Quantifying the contribution of distributed energy resources to power systems resilience

Abstract

Distributed energy resources have a significant impact on the power systems resilience once integrated onto it. Due to the increasing frequency of major grid outages and the low penetration level of the paradigm main power grid, power systems resilience is becoming an important area of focus. However, there is still little clarity as to this relatively new concept. These major grid outages are classified as low frequency high impact events. This project developed an autonomous load restoration architecture based on distributed energy resources after the occurrence of these events. The impact of these resources to power systems resilience is quantified following the resilience metrics. The area of study is Karamoja, which is situated within northern Uganda, and has several distributed energy resources connected to its power systems network. A case study of application is a 12-bus test version of the Karamoja transmission and distribution network to investigate the impact of these distributed energy resources on the power systems thus quantifying the contribution of these resources to power systems resilience. Simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this proposed approach using DIgSILENT power factory and are assessed whereby it is shown that the proposed approach is successfully able to improve power systems resilience.