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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2

Layered Coordination Architecture for Resilient Restoration of Power Distribution Systems

The current practices for restoring critical services in the distribution system during a disaster, align with the traditional centralized ideology of distribution systems operations. A central processor evaluates the distribution system after a disruption and attains a restoration plan. However, the centralized operational paradigm is susceptible to single-point failures, requires full situational awareness of the distribution system, and poses scalability challenges for large multifeeder distribution systems. This motivates a distributed decision-making paradigm where multiple agents solve smaller subproblems and jointly coordinate their individual decisions to achieve the global/network-level objective. Toward this goal, we propose a layered architecture for distributed algorithms for resilience and a two-stage distributed algorithm for distribution system restoration. The proposed distributed decision-making framework enables the bottom-up restoration of the distribution system using all available resources, including distributed generation, while only requiring local awareness and limited communications with neighboring connected regions. The proposed framework is robust to single-point failures, enables autonomy using distributed algorithms, and had reduced computational cost compared to centralized optimization solutions.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

An Intelligent Distributed Ledger Construction Algorithm for IoT

Blockchain is the next generation of secure data management that creates near-immutable decentralized storage. Secure cryptography created a niche for blockchain to provide alternatives to well-known security compromises. However, design bottlenecks with traditional blockchain data structures scale poorly with increased network usage and are extremely computation-intensive. This made the technology difficult to combine with limited devices, like those in Internet of Things networks. In protocols like IOTA, replacement of blockchain's linked-list queue processing with a lightweight dynamic ledger showed remarkable throughput performance increase. However, current stochastic algorithms for ledger construction suffer distinct trade-offs between efficiency and security. This work proposed a machine-learning approach with a multi-arm bandit that resolved these issues and was designed for auditing on limited devices. This algorithm was tested in a reinforcement-learning environment simulating the IOTA ledger's construction with a decision tree. This study showed through regret analysis and experimentation that this approach was secure against impulse manipulation attacks while remaining energy-efficient. Although the IOTA protocol was a pioneer for lightweight distributed ledgers, it is expected that future blockchain protocols will adopt techniques similar to those presented in this work.

multi-arm bandit↗

Accelerated Distributed Energy Management for Microgrids

This paper considers the optimal energy management for a microgrid. The goal of optimal energy management is to minimize the total generation cost while meeting total demand and satisfying individual generator output limits. To achieve this goal, we develop a distributed algorithm based on the consensus theory and gradient estimation technique. Compared to the existing algorithms with diminishing step-sizes, the proposed algorithm enjoys a faster convergence speed due to the fixed step-size, and thus increases the computation speed, and reduces the computation and communication burden. The proposed distributed algorithm is applicable to both fixed and time-varying directed communication networks. We show that the convergence of the proposed distributed algorithm is achieved if the fixed communication network is strongly connected, or if the time-varying communication network is uniformly jointly strongly connected. Numerical simulation results are used to illustrate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Du, Wen↗

A Scalable Distributed Louvain Algorithm for Large-Scale Graph Community Detection

We present a new distributed community detection algorithm for large graphs based on the Louvain method. We exploit a distributed delegate partitioning to ensure the workload and communication balancing among processors. In addition, we design a new heuristic strategy to carefully coordinate the community constitution in a distributed environment, and ensure the convergence of the distributed clustering algorithm. Our intensive experimental study has demonstrated the scalability and the correctness of our algorithm with various large-scale real-world and synthetic graph datasets using up to 32,768 processors.

Computer Science↗

Two-stage State Estimation Algorithm for Distribution Network Analysis

Practical distribution system contains many nodes and short branches. As a result, a more efficient and stable distribution state estimation (DSE) algorithm is needed to properly handle the inverse operation of its large-scale ill-conditioned information matrix. This paper proposed a two-stage DSE algorithm to transform the inverse operation into addition and multiplication operations in a recursive manner. It includes pseudo measurement preprocessing in the offline stage where an approximate linear estimator is adopted to relieve most of computation burdens, and real-time correction in the online stage where a nonlinear estimator is used to update the estimation. Numerical results of the method applied to both IEEE standard test systems and an actual distribution system show the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Dong, Jiaojiao↗

