• Energy Research

Renewable energy systems such as Photovoltaic (PV) have become one of the best options for supplying electricity at the distribution network level. This is mainly because the PV system is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and is a low-cost form of energy. The intermittent and unpredictable nature of renewable energy sources which leads to a mismatch between the power generation and load demand is the challenge to having 100% renewable power networks. Therefore, an Energy Storage System (ESS) can be a significant solution to overcome these challenges and improve the reliability of the network. In Jordan, the energy sector is facing a number of challenges due to the high energy-import dependency, high energy costs, and the inadequate electrification of rural areas. In this paper, the optimal integration of PV and ESS systems is designed and developed for a distribution network in Jordan. The economic and energy performance of the network and a proposed power network under different optimization algorithms and power network operation scenarios are investigated. Metaheuristic optimization algorithms, namely: Golden Ratio Optimization Method (GROM) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms, are employed to find the optimal configurations and integrated 100% PV and ESS for the microgrid.

Renewable energy systems such as Photovoltaic (PV) have become one of the best options for supplying electricity at the distribution network level. This is mainly because the PV system is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and is a low-cost form of energy. The intermittent and unpredictable nature of renewable energy sources which leads to a mismatch between the power generation and load demand is the challenge to having 100% renewable power networks. Therefore, an Energy Storage System (ESS) can be a significant solution to overcome these challenges and improve the reliability of the network. In Jordan, the energy sector is facing a number of challenges due to the high energy-import dependency, high energy costs, and the inadequate electrification of rural areas. In this paper, the optimal integration of PV and ESS systems is designed and developed for a distribution network in Jordan. The economic and energy performance of the network and a proposed power network under different optimization algorithms and power network operation scenarios are investigated. Metaheuristic optimization algorithms, namely: Golden Ratio Optimization Method (GROM) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms, are employed to find the optimal configurations and integrated 100% PV and ESS for the microgrid.

An optimal operation system is a potential solution to increase the energy efficiency of a power network equipped with stochastic Renewable Energy Sources (RES). In this article, an Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem has been formulated as a single and multi-objective problems for a conventional power generation and renewable sources connected to a power network. The objective functions reflect the minimization of fuel cost, gas emission, power loss, voltage deviation and improving the system stability. Considering the volatile renewable generation behaviour and uncertainty in the power prediction of wind and solar power output as a nonlinear optimization problem, this paper uses a Weibull and lognormal probability distribution functions to estimate the power output of renewable generation. Then, a new Golden Ratio Optimization Method (GROM) algorithm has been developed to solve the OPF problem for a power network incorporating with stochastic RES. The proposed GROM algorithm aims to improve the reliability, environmental and energy performance of the power network system (IEEE 30-bus system). Three different scenarios, using different RES locations, are presented and the results of the proposed GROM algorithm is compared to six heuristic search methods from the literature. The comparisons indicate that the GROM algorithm successfully reduce fuel costs, gas emission and improve the voltage stability and outperforms each of the presented six heuristic search methods.

An optimal operation system is a potential solution to increase the energy efficiency of a power network equipped with stochastic Renewable Energy Sources (RES). In this article, an Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem has been formulated as a single and multi-objective problems for a conventional power generation and renewable sources connected to a power network. The objective functions reflect the minimization of fuel cost, gas emission, power loss, voltage deviation and improving the system stability. Considering the volatile renewable generation behaviour and uncertainty in the power prediction of wind and solar power output as a nonlinear optimization problem, this paper uses a Weibull and lognormal probability distribution functions to estimate the power output of renewable generation. Then, a new Golden Ratio Optimization Method (GROM) algorithm has been developed to solve the OPF problem for a power network incorporating with stochastic RES. The proposed GROM algorithm aims to improve the reliability, environmental and energy performance of the power network system (IEEE 30-bus system). Three different scenarios, using different RES locations, are presented and the results of the proposed GROM algorithm is compared to six heuristic search methods from the literature. The comparisons indicate that the GROM algorithm successfully reduce fuel costs, gas emission and improve the voltage stability and outperforms each of the presented six heuristic search methods.

