IEEE

SMART GRID
RESEARCH

IEEE VISION FOR SMART GRID CONTROLS:

2030 AND BEYOND

ROADMAP

IEEE 3 Park Avenue New York, NY 10016-5997 USA

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 IEEE Vision for Smart Grid
Controls: 2030 and Beyond

Roadmap

Anuradha Annaswamy

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IEEE Smart Grid Research has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable,
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This roadmap’s parent document, IEEE Vision for Smart Grid Controls: 2030 and Beyond, discusses
many topics that outline the evolution of the Smart Grid and the opportunities and challenges that it
presents for control, ranging from generators to consumers, from planning to real-time operation, from
current practice to scenarios in 2050 in the grid and all of its subsystems. Chapter 5 of the parent
document focuses on major research challenges across the entire grid and the emerging control themes.
As pointed out in the reference model for the vision, IEEE Vision for Smart Grid Controls: 2030 and
Beyond Reference Model, in order to realize this vision, research needs to be carried out to address all of
these challenges.
In this document, we provide a roadmap together with time markers for each of these challenges. In all,
15 different control topics are addressed:
1. Wind energy
2. Solar energy
3. Transmission systems
4. Distribution systems
5. Market mechanisms
6. Demand-response
7. Storage and electric vehicles
8. Microgrids
9. Virtual power plants and aggregators
10. Grid efficiency
11. Cybersecurity
12. Integration with thermal storage
13. Interplay between communication and control
14. Game-changing control architectures
15. Automatic generation control
In the following pages, these 15 topics and the research challenges (RC) for each (with the nth research
challenge marked RCn) are listed. In the graphs presented below, the length of the bar shown against each
challenge represents the time that is anticipated to determine a solution.

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 20 022 024 026 028 030 032 034 036 038 040
20 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

--
-
-
-
-
--
-
-
-
-
--
Wind power
RC1
RC2
RC3
Solar power
RC1
RC2
RC3
Transmission
RC1
RC2
RC3
RC4
RC5
RC6
Distribution
RC1
RC2
RC3
RC4
RC5
RC6
RC7
Markets
RC1
RC2
RC3
RC4
RC5
RC6
RC7
RC8
RC9
Demand Response
RC1
RC2
RC3
RC4
RC5

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 20 022 024 026 028 030 032 034 036 038 040
20 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

--
-
-
-
-
--
-
-
-
-
--
Storage
RC1
RC2
RC3
Microgrids
RC1
RC2
RC3
VPP
RC1
RC2
RC3
Grid Efficiency
RC1
RC2
Cybersecurity
RC1
Thermal Storage
RC1
RC2
RC3
Communication + Control
RC1
RC2
Game Changers
RC1
RC2
RC3
RC4
RC5
RC6
Automatic Generation Control
RC1
RC2
RC3

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1. Wind power
RC1. Wind turbine active power control (APC) systems, which allow wind turbines and wind
farms to participate in grid frequency regulation and provide frequency response to sudden
changes in grid frequency.
RC2. APC systems over a wind farm, considering the structural loading induced by the actions of
upstream turbines.
RC3. Enhancements to wind forecasting and power regulation markets to enable wind energy,
when curtailed, to participate in the regulation of grid frequency.

2. Solar power
RC1. Decreasing the degree of uncertainty in predicting solar radiation based on the analysis of
satellite images, ground-based sensors, cameras, and solar plant output from other locations.
RC2. Optimal plant-wide control of thermal solar power plants and enable adaptation to changing
plant and environmental conditions.
RC3. Algorithms for tracking the sun in heliostat field to obtain a uniform flux distribution in solar
towers.

3. Transmission systems
RC1. Development of a resilient and efficient hybrid control architecture for transient stability that
combines a centralized structure with decentralized elements to optimize global outcomes
using local information and coordinated actions.
RC2. Development of computationally efficient distributed architectures for transient stability with
suitable redundancies that ensure protection to failures (e.g., communication lapses and
cyber attacks).
RC3. Enhanced protection against faults by a synergistic participation of loads and storage and a
predictive approach over a short-term horizon, while maneuvering generation to new longer-
term set points.
RC4. Distributed control using flexible alternating current transmission systems (FACTS) and fast
storage for improving operational reliability, risk mitigation, and preventing cascade failures.
RC5. Coordinated control of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) links to minimize loop flows and
maximize network transfer capability.
RC6. Stabilizing response to large disturbances in subsecond timescale in transmission systems.

4. Distribution systems
RC1. Design of distributed generation (DG) clusters in terms of the type of sensors and
communications and control architectures that can enable efficient and reliable power flow.
Appropriate contractual structures need to be designed that facilitate these goals.
RC2. Theories and designs for distributed system on a chip (SOC) that are robust to
communication network errors and failures, as well as delays and losses. Algorithm synthesis
must be carried out from a control perspective that accommodates communication network
properties, including performance margins and redundant functions.
RC3. Distributed state estimation methodologies that efficiently use neighborhood area networks
and the cloud to collect, store, and process local data. The use of estimation to detect

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 physical faults as well as data inconsistencies such as islanding, and to ensure safe islanding
in the presence of several distributed energy resources (DER).
RC4. Coordination and control of heterogeneous components such as on-load tap changers
(OLTC), switched capacitors (CAP), and static VAR compensators (SVC) that possess
different timescales, to lead to enhanced operation with minimal participation from the
operators during normal operation. Simultaneous optimization of multiple control objectives
and scopes, over a suitable time horizon, without resulting in control conflicts.
RC5. Efficient control of reactive power and voltage control using distribution-level power
markets by providing incentives for flexible loads and distributed resources.
RC6. Transient stability, frequency, and voltage control in the presence of islanding in microgrids.
RC7. Fault detection and restoration using distributed intelligent electronic devices (IED) and
meshed communication.

