Smart grids are foreseen as a key part to the future of developed economies grid management. Prudent Energy owns a patent entitled. This is a kept area of application for energy storage.
Development of a self-healing transmission and distribution system – capable of automatically anticipating and responding to disturbances, while continually optimizing its own performance – will be critical for meeting the future electricity needs of an increasingly digital society. According to EPRI’s Electricity Technology Roadmap, “By 2020, the demand for premium power – now just developing – will be pervasive throughout every sector of the economy.”.
The overall benefits from the self-healing grid will include not only enhanced reliability, but also will enable innovative customer services, reduced O&M costs and increased throughput on existing lines via more effective power flow control. The self-healing grid will increase grid security in response to the threat of terrorism.
Typical objectives of the self-healing grid would include the following:
Dynamically optimize the performance and robustness of the system.
Quickly react to disturbances in such a way as to minimize impact.
Effectively restore the system to a stable operating region after a disturbance.
Invoke consumer responses as necessary to manage the grid.
As renewable energy generation increase in response to governmental targets, these intermittent generation systems will further drive the need for smart grids and thus energy storage.
System and Method for a Self-Healing Grid Using Demand Side Management Techniques and Energy Storage
A self-healing power grid control system includes a power grid having a plurality of network islands with a plurality of linear and non-linear loads. A plurality of control sensors communicate with the power grid to monitor the electrical characteristics of the power grid. A plurality of controlled relays are in elcetrical communication with the plurality of non-linear loads. A battery energy storage system (ESS) is in electrical communication with a main power source and a network island. A first restoration controller is in electrical communication with the control sensors, the controlled relays, and with the battery ESS. The first restoration controller receives control signals from the control sensors, and in response to detecting an irregularity in the power grid, automatically actuates the battery ESS to stablize power to the linear loads, and diconncects selected controlled relays to disconnect power to a culculated percentage of the non-linear loads.