only. Therefore, the solution of the MINLP has been implemented in a two-stage manner. First, a solution over the full range of variables [x xd xc ] is generated while assuming also the entries in ud as continuous variables. Following that solution, these entries are rounded off to their closest integer values and treated as xed in a second-stage solution over the variables [x xc ]. Although not mathematically proven, empirical experience shows that the used heuristic technique indeed generates the optimal solution to the MINLP in all the cases that we examined. A practical implementation could also make use of any of the numerous MINLP solvers available, which, under some conditions, can guarantee the true optimality of the solution. A discussion of such methods is out of the scope of this paper; however, interested readers can nd a good overview in [23]. The solution of the MINLP thus yields the settings of voltage and power set points for each DG, as well as the switch status for the capacitors and tap changers, given the current production cost and capability of the distribution grid. B. Simulation Example Fig. 6 shows one of the displays of the application generated after one execution of the algorithm. It is used to identify at a glance which sections of the grid are acting as injections and

Here, Pmax,i and Pmin,i refer to the instantaneous production capacity of the DER, Vref ,i is the voltage reference, and Vmin,i

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distribution management. The example demonstrated how local controllers of DGs and supervisory control located in distribution management systems can communicate with each other based on standardized data models. The potential benets of the proposed approach were illustrated in the nal section in which a system-wide supervisory coordination of DERs was implemented to optimize the scheduling of the production of wind energy and CHP while managing capacity constraints and minimizing the total operational cost. R EFERENCES
[1] R. Zavadil, N. Miller, A. Ellis, E. Muljadi, E. Camm, and B. Kirby, Queuing up, IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 4758, Nov./Dec. 2007. [2] T. Ackermann, J. Abbad, I. Dudurych, I. Erlich, H. Holttinen, J. Kristoffersen, and P. Sorensen, European balancing act, IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 90103, Nov./Dec. 2007. [3] J. Smith and B. Parsons, What does 20% look like? IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 2233, Nov./Dec. 2007. [4] J. Carrasco, L. Franquelo, J. Bialasiewicz, E. Galvan, R. PortilloGuisado, M. Prats, J. Leon, and N. Moreno-Alfonso, Power-electronic systems for the grid integration of renewable energy sources: A survey, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 10021016, Jun. 2006. [5] C. Eping and J. Stenzel, Control of offshore wind farms for a reliable power system management, in Proc. IEEE Russia Power Tech, 2005, pp. 14. [6] N. W. Miller, E. V. Larsen, and J. M. MacDowell, Advanced control of wind turbine-generators improve power system dynamic performance, in Proc. 11th Int. Conf. Harmonics Quality Power, 2004, pp. 330332. [7] R. Piwko, N. Miller, J. Sanchez-Gasca, X. Yuan, R. Dai, and J. Lyons, Integrating large wind farms into weak power grids with long transmission lines, in Proc. CES/IEEE 5th IPEMC, 2006, vol. 2, pp. 17. [8] R. D. Fernandez, R. J. Mantz, and P. E. Battaiotto, Contribution of wind farms to the network stability, in Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Gen. Meeting, 2006. [9] T. Gjengedal, Large-scale wind power farms as power plants, Wind Energy, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 361373, Jul. 2005. [10] P. Rodriguez, A. Timbus, R. Teodorescu, M. Liserre, and F. Blaabjerg, Flexible active power control of distributed power generation systems during grid faults, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 2583 2592, Oct. 2007. [11] J. T. Bialasiewicz, Renewable energy systems with photovoltaic power generators: Operation and modeling, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 27522758, Jul. 2008. [12] IEC, Communication Networks and Systems in Substations, IEC Std. 61850, 2003. [13] IEC, Wind TurbinesPart 25: Communications for Monitoring and Control of Wind Power Plants, IEC Std. 61400-25, 2006. [14] A. Timbus, M. Larsson, and C. Yuen, Integration of wind energy resources in the utility control and information technology infrastructures, in Proc. ISIE, 2008, pp. 23712376. [15] IEC, Communication Networks and Systems for Power Utility AutomationPart 7-410: Hydroelectric Power PlantsCommunication for Monitoring and Control, IEC Std. 61850-7-410, 2006. [16] IEC, Communications Systems for Distributed Energy Resources (DER), IEC Std. 61850-7-420, 2006. [17] W. Kersting, Radial distribution test feeders, in IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Winter Meeting, 2001, vol. 2, pp. 908912. [18] A. D. Hansen, P. Sorensen, F. Iov, and F. Blaabjerg, Centralised power control of wind farm with doubly fed induction generators, Renew. Energy, vol. 31, no. 7, pp. 935951, Jun. 2006. [19] J. R. Kristoffersen and P. Christiansen, Horns Rev offshore windfarm: Its main controller and remote control system, Wind Eng., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 351359, Sep. 2003. [20] Energinet.dk, Wind Turbines Connected to Grids With Voltage Below 100 kV , 2004. [Online]. Available: http://www.energinet.dk [21] M. Larsson, ObjectStabAn educational tool for power system stability studies, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 5663, Feb. 2004. [22] J. D. D. Glover and M. S. Sarma, Power System Analysis and Design. Pacic Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, 2001. [23] J. Lee, Mixed-integer nonlinear programming: Some modeling and solution issues, IBM J. Res. Develop., vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 489497, 2007.

