A communication framework for an ad-hoc microgrid for disaster response

Natural disasters are one of the leading causes of power outages in the distribution network. The introduction of the distributed energy resources (DER) can assist the grid during these outages by providing localized supply of power. This is possible through creating a Microgrid that can island from the affected power grid and form its own network. However, due to the uncertain and often abrupt nature of natural disaster events, excessive advance planning for the formation of the Microgrid may not be possible, and as such, it may need to be formed in an ad-hoc fashion. Here, an energy resource with grid-forming capability must act as a coordinator, and detect the topology of the network as well as the type of its DER units and loads. To enable this, a communication platform is needed to facilitate the transmission of necessary information between all controllable units and the coordinator. The main purpose of this paper is to devise such a solution for creating an ad-hoc self-organized Microgrid via power line communication (PLC) media. A case study is presented using the IEEE 34-bus test distribution system to show how this scheme can support Microgrid formation and topology identification.