6. On Optimally Reducing Power Loss in Micro-Grids with Power Storage Devices

Chapter 5 described a strategy to allow the micro grids to make coalitions and exchange power with other micro grids and/or the macro station. In this chapter, we are going to carry on from that strategy and enhance the model further by considering micro grids to use power storage devices. Recently, the micro grid developers and operators are exhibiting a great deal of interest in using lithium-ion batteries and flow batteries. The battery technologies have become quite mature and they are currently capable enough to provide exceptional renewable power integration in the micro grids based energy systems [1, 2]. In [3], it was demonstrated how the storage devices can supplement energy generation to consumption to achieve a balance between energy demand and supply within the micro grid. Necessity of optimal control of the power storage devices of the micro grid was also indicated in [3]. A new photovoltaic power generation and load power consumption prediction algorithm was designed in [4] which was specifically designed for a residential storage controller. However, these existing works usually focused on a single micro grid and did not consider the power losses impacting the entire system including the macro station and multiple micro grids. Instead, they had a localized approach such as how to reduce the power loss within a given micro grid, how to charge and discharge the storage device periodically, and so forth. In this chapter, we adopt a different approach by focusing on a scalable total power loss minimization approach across the entire smart grid.