Cyber‐Resilient Distributed Energy Resource Control Algorithms for Smart Distribution Grids

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the development of cyber‐resilient gradient‐based optimisation algorithms and theoretical proof for grid‐interactive distributed energy resource (DER) control to enable two grid services of virtual power plants (VPPs) dispatch and grid voltage regulation, considering the communication and security impacts. Firstly, the combined DER dispatch and voltage regulation as a real‐time gradient‐based optimisation problem is recapped. Thereafter, we consider a probabilistic traffic model to characterise packet delays and loss in a communication network, and study how the delays enter the process of information exchange among the grid measurement units, local DER controllers and the grid control centre that execute this control algorithm in a coordinated manner. Then, a strategy combining delay thresholds and message update rules is proposed to immunity the asynchrony resulting from the communications traffic and it avoids possible numerical instabilities and sensitivities of the power tracking and voltage regulation capabilities, resulting as cyber‐resilient DER control algorithms. Additionally, their convergence is theoretically proved. Effectiveness of proposed cyber‐resilient algorithms has been validated on the IEEE 37‐bus system in terms of convergence, VPP tracking and voltage regulation performance for smart distribution systems with high penetration of DERs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Reverse and Forward Engineering of Local Voltage Control in Distribution Networks

The increasing penetration of renewable and distributed energy resources in distribution networks calls for real-time and distributed voltage control. As such, in this paper we investigate local Volt/VAR control with a general class of control functions, and show that the power system dynamics with non-incremental local voltage control can be seen as a distributed algorithm for solving a well-defined optimization problem (reverse engineering). The reverse engineering further reveals a fundamental limitation of the non-incremental voltage control: the convergence condition is restrictive and prevents better voltage regulation at equilibrium. This motivates us to design two incremental local voltage control schemes based on the subgradient and pseudo-gradient algorithms respectively for solving the same optimization problem (forward engineering). The new control schemes decouple the dynamical property from the equilibrium property, and have much less restrictive convergence conditions. This work presents another step towards developing a new foundation—network dynamics as optimization algorithms—for distributed real-time control and optimization of future power networks.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Best effort broadcast under cascading failures in interdependent critical infrastructure networks

Here, we present a novel study of reliable broadcast in interdependent networks, in which the failures in one network may cascade to another network. In particular, we focus on the interdependency between a communication network and a power grid network, where the power grid depends on the communication network for control and the communication network depends on the grid for power. In this paper, we propose a best effort broadcast algorithm to handle crash failures in the communication network that may cause cascading failures. We guarantee that all the correct nodes, which operate correctly according to the protocol and do not experience any software or hardware or network failures, eventually deliver the message if the sender is correct. We provide a centralized algorithm and a fully distributed algorithm for nodes to analyze and handle cascading failures. At the core of our work is the fully distributed algorithm which enjoys great performance and scalability. Our evaluation results show that the algorithm handles cascading failures with low overhead.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Optimizing Microgrid Energy Delivery Under High Uncertainty

One of the largest transitions in the power system today is the shift to a more sustainable and resilient power system. This is being driven by public opinion, changes in regulatory policies, and advancements in smart grid technologies. The most noticeable changes taking place is the integration of distributed energy sources (DERs); this study uses the term DER in the most general way as a resource that can be manipulated to alter energy delivery and flow in the transmission and distribution networks. Also, here it is preferred to focus on energy as the true need while power is a function of the equipment rating. As such, wind and solar, demand that can be manipulated, electric vehicles, electric energy storage, thermal storage, and storage in water system are all considered DERs. These additions to the distribution system are evolving the operation of distribution feeders into microgrids- communication, computing, and control-enabled resources that produce, transport, and utilize energy in a manner that provides cost, reliability, and resilience benefits. As this evolution progresses, the planning and operational management (scheduling and control) must explicitly include the consideration of risk. The management of system risk is currently in the purview of the utility and will likely remain so in the future. However, as each microgrid, as well as federation of microgrids, sees autonomy in order to provide maximum benefits to their constituents, they must assume responsibility to manage their internal risk. The primary scope of this study is the scheduling of resources in a distribution feeder(s) operating as microgrids. The study explores a distribution algorithm to develop the transactive schedule for the DERs, to minimize cost and risk over a time horizon, and an initial laboratory-scale to conduct implementation on distributed hardware. Results from case studies are presented that show that solutions derived by the distributed algorithm are valid. This study also discusses the continuing work on the expansion of: 1) the distributed algorithm from a deterministic to stochastic optimization formulation, and 2) implementation of the distributed algorithm into real-time simulation within the Power System laboratory at New Mexico State University (NMSU) and expanding to the Southwest Technology Development Institute located at NMSU where actual solar, energy storage, and demand response resources are installed.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Performance Evaluation of Distributed Energy Resource Management Algorithm in Large Distribution Networks