5. Market mechanisms
RC1. Representation of the uncertainty in wind energy in market bidding.
RC2. Optimal bidding of independent wind producers into the day-ahead market (DAM) and
building hourly offer curves.
RC3. Hedging mechanisms against liquidity risk, market risks due to volatility, and operational
risk due to uncertainty in wind power, unreliable equipment, etc.
RC4. Optimal penalty costs for deviations in wind production.
RC5. Modeling the impact of intermittency and uncertainty in renewables on ancillary services.
RC6. Integration of suitable demand-response (DR) models into both DAMs and real-time markets
(RTM).
RC7. Incorporation of storage and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) costs into the market
architecture.
RC8. Design of intraday markets and market mechanisms that incorporate some or all of the
previous items over a range of timescales.
RC9. The development of dynamic market mechanisms that integrate increasingly accurate
forecast models of renewables, consumer behavior, and load control.

6. Demand-response
RC1. Development of a modeling framework that captures heterogeneous aspects in DR—startup
and shutdown, delays and time constants, and dependencies on environmental factors and
among related systems.
RC2. Development of control-oriented reduced order models of wind and solar forecast over a
range of time horizons.
RC3. Modeling of decision making of individuals and aggregate entities, including cognitive
factors of latency, learning, and fatigue, and behavioral factors of individuals and networks.
RC4. Modeling and design of DR and demand-side management (DSM) components to enable fast
adjustments and realize power balance, and function as a surrogate for ancillary services.
RC5. Coordination of direct load control with price-based DR signals, incorporation of multiple
time scales, and real and reactive power.

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7. Storage and electric vehicles
RC1. Determination of when excess power should be generated to feed into storage, and when
stored energy should be used to help meet demand, while meeting energy and power
constraints.
RC2. Coordination of storage in one area with the varying generation in another area, resulting in
varying tie-line flows with minimal information exchange.
RC3. Adaptive solutions for sudden changes in available storage from electric vehicles.

8. Microgrids
RC1. Optimal management of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources (including
renewables), both in grid-connected and islanded modes.
RC2. Control methods that enable transitions from one operational mode to another in a microgrid
while maintaining balances between generation and loads, and thus frequency and voltage
control.
RC3. Development of a plug-and-play capability to permit a microgrid to be plugged in and out of
the legacy grid as needed.

9. Virtual power plants and aggregators

RC1. Determination of the optimal number of levels of aggregation, the minimal set of information
exchange between levels, which leads to a desired balance between abstraction and accuracy.
RC2. Determination of models and parameters that parsimoniously communicate the desired
information between levels of decision-making.
RC3. Dynamic aggregation of a large number of small-scale production units and of consuming
units, which varies with the role of the small units between reserves, capacity, or regulation,
or their availability and state.

10. Grid efficiency

RC1. Maximization of operational efficiency that accommodates strategic gaming of a range of
energy stakeholders in the presence of incomplete information and varied technical and
budget constraints (e.g., by making use of coordinated action of multiple agents).
RC2. Enhancement of end-use efficiency through exploitation of existing storage infrastructure
and minimal addition of storage to bridge the gap between generation and consumption.

11. Cybersecurity
RC1. Modeling of various attack vectors as well as detection and mitigation schemes at all
vulnerable points in the grid.

12. Integration with thermal storage

RC1. A hierarchical architecture that suitably integrates electrical and thermal subgrids.
RC2. Predictive control at the high level for optimal conversion of electrical to thermal energy.
RC3. Dynamic game theoretic solutions for market strategies that decide asset sales between
thermal and electrical systems.

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13. Interplay between communication and control
RC1. Determination of the proper degree of decentralization of communication and computation
so that the distance to failure is minimized.
RC2. Development of a systematic approach for quantifying the value of data for each node in the
network and rapidly estimating the relevant and actionable information.

14. Game-changing control architectures

RC1. Distributed, real-time closed-loop architectures that accommodate uncertainties in renewable
generation and match supply to demand by making use of ubiquitous real-time information,
and decomposing global objectives into coordinated local algorithms.
RC2. Scalable algorithms that are decentralized and deployable at a huge distributed scale
supported by local decisions and global coordination.
RC3. Integration of economics and distributed control policies to incentivize and align all
stakeholders to realize global outcomes.
RC4. Interlacing of grid-specific cyber security measures to protect against possible vulnerabilities
due to a necessary and extensive introduction of information and communication technology
(ICT).
RC5. New mathematical frameworks that combine engineering and economics, and control and
optimization, and engender robustness of massively networked large-scale systems.
RC6. A multimodal architecture that realizes, distinguishes, and transitions between a normal and
emergent state, and launches the corresponding sequence of corrective restorative and
healing actions.

15. Automatic generation control

RC1. Stable regulation of the generating unit to its new commanded set point, while maintaining
reliable, secure system operation in the presence of a large number of contributors and
distributed control.
RC2. Construction of area control error (ACE) signals that truly represent representative errors,
and economic incentives that reflect the presence of a wider class of new technologies and
new participants.
RC3. Control of reactive power for voltage regulation in the presence of heterogeneous grid
components.

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