Distributed control concepts for future power grids

Power grids by their nature occupy a large geographical area, and any robust, intelligent control system for these grids needs to be distributed as well. Moreover, the increase in both the number and types of intelligent power consumer devices and the number and variation in renewable power sources presents new challenges and opportunities for more intelligent control. In this paper, the authors use a small scale model for such a DC micro-power grid to implement and test several intelligent control algorithms. These are implemented using a combination of real-time control and intelligent agents. Each distributed algorithm is described and preliminary results from this testing have provided important advances toward an understanding of information management in highly dynamic distributed power systems.