A Comprehensive Review of Recent Advances in Smart Grids: A Sustainable Future with Renewable Energy Resources

The smart grid is an unprecedented opportunity to shift the current energy industry into a new era of a modernized network where the power generation, transmission, and distribution are intelligently, responsively, and cooperatively managed through a bi-directional automation system. Although the domains of smart grid applications and technologies vary in functions and forms, they generally share common potentials such as intelligent energy curtailment, efficient integration of Demand Response, Distributed Renewable Generation, and Energy Storage. This paper presents a comprehensive review categorically on the recent advances and previous research developments of the smart grid paradigm over the last two decades. The main intent of the study is to provide an application-focused survey where every category and sub-category herein are thoroughly and independently investigated. The preamble of the paper highlights the concept and the structure of the smart grids. The work presented intensively and extensively reviews the recent advances on the energy data management in smart grids, pricing modalities in a modernized power grid, and the predominant components of the smart grid. The paper thoroughly enumerates the recent advances in the area of network reliability. On the other hand, the reliance on smart cities on advanced communication infrastructure promotes more concerns regarding data integrity. Therefore, the paper dedicates a sub-section to highlight the challenges and the state-of-the-art of cybersecurity. Furthermore, highlighting the emerging developments in the pricing mechanisms concludes the review.

Exploring the Profitability and Efficiency of Variable Renewable Energy in Spot Electricity Market: Uncovering the Locational Price Disadvantages

While variable renewable energy (VRE) has been developed for decades, VRE market participation is developing relatively slowly, despite the potential economic efficiency it may bring. This paper tries to specify the efficiency of VRE in a deregulated pool-based electricity market. Based on standard pool-based market design, this paper built a direct current optimal power flow (DC-OPF) based simplified 2-settlement spot electricity market model conjugating electricity and ancillary service clearing. To address the outcomes of the imperfect market in the real world, this paper studied the consequences brought by agents’ learning and strategic behaviors. Simulations under different ancillary service levels and reliability cost levels are carried out. The results show that VRE may be unprofitable in the market, especially when learning and strategic behavior is considered. Learning and strategic market behavior will also hamper the role of VRE as a “better” energy source. This paper shows and proves a locational marginal price (LMP) disadvantage phenomenon, which will lead to low profitability of VRE. Three major suggestions are given based on the results.