Distributed intelligence for smart grid control

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the challenges, their potential solutions and the trends in the control of electrical power distribution in presence of distributed generation. Power grids are supposed to go through a significant transformation in the close future. Distribution is supposed to be mostly affected. The tutorial reviews the current practice and outlines the possible evolutions towards a more intelligent grid able to operate more dynamically mostly under the hypothesis of a large penetration of renewable energy sources or distributed energy sources more in general. Some specific topics are then addressed with reference to recent research results such network-based control, distributed state estimation and distributed intelligence.