Towards Organic Distribution Systems -- The Vision of Self-Configuring, Self-Organising, Self-Healing, and Self-Optimising Power Distribution Management

TL;DR

This paper presents the vision of an autonomous, resilient, and self-managing power distribution system architecture that integrates self-configuring, self-organising, self-healing, and self-optimising capabilities to handle high renewable penetration.

Contribution

It introduces the ODiS initiative, proposing models, techniques, and algorithms for self-managing distribution systems integrated with prosumer-level energy management.

Findings

Review of current state-of-the-art in distribution management systems

Identification of key challenges for autonomous distribution systems

Proposed architecture for self-* capabilities in power distribution

Abstract

Due to the decarbonisation of energy use, the power system is expected to become the backbone of all energy sectors and thus the basic critical infrastructure. High penetration with distributed energy resources demands the coordination of a large number of prosumers, partly controlled by home energy management systems (HEMS), to be designed in such a way that the power system's operational limits are not violated. On the grid level, distribution management systems (DMS) try to keep the power system in the normal operational state. On the prosumer level, distributed HEMS optimise the internal power flows by using batteries, photovoltaic generators, or flexible loads optimally. The vision of the ODiS (Organic Distribution System) initiative is to develop an architecture to operate a distribution grid reliably, with high resiliency, and fully autonomously by developing "organic" HEMS and DMS which possess multiple self-* capabilities. Thus, ODiS seeks answers to the following question: How can we create the most appropriate models, techniques, and algorithms to develop novel kinds of self-configuring, self-organising, self-healing, and self-optimising DMS that are integrally coupled with the distributed HEMS? In this article, the vision of ODiS is presented in detail based on a thorough review of the state of the art.