Advances in electrical power engineering

Papers [4‒6] are related to smart grids, and are devoted to the issue of microgrids. The paper co-authored by A. Cagnano, E. De Tuglie, F. Marcone, G. Porro, and D.D. Rasolomampionona [4] presents a control strategy for real-time operation of a master-slave controlled microgrid. The proposed control strategy allows to schedule all dispatchable energy sources available into a microgrid to minimize its operational costs. Control decisions are made centrally by the system, whose operation is based on the solution of a two-stage optimization problem. Considered timescales of control problem are day-ahead and in real-time. The paper co-authored by M. Parol, P. Kapler, J. Marzecki, R. Parol, M. Połecki, and Ł. Rokicki [5] presents distributed control, combining the effects of distributed cooperative control and modified Monte Carlo optimization in the case of rural low voltage microgrids. Different objective functions for optimization process have been analyzed. Moreover, different scenarios for microgrid control system action with respect to communication loss have also been presented. The paper co-authored by A. Moulichon, V. Debusschere, L. Garbuio, M. A. Rahmani, M. Alamir, and N. Hadjsaid [6] is related to the topic of smart grids, too. The paper discusses a virtual synchronous generator and suggests a set of inverter tests. Inverters are supposed to work in a friendly way for isolated microgrids. The paper presents a virtual synchronous generator model and its application in an industrial inverter controller. The application of the proposed solution when utilised in large projects is presented. To determine the necessary directions of their development, requirements for future network-friendly generators based on inverters are defined. The conducted tests are aimed at ensuring that once the proposed standards are met, each virtual generator solution can be integrated into the microsystem. The paper co-authored by K. Kurek, Ł. Nogal, R. Kowalik, and M. Januszewski [7] presents software power protection tester that might replace conventional testing setups. The main contribution of the paper is an algorithm of multithreaded tester operation. The presented solution shows that it is possible to Electrical power engineering is one of the earliest research fields that has developed in electrical engineering. It deals with the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power, considering the issues of efficient and economical use of energy resources. Due to climate change, environmental protection, and the depletion of mineral energy resources, the electric power systems of the future must deal with new challenges. For these reasons, electrical power engineering development does not stand still and currently is driven by the issues such as smart power grid, renewable energy sources integration, storage system, IT and communications technologies, apparatus and devices design, power and voltage control, and enhancement of security of electric power systems [1‒3]. This special section “Advances in electrical power engineering”, on the one hand, has been prepared to present progress in state of the art and to emphasize emerging research topics. On the other hand, the special section has been initiated in the light of the 50th anniversary of the Electrical Power Engineering Institute at Warsaw University of Technology. Although the Institute was formally established in 1970, research and education in the field of electrical power engineering were developed from the beginning of Warsaw University of Technology. Today, in a competitive world, Electrical Power Engineering Institute conducts interdisciplinary research that uses knowledge of electrical engineering, electronics, automation and control, IT, telecommunication engineering and mechanical engineering. This Special Section of the Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences on Technical Sciences is devoted to the present rapid progress in interdisciplinary scientif ic research in the f ield of electrical power engineering. The section presents the results of research obtained using knowledge of electrical engineering, automatic control, computer science, telecommunications, and mechanical engineering to solve current scientif ic and technical problems. The papers included in the presented special section of the Bulletin are grouped into three main categories: smart grid, efficient energy use, and apparatus and devices design.