TITLE:
Community Smart Grid Utilizing Dynamic Demand Response and Tidal Power for Grid Stabilization
AUTHORS:
Anna Demeo, Michael L. Peterson
KEYWORDS:
Smart Grid; Tidal Power; Renewable Energy; Micro Grid
JOURNAL NAME:
Smart Grid and Renewable Energy,
Vol.4 No.7,
October
9,
2013
ABSTRACT: Conventional electricity
generation is one of the largest contributors to climate change. Renewable
energy sources are a promising part of the solution but uncertainty combined
with a lack of controllability prevents renewable sources of power from being
direct substitutes of conventional energy sources. This shift towards a higher
penetration of renewable energy into the electric grid can be realized with the
implementation of a more sophisticated smart grid, which uses dynamic demand
response to alter demand on following generation. Research on renewable energy
penetration of the grid predominately focuses on wind and solar power resources
but demand cannot always match availability from these sources and therefore
greatly increases the need for energy storage. Tidal power differs from solar
and wind. It’s a predictably renewable resource
which makes it extremely valuable even on a relatively small scale.
Introduction of tidal power in a high penetration micro-grid can serve to
stabilize the grid and reduce the amount of storage required. Widely different time
scale for wind, solar and tidal power availability results in low
cross correlations and therefore increases stability. This research describes
an incremental approach to migrating a grid-tie island towards the formation of
a smart-micro grid. The system will include a high penetration of three
distributed generation systems, wind, solar and tidal and utilize commercially
available energy storage and a smart-home management controller. Dynamic demand
response through load balancing is implemented to minimize interactions with
the electric grid. A second component of this work is to determine the optimum
tidal generation capacity for the micro grid such that needed
storage capacity from batteries or the utility grid is minimized.