Real-time control of active distribution network for secondary frequency control: Design and experimental validation.

Although several approaches have been proposed in the literature to utilize inverter-based distributed energy resources (DERs) in the secondary frequency control (SFC), challenges related to practically implementing SFC with inverter-based DERs have not been considered. These challenges include response time of DERs, the communication environment, and emulation of the actual Automatic Generation Control (AGC). This paper develops and implements a coordinated operation and control for below the substation resources such as inverter-based DERs and a utility-scale battery energy storage system (USBESS) to participate in the secondary frequency control. A linearized optimization problem is formulated to simultaneously determine optimal setpoints of participating resources and satisfy AGC requests in real time for the secondary frequency control. To mimic the actual process of AGC, a hardware- and software-in-the-loop-based experimental setup is developed with the integration of real-time digital simulators (RTDS), a centralized controller at the substation, and gateways as IoT devices, which are commonly used in practice to interface DERs to control and monitoring systems. The controller remains in listening mode until it receives an AGC signal. When it receives an AGC signal, it optimally dispatches the USBESS and DERs and monitors the change in power flow at the substation. The controller iteratively dispatches the participating resources considering their response time until the AGC request is satisfied. The proposed control is implemented on an actual feeder configuration located in Las Vegas, Nevada, in collaboration with NV Energy—the largest public utility in Nevada. The results illustrate that USBESS and DERs can be coordinated and dispatched to satisfy AGC requests for SFC. • Novel linearized optimization-based secondary frequency controller • High fidelity prototype for practical implementation of AGC on real system • Combined hardware-and software-in-the-loop-based real-time laboratory setup for AGC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]