Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The energy sector is moving into the era of smart grid. The natural evolution of this vision is the transformation of conventional distribution systems into Smart Distribution Systems (SDSs), which host distributed and renewable generation units, energy storage device, load management controllers, grid-automation devices and algorithms with seamless integration characteristics. SDS research is still in its infancy. Significant research efforts are need to realize this vision. The proposed research work aims to the development of advanced modeling, operation and control algorithms that will facilitate timely and safe integration of SDSs devices into existing networks. The project is mainly dealing with developing new control and operational algorithms for SDSs. This research will help the utilities to eliminate the current barriers towards the deployment of sustainable and other clean sources, intelligent automation devices and control algorithms into the utility grid. The proliferation of these new elements will help improve the overall distribution system performance by increasing the system reliability, power quality and efficiency while minimizing the adverse environmental impacts of centralized generation plants. With close cooperation with the industrial partner of this project (Hydro One Networks), the proposed work is expected to create a knowledge-base and tools that are immensely useful to the energy system industry. It will also lay the theoretical foundations in the emerging area of SDSs research.