ETA 2021 Strategic Plan - Flipbook - Page 74
Risk-controlled Expansion Planning with
Distributed Resources (REPAIR). Power
system planning has become more challenging,
and it requires new methodologies and tools
to help utilities prioritize grid investments,
optimal power flow (both at distribution
and transmission levels), risk-constrained
optimization, game theory, and decision
support models. The REPAIR model is building
foundational capabilities to enable riskcontrolled decisions in utility grid planning, to
prevent and mitigate the impact of outages
caused by regular equipment failures or by
high-impact low-probability events such as
storms, earthquakes, or wildfires that may cause
longer-term interruptions of service from the
transmission system.
Control and Optimization. ETA is developing
novel control and optimization approaches to
manage DER, to provide power systems services
at minimal cost. ETA’s research employs spatiotemporal hierarchical controls, consistent with
wholesale market timelines, to utilize DER for
various power systems needs. Power-flowdriven optimization problems couple DER
operations with distribution voltage and power
management with wholesale market-based
energy and ancillary services to simultaneously
unlock value at multiple levels. ETA employs both
centralized and distributed real-time control
techniques. For power system applications,
ETA researchers have pioneered a real-time,
distributed, model-free control method, called
Extremum Seeking.
ETA’s Integrated Modeling Tool (IMT). IMT
captures the dynamic between consumers’
adoption of DERs, distribution grid planning,
and rate design, providing a unique modeling
framework to support utility and regulatory
decisions around electricity rate structures and
cost recovery.
Our evolving world continually offers new
demands and requires ever-more integrated
solutions. The challenge of decarbonizing
cross-sectoral infrastructure at scale and at
reasonable cost will require new platforms for
co-simulation that do not currently exist and
safe testbeds to study controls and validate
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