Oliver Gehrke

Cornelius Steinbrink, Sebastian Lehnhoff, Sebastian Rohjans et al.

Smart grid systems are characterized by high complexity due to interactions between a traditional passive network and active power electronic components, coupled using communication links. Additionally, automation and information technology plays an important role in order to operate and optimize such cyber-physical energy systems with a high(er) penetration of fluctuating renewable generation and controllable loads. As a result of these developments the validation on the system level becomes much more important during the whole engineering and deployment process, today. In earlier development stages and for larger system configurations laboratory-based testing is not always an option. Due to recent developments, simulation-based approaches are now an appropriate tool to support the development, implementation, and roll-out of smart grid solutions. This paper discusses the current state of simulation-based approaches and outlines the necessary future research and development directions in the domain of power and energy systems.

Arjen A. van der Meer, Peter Palensky, Kai Heussen et al.

The gradual deployment of intelligent and coordinated devices in the electrical power system needs careful investigation of the interactions between the various domains involved. Especially due to the coupling between ICT and power systems a holistic approach for testing and validating is required. Taking existing (quasi-) standardised smart grid system and test specification methods as a starting point, we are developing a holistic testing and validation approach that allows a very flexible way of assessing the system level aspects by various types of experiments (including virtual, real, and mixed lab settings). This paper describes the formal holistic test case specification method and applies it to a particular co-simulation experimental setup. The various building blocks of such a simulation (i.e., FMI, mosaik, domain-specific simulation federates) are covered in more detail. The presented method addresses most modeling and specification challenges in cyber-physical energy systems and is extensible for future additions such as uncertainty quantification.

Thomas I. Strasser, Cyndi Moyo, Roland Bründlinger et al.

Renewables are key enablers in the plight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cope with anthropogenic global warming. The intermittent nature and limited storage capabilities of renewables culminate in new challenges that power system operators have to deal with in order to regulate power quality and ensure security of supply. At the same time, the increased availability of advanced automation and communication technologies provides new opportunities for the derivation of intelligent solutions to tackle the challenges. Previous work has shown various new methods of operating highly interconnected power grids, and their corresponding components, in a more effective way. As a consequence of these developments, the traditional power system is being transformed into a cyber-physical energy system, a smart grid. Previous and ongoing research have tended to mainly focus on how specific aspects of smart grids can be validated, but until there exists no integrated approach for the analysis and evaluation of complex cyber-physical systems configurations. This paper introduces integrated research infrastructure that provides methods and tools for validating smart grid systems in a holistic, cyber-physical manner. The corresponding concepts are currently being developed further in the European project ERIGrid.

Xue Han, Kai Heussen, Oliver Gehrke et al.

Distributed control strategies applied to power distribution control problems are meant to offer robust and scalable integration of distributed energy resources. However, the term "distributed control" is often loosely applied to a variety of very different control strategies. This leads to problems in the design phase as well as with the performance evaluation of such systems. This paper develops a framework to assist the design and evaluation of distributed control strategies, supported by a rigorous taxonomy of control strategies and formal design criteria. The proposed framework and taxonomy are evaluated against the state of the art of control strategies as found in literature.