Fig. 7. Cooperation between wind production at bus 19 with CHP production at bus 17 to supply load in their region of the network while adhering to the capacity limitation of the line between buses 5 and 17.

which are acting as loads at any particular moment in time. Shades of red or yellow color show the injections into the network from the transmission grid in the primary substation (bus 1) and the distributed-generation plants normalized using their rated capacities. Shades of blue color illustrate the extraction of power from the load or by the battery energy storage. The gure reveals that the two wind power plants at buses 23 and 19 in the test network are currently generating at around 40% of their rated power, while the battery energy storage at bus 32 is charging to 80% of its instantaneous power capacity. Furthermore, Fig. 7 shows how the constraint management algorithm schedules the distributed generation to achieve minimum cost while adhering to the line capability constraints. At bus 17, there is a CHP plant that has good controllability but high fuel cost. On the other hand, the wind power plant at bus 19 has poor controllability but low (zero) fuel cost. Furthermore, there is a limiting constraint on the line between nodes 5 and 17 that limits the power transfer to 0.2-p.u. current-carrying capacity. As shown in the following gure, the optimization will avoid scheduling production by the CHP until the violation of the power transfer constraint of lines 517 at around 300 min due to morning load increase. After that time, the CHP is scheduled no more than necessary to avoid constraint violation in the presence of the production variations of the wind power plant. As expected, there is a strong negative correlation between the production of the wind and the CHP power plant when the line constraint is active. This interaction between the three components clearly illustrates that the control of these requires a system-wide coordinated approach, such as the optimization approach that we present in this paper.

VI. C ONCLUSION Based on the results and the example given in the paper, it can be concluded that communication standards such as IEC 61400-25 and IEC 61850 can be employed for the integration of renewable energies and the deployment of active

TIMBUS et al.: MANAGEMENT OF DERs USING STANDARDIZED COMMUNICATIONS AND MODERN TECHNOLOGIES

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Adrian Timbus (S04M07) received the M.Sc.EE. and Ph.D. degrees from Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. He is currently with Corporate Research, ABB Switzerland Ltd., Baden-Daettwil, Switzerland. His main research interest includes the integration of distributed generation and management of active distribution grids.

Cherry Yuen (M02) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K., in 2001. She is currently a Principal Scientist with Corporate Research, ABB Switzerland Ltd., Baden-Daettwil, Switzerland. Her research activities include computer applications for power systems, with a current emphasis on distribution automation and the integration of distributed generation.

Mats Larsson (M01) received the M.S., Licentiate, and Ph.D. degrees from Lund University, Lund, Sweden, in 1993, 1997, and 2001, respectively. Since 2001, he has been with Corporate Research, ABB Switzerland Ltd., Baden-Daettwil, Switzerland. His research interests include power system stability and applications of optimal control and system identication in power systems.