System analytics for smart microgrids

With increasing penetration of communication and control technologies that enable “smart grid” functionalities, an infrastructure is rapidly evolving that will support the formation of networks of sources and loads that are amorphous and dynamic, completely unlike any power system network that is extant today. Researchers are already conceiving microgrids and nanogrids that are completely autonomous, and can morph between grid-connected and islanded modes based on expediency and intrinsic objectives. One of the key aspects for the successful operation of such self-sustaining subsets of the area electric power system is the emerging use of increased analytics in decision-making. This paper examines some of these architectures and discusses possible analytics that are used to describe the operation of these evolutionary “smart microgrids”.