Review on planning and automation technologies for distributed generation systems

As renewable energy penetrates the utility market, the electricity industry is undergoing a paradigm shift that will change the industry to generate electricity using distributed generation systems. Consequently, there are new opportunities for enhancing the utility company´s power quality and network reliability, as well as increasing their level of automation. This paper surveys the most recent advances in planning, optimization, and automation for distributed generation systems. Our emphasis is on explaining how renewable sources of energy, such as wind power and solar photovoltaic, are integrated into the distributed generation systems. Our review covers both deterministic and probabilistic methods of planning. Automation in power quality monitoring, network control, and fault detection are discussed. There is an increased interest on using smart grids for distributed energy production, distribution, and consumption. Therefore, our paper identifies critical directions for future research in this area.