Prof. Federico Milano's Website

The motivation that originates the project "Modelling and Stability of Electric Power Systems Considering Stochastic Processes and Distributed Control" (ModeSto) stems from the worldwide reconfiguration processes that electric power systems are currently undergoing. On one hand, there is the development and installation of generation plants based on renewable energy resources, e.g., wind and solar plants, whose stochastic nature has to be properly considered in the transient analysis of power systems. On the other hand, there is the generalized trend to transform conventional networks into "smart grids", which involves the intense interaction of energy devices, control schemes and communication systems.

The power system reconfiguration poses new challenges for the dynamic analysis of electric power systems as it forces rethinking device and network models and control schemes. In particular, uncertainties, stochastic processes, time-variant parameters and signal delays are anticipated to play an important role in the overall dynamic response of the grid. The objective of the project is to reformulate power system models in terms of stochastic and functional, e.g., delayed, differential equations for the modeling, the simulation, the control and the stability assessment of dynamic power systems.

With this aim, a fully-fledged and flexible software package able to simulate large power systems modeled with proposed approaches is implemented. The goal is to yield a set of compact quantitative tools, such as algorithms to evaluate power system stability and the impact of control strategies as well as security metrics that can be straightforwardly applied in the industry.

The work performed since the beginning of the project have focuses on the computer implementation and power system models, as follows:

• Models of renewable and distributed energy resources, energy storage devices, multi-terminal DC systems and robust controllers, such as secondary frequency controllers based on model predictive control. This activity has led, so far, to the publication of 1 book chapter, 2 journal papers and 9 conference papers. A book chapter, a journal paper and three conference papers are in progress.
• Models based on stochastic differential-algebraic equations of wind speed, load power consumption, electric vehicles and noises. Such models are based on the Ito formula and the stationary Fokker-Planck equation. This activity has led, so far, to the publication of 1 journal paper and 5 conference papers. A book chapter and a journal paper are in progress.
• Models based on delay differential-algebraic equations and algorithms to evaluate the stability of such equations, in particular the small-signal stability. Considered delays include both communication system delays and physical delays of most common power system devices (e.g., steam turbine reheaters). This activity has led so far to the publication of 1 journal paper and 2 conference paper. A book chapter and a journal paper are in progress.
• Development of a software tool that provides a common platform for the activities above. The effort to develop such a general purpose power system simulation tool has led, so far, to the publication of 4 journal papers and 5 conference papers, two of which were presented at a conference on education. A book chapter, a journal paper and two conference papers are in progress.

Publications related to the project are available here and here.

More details on the software tool developed for the project is available here!.