Super Soldier Program: A Numerical Optimization Approach for Optimal Planning and Utilization of Distributed Generation and Storage in Power Grids

摘要

Factors such as population growth, introduction of new electric appliances, and aging of transmission and distribution gird contribute in system rating problems in a power system. To address this issue, one must either restructure and upgrade the transmission and distribution network or add distributed energy resources (DERs) and electrical energy storage (EES) systems to the network. We investigate different approaches toward this problem to find the optimal DER and EES capacity as well as the optimal energy production and storage schedules to minimize the energy retail price. In particular, we propose a new numerical optimization technique, called super soldier program (SSP)-a mutation of genetic algorithm (GA)-that shows faster convergence to the optimal solution. In the proposed scheme, the dispatchable power sources throughout the network work at around their nominal ratings, while the non-dispatchable sources are utilized as much as possible. Therefore, the energy generation and maintenance cost of each power source and the overall cost of energy generation in the network decreases significantly. Also, the proposed scheme is more resilient in avoiding local optima; therefore, it can achieve the global optimal solution with a higher certainty.