Name / Fabrizio Pilo / Session / 5
Company / DIEE, University of Cagliari, Italy / Block / 2
Address / P.zza D’Armi, 09123 Cagliari / Question n° / 29
ITALY / Language used on the floor / English
Phone / 0039-070-6755883 / Accompanying visuals on file ? / yes
e-mail /
AN INTEGRATED TOOL FOR OPTIMAL ACTIVE NETWORK PLANNING
Restructuring of the electricity supply market, with the accompanying set of drivers for distribution companies along with increasing levels of uncertainty faced by utility companies have raised requirements for new planning methodologies.
This conclusion implies the necessity to develop new tools, based on probabilistic methodologies, able to deal with uncertainties. In the paper, a novel software package, SPREAD (System for optimal PRobabilistic Expansion of Active Distribution networks), for optimal network planning is presented. SPREAD allows planning the optimal expansion of distribution networks, the optimal EG allocation in a given network and to deal with the related uncertainties (Fig.1). The SPREAD main novelty is that it allows the decision maker to perform integrated planning studies, e.g. the planner can find the optimal EG arrangement for an existing network and use this result to plan the medium term optimal network development. By iterating this procedure, it is possible to find the optimal network evolution in a study period with the optimal amount of EG placed in the most convenient points. By applying the Decision Theory, the planner engineer can make his decisions by examining different solutions suitable for different scenarios. The proposed planning tool aims to solve the problem of distribution planning with EG, taking into account uncertainties in power production. It is well suited for the present situation in which regulated Discos buy power at wholesale in a liberalized energy market to deliver their retail customers. In this case, EG, as well as other distributed resources, are viable options to be considered and compared to traditional power supply.
Further studies will be developed in order to find where to locate EG for voltage regulation or which intentional islands could have sufficient generation to supply loads during network faults or finding the optimal network reconfiguration when a fault occurs.