Identifier

etd-06232017-071106

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

It is a century that electrical power system are the main source of energy for the societies and industries. Most parts of these infrastructures are built long time ago. There are plenty of high rating high voltage equipment which are designed and manufactured in mid-20th and are currently operating in United States’ power network. These assets are capable to do what they are doing now. However, the issue rises with the recent trend, i.e. DERs integration, causing fundamental changes in electrical power systems and violating traditional network design basis in various ways. Recently, there have been a steep rise in demands for Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) integration. There are various incentives for demand in such integrations and employment of distributed and renewable energy resources. However, it violates the most fundamental assumption in power system traditional designs. That is the power flows from the generation (upstream) toward the load locations (downstream). Currently operating power systems are designed based on this assumption and consequently their equipment ratings, operational details, protection schemes, and protections settings. Violating these designs and operational settings leads toward reducing the power reliability and increasing outages, which are opposite of the DERs integration goals. The DERs integration and its consequences happen in both transmission and distribution levels. Both of these networks effects of DERs integration are discussed in this dissertation. The transmission level issues are explained in brief and more analytical approach while the transmission network challenges are provided in details using both field data and simulation results. It is worth mentioning that DERs integration is aligned with the goal to lead toward a smart grid. This can be considered the most fundamental network reconfiguration that has ever experienced and requires various preparations. Both long term and short term solutions are proposed for the explained challenges and corresponding results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed solutions. The author believes that developing and considering short term solutions can make the transition period toward reaching the smart grid possible. Meanwhile, long term approaches should also be planned for the final smart grid development and operation details.

Date

2017

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Mehraeen, Shahab

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.4340

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