The current COVID-19 pandemic and the preventive measures taken to contain the spread of the disease have drastically changed the patterns of our behavior. The pandemic and movement restrictions have significant influences on the behavior of the environment and energy profiles. In 2020, the reliability of the power system became critical under lockdown conditions and the chaining in the electrical consumption behavior. The COVID-19 pandemic will have a long-term effect on the patterns of our behavior. Unlike previous studies that covered only the start of the pandemic period, this paper aimed to examine and analyze electrical demand data over a longer period of time with five years of collected data up until November 2020. In this paper, the demand analysis based on the time series decomposition process is developed through the elimination of the impact of times series correlation, trends, and seasonality on the analysis. This aims to present and only show the pandemic’s impacts on the grid demand. The long-term analysis indicates stress on the grid (half-hourly and daily peaks, baseline demand and demand forecast error) and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the power grid is not a simple reduction in electricity demand. In order to minimize the impact of the pandemic on the performance of the forecasting model, a rolling stochastic Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average with Exogenous (ARIMAX) model is developed in this paper. The proposed forecast model aims to improve the forecast performance by capturing the non-smooth demand nature through creating a number of future demand scenarios based on a probabilistic model. The proposed forecast model outperformed the benchmark forecast model ARIMAX and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and reduced the forecast error by up to 23.7%.

The current COVID-19 pandemic and the preventive measures taken to contain the spread of the disease have drastically changed the patterns of our behavior. The pandemic and movement restrictions have significant influences on the behavior of the environment and energy profiles. In 2020, the reliability of the power system became critical under lockdown conditions and the chaining in the electrical consumption behavior. The COVID-19 pandemic will have a long-term effect on the patterns of our behavior. Unlike previous studies that covered only the start of the pandemic period, this paper aimed to examine and analyze electrical demand data over a longer period of time with five years of collected data up until November 2020. In this paper, the demand analysis based on the time series decomposition process is developed through the elimination of the impact of times series correlation, trends, and seasonality on the analysis. This aims to present and only show the pandemic’s impacts on the grid demand. The long-term analysis indicates stress on the grid (half-hourly and daily peaks, baseline demand and demand forecast error) and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the power grid is not a simple reduction in electricity demand. In order to minimize the impact of the pandemic on the performance of the forecasting model, a rolling stochastic Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average with Exogenous (ARIMAX) model is developed in this paper. The proposed forecast model aims to improve the forecast performance by capturing the non-smooth demand nature through creating a number of future demand scenarios based on a probabilistic model. The proposed forecast model outperformed the benchmark forecast model ARIMAX and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and reduced the forecast error by up to 23.7%.

In recent decades, the energy market around the world has been reshaped to accommodate the high penetration of renewable energy resources. Although renewable energy sources have brought various benefits, including low operation cost of wind and solar PV power plants, and reducing the environmental risks associated with the conventional power resources, they have imposed a wide range of difficulties in power system planning and operation. Naturally, classical optimal power flow (OPF) is a nonlinear problem. Integrating renewable energy resources with conventional thermal power generators escalates the difficulty of the OPF problem due to the uncertain and intermittent nature of these resources. To address the complexity associated with the process of the integration of renewable energy resources into the classical electric power systems, two probability distribution functions (Weibull and lognormal) are used to forecast the voltaic power output of wind and solar photovoltaic, respectively. Optimal power flow, including renewable energy, is formulated as a single-objective and multi-objective problem in which many objective functions are considered, such as minimizing the fuel cost, emission, real power loss, and voltage deviation. Real power generation, bus voltage, load tap changers ratios, and shunt compensators values are optimized under various power systems’ constraints. This paper aims to solve the OPF problem and examines the effect of renewable energy resources on the above-mentioned objective functions. A combined model of wind integrated IEEE 30-bus system, solar PV integrated IEEE 30-bus system, and hybrid wind and solar PV integrated IEEE 30-bus system is performed using the equilibrium optimizer technique (EO) and other five heuristic search methods. A comparison of simulation and statistical results of EO with other optimization techniques showed that EO is more effective and superior and provides the lowest optimization value in term of electric power generation, real power loss, emission index and voltage deviation.