Chapin, S. J. | Search NASA

DOE OSTI2019

Robust Decentralized State Estimation

The health of a distribution grid is maintained by a distribution management system (DMS). Before the rise of distributed energy resource (DER), the DMS primarily managed the unidirectional power flow through the distribution grid from external sources (e.g. power brought from a large generating plant to the distribution grid by a transmission grid). Now, a typical DMS will utilize distributed energy resource manage systems (DERMS) to account for DER such as rooftop solar, community solar, and wind turbines. Each DERMS is responsible for an area of the distribution grid, issuing commands to the associated real-time automation controller (RTAC) to regulate power flow and maintain health of that section of the grid.

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DOE OSTI2019

Requirements for Robust DERMS Control and Cyber Attack Scenarios

A Distribution Management System (DMS) is responsible for monitoring and maintaining the health of a distribution grid. Common DMS applications include fault location isolation and service restoration, on-line power flow (OLPF), volt/VAR optimization (VVO), and switch order management. These systems were developed primarily in the area of top-down, unidirectional power flow, with large centralized generating plants moving electricity through the transmission grid and into the distribution grid from and thence to consumers. The recent and ongoing addition of distributed energy resources (DER) to the grid, including rooftop and community solar and wind, means that power is now flowing into the distribution grid from the edge, which complicates the functioning of the DMS. To ameliorate this problem, DMS use distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) to control DER such as solar inverters. DERMS comprise software management tools that allow management and near real-time control of an array of DER. DERMS control devices and grid services including smart inverters, capacitor banks, on-load tap changes, voltage regulators, and customer loads.

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