An Electrical Grid with Discrete Energy Levels

TL;DR

This paper models an electrical grid with discrete energy levels and local storage, demonstrating its stability under random fluctuations, which could improve energy management especially with renewable sources.

Contribution

It introduces a Markov chain model for a grid with discrete energy levels and local storage, showing stability under stochastic perturbations, a novel approach for grid management.

Findings

The grid maintains stability despite random fluctuations.

Discrete energy levels can effectively manage supply-demand discrepancies.

Local short-term storage enhances grid resilience.

Abstract

Minimizing both power fluctuations and energy waste in an electrical grid is a central challenge to energy policy. Any discrepancy between power production and loads may lead to inefficiencies and instability in the system. Right now, the electrical grid is an analog system that only retroactively reacts to power demands. The balancing act becomes even harder with the penetration of sustainable resources (e.g., wind turbines). Here, we consider the effect of random perturbations to the grid's steady states operation. A model is constructed and analyzed within the framework of a randomly perturbed Markovian chain. Instead of balancing continuous values for supply and demand, the model assumes that both the generators and the users adhere to discrete pattern energy levels which is supplemented by local, short-term energy storage units (STESU). Under reasonable assumptions, we show that this grid maintains stability (meaning, a constant difference between supply and demand) over long periods of time while subjected to randomly fluctuating energy conditions.