This paper presents performance evaluation of hierarchical optimization and control for distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) in large distribution networks via an advanced hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform. The HIL platform provides realistic testing in a laboratory environment, including the accurate modeling of a full-scale distribution system of 11,000 nodes, the DERMS software controller, and 90 power hardware photovoltaics (PVs) and battery inverters. The applied DERMS algorithm is designed based on a realtime optimal power flow algorithm and implemented with acceleration design that performs fast dispatch of simulated PVs and real physical hardware DER devices every 4 seconds.

DERMS↗

Sketching Algorithms in Distributed Systems

In this position paper, we discuss exciting recent advancements in sketching algorithms applied to distributed systems. That is, we look at randomized algorithms that simultaneously reduce the data dimensionality, offer potential privacy benefits, while maintaining verifiably high levels of algorithm accuracy and performance in multi-node computational setups. We look at next steps and discuss the applicability to real systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Performance Evaluation of Distributed Energy Resource Management Algorithm in Large Distribution Networks

This paper presents performance evaluation of hierarchical optimization and control for distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) in large distribution networks via an advanced hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform. The HIL platform provides realistic testing in a laboratory envi-ronment, including the accurate modeling of a full-scale dis-tribution system of 11,000 nodes, the DERMS software con-troller, and 90 power hardware photovoltaics (PVs) and bat-tery inverters. The applied DERMS algorithm is designed based on a real-time optimal power flow algorithm and im-plemented with acceleration design that performs fast dis-patch of simulated PVs and real physical hardware DER devices every 4 seconds.

distributed energy management system (DERMS)↗

An Advanced Synchronized Time Digital Grid Twin Testbed for Relay Misoperation Analysis of Electrical Fault Type Detection Algorithms

Distributed energy resources and the number of relays are expected to rise in modern electrical grids; consequently, relay misoperations are also expected to grow. Relays can detect electrical fault types using an internal algorithm and can display the result using light indicators on the front of the relay. However, some relays’ internal algorithms for predicting types of electrical faults could be improved. This study assesses a relay’s external and internal algorithms with an Advanced Synchronized Time Digital Grid Twin (ASTDGT) testbed with paired relays. A misoperation relay analysis focused on measuring the accuracy of using the boundary admittance (the external algorithm) versus the set-default (the internal algorithm) relay method to determine the electrical fault types was performed. In this study, the internal and external relay algorithms were assessed with a synchronized time digital grid twin testbed using a real-time simulator. This testbed evaluated two sets of logic at the same time with the digital grid twin and paired relays in the loop. Different types of electrical faults were simulated, and the relays’ recorded events and electrical fault light indicator states were collected from the human–machine interfaces. This ASTDGT testbed with paired relays successfully evaluated the relay algorithm misoperations. The boundary admittance method had an accuracy of 100% for line-to-line, line-to-ground, and line-to-line ground faults.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Hierarchical Distributed Optimal Power Flow of HV and MV Distribution Networks With Continuous and Discrete Devices

