Engineering topics

Roberts, Ciaran

Publications and source records attributed to Roberts, Ciaran.

3 records

DOE OSTI2023

Adaptive Control of Distributed Energy Resources for Distribution Grid Voltage Stability

Volt-VAR and Volt-Watt functionality in photovoltaic (PV) smart inverters provide mechanisms to ensure system voltage magnitudes and power factors remain within acceptable limits. However, these control functions can become unstable, introducing oscillations in system voltages when not appropriately configured or maliciously altered during a cyberattack. In the event that Volt-VAR and Volt-Watt control functions in a portion of PV smart inverters in a distribution grid are unstable, the proposed adaptation scheme utilizes the remaining and stably-behaving PV smart inverters and other Distributed Energy Resources to mitigate the effect of the instability. The adaptation mechanism is entirely decentralized, model-free, communication-free, and requires virtually no external configuration. Here we provide a derivation of the adaptive control approach and validate the algorithm in experiments on the IEEE 37 and 8500 node test feeders.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2021

Reinforcement Learning for Distribution Grid Optimization (PyCIGAR) v0.1

PyCIGAR is a python software package that merges off-the-shelf reinforcement learning libraries (RLLib and Ray) with electric power distribution system simulation tools (OpenDSS and a custom power flow solver built by LBL). PyCIGAR enables the training of neural networks to optimize the behavior of different components in the electric distribution grid, such as control systems in photovoltaic rooftop solar inverters and electric battery storage systems. The software package has been used to train neural networks to update settings in photovoltaic rooftop solar inverter control systems to mitigate cyber attacks on other solar photovoltaic rooftop devices.

Arnold, Daniel↗

DOE OSTI2021

Adaptive Control Algorithm to Adjust Settings in Photovoltaic Inverters for Electric Grid Cybersecurity (DERAC) v0.1

Volt-VAR and Volt-Watt functionality in photovoltaic (PV) smart inverters provide mechanisms to ensure system voltage magnitudes and power factors remain within acceptable limits. However, these control functions can become unstable, introducing oscillations in system voltages when not appropriately configured or maliciously altered during a cyberattack. In the event that Volt-VAR and Volt-Watt control functions in a portion of PV smart inverters in a distribution grid are unstable, the proposed adaptation scheme utilizes the remaining and stably-behaving PV smart inverters and other Distributed Energy Resources to mitigate the effect of the instability in real-time. The adaptation mechanism is entirely decentralized, model-free, communication-free, and requires virtually no external configuration. This repository provides code to simulate the algorithm in experiments on the IEEE 37 node test feeder.

Arnold, Daniel↗