With large-scale distributed photovoltaics (PVs) being integrated into distribution networks (DNs), coordinated optimal power flow (OPF) of high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) DNs should be investigated to optimally dispatch the distributed PVs and other network devices. Here, this paper presents a hierarchical distributed OPF method for HV and MV DNs with on-load tap changers, reactive power compensators, feeder switches and distributed PVs. A hierarchical master-slave control architecture is applied to implement coordinated OPF of two-layer DNs. The HV master problem and MV subproblems are transformed into mixed-integer convex problems respectively with second order cone programming and LinDistFlow approximation. Since there is no efficient distributed algorithm to solve such OPF models with integer subproblems, a novel distributed algorithm is proposed in this paper to efficiently solve the hierarchical coordinated OPF model with integer subproblems in a distributed manner. In the proposed algorithm, the coordinated OPF model is solved in a branch-and-bound framework, where in each branch node generalized Benders decomposition (GBD) algorithm is applied to decompose the coordinated OPF model into a master problem and relaxed subproblems and solves them iteratively to get optimal solution. The GBD optimal and feasible cutting planes generated in a branch node are proved to be valid for its descendants. Moreover, three acceleration techniques are introduced into the proposed algorithm to improve computational efficiency. Finally, the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method are verified via simulation tests in Jinzhai DNs of China.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Distributed Optimization Approaches with Discrete Variables in the Power Distribution Systems

Traditionally, centralized approaches have predominantly been used for the power system operation and control. With increasing penetration of small-scale distributed energy resources (DERs) in the distribution network, especially independently owned renewable resources, distributed algorithms can serve as a potential alternative for improving scalability, resiliency and addressing privacy concerns. However, the complexity of distributed algorithms significantly increases with the integration of the legacy devices, the operation of which depend on discrete control variables. This paper aims to provide a review of the distributed optimization algorithms incorporating discrete control variables for the power distribution system. While the research in this domain is still at its nascence, an extensive comparison of the approaches in the literature for applying quadratic penalty, branch and bound,ordinal optimization and proximal operator to handle discrete variables in the framework of ADMM and dual decomposition have been addressed. Future research direction in this field have been also provided.

Adan, Jannatul↗

Distributed Louvain Algorithm for Graph Community Detection

In most real-world networks, the nodes/vertices tend to be organized into tightly-knit modules known as communities or clusters, such that nodes within a community are more likely to be “related” to one another than they are to the rest of the network. The goodness of partitioning into communities is typically measured using a well known measure called modularity. However, modularity optimization is an NP-complete problem. In 2008, Blondel, et al. introduced a multi-phase, iterative heuristic for modularity optimization, called the Louvain method. Owing to its speed and ability to yield high quality communities, the Louvain method continues to be one of the most widely used tools for serial community detection. In this paper, we present the design of a distributed memory implementation of the Louvain algorithm for parallel community detection. Our approach begins with an arbitrarily partitioned distributed graph input, and employs several heuristics to speedup the computation of the different steps of the Louvain algorithm. We evaluate our implementation and its different variants using real-world networks from various application domains (including internet, biology, social networks). Our MPI+OpenMP implementation yields about 7x speedup (on 4K processes) for soc-friendster network (1.8B edges) over a state-of-the-art shared-memory multicore implementation (on 64 threads), without compromising output quality. Furthermore, our distributed implementation was able to process a larger graph (uk-2007; 3.3B edges) in 32 seconds on 1K cores (64 nodes) of NERSC Cori, when the state-of-the-art shared-memory implementation failed to run due to insufficient memory on a single Cori node containing 128 GB.

High performance computing, graph algorithms, Dist↗

Performance Evaluation of an Advanced Distributed Energy Resource Management Algorithm

This paper presents performance evaluation of a new distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) algorithm via an advanced hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform. The HIL platform provides realistic testing in a laboratory environment, including the accurate modeling of sub-transmission and distribution networks, the DERMS software controller, and 84 power hardware solar photovoltaic (PV) inverters, standard communication protocols, and a capacitor bank controller. The DERMS algorithm is also called, Grid-Optimization of Solar (GO-Solar) platform which includes predictive state estimation (PSE) and online multiple objective optimization (OMOO) to dispatch the legacy devices and distributed energy resources (e.g., PV). The voltage regulation performance is evaluated under three scenarios, volt-var smart inverter (baseline), and DERMS control for 100% and 30% of PV. The results show that controlling 30% of PV systems with the GO-Solar platform may provide the best balance of control performance and implementation cost.

distributed energy resource management system (DER↗