arXiv subjects

Siddharth Bhela

Publications and source records attributed to Siddharth Bhela.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Maximizing On-Bill Savings through Battery Management Optimization

In many power grids, a large portion of the energy costs for commercial and industrial consumers are set with reference to the coincident peak load, the demand during the maximum system-wide peak, and their own maximum peak load, the non-coincident peak load. Coincident-peak based charges reflect the allocation of infrastructure updates to end-users for increased capacity, the amount the grid can handle, and for improvement of the transmission, the ability to transport energy across the network. Demand charges penalize the stress on the grid caused by each consumer's peak demand. Microgrids with a local generator, controllable loads, and/or a battery technology have the flexibility to cut their peak load contributions and thereby significantly reduce these charges. This paper investigates the optimal planning of microgrid technology for electricity bill reduction. The specificity of our approach is the leveraging of a scenario generator engine to incorporate probability estimates of coincident peaks and non-coincident peaks into the optimization problem.

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arXiv2024

AI-based Identification of Most Critical Cyberattacks in Industrial Systems

Modern industrial systems face a growing threat from sophisticated cyberattacks that can cause significant operational disruptions. This work presents a novel methodology for identification of the most critical cyberattacks that may disrupt the operation of such a system. Application of the proposed framework can enable the design and development of advanced cybersecurity solutions for a wide range of industrial applications. Attacks are assessed taking into direct consideration how they impact the system operation as measured by a defined Key Performance Indicator (KPI). A simulation model (SM), of the industrial process is employed for calculation of the KPI based on operating conditions. Such SM is augmented with a layer of information describing the communication network topology, connected devices, and potential actions an adversary can take based on each device or network link. Each possible action is associated with an abstract measure of effort, which is interpreted as a cost. It is assumed that the adversary has a corresponding budget that constrains the selection of the sequence of actions defining the progression of the attack. A dynamical system comprising a set of states associated with the cyberattack (cyber-states) and transition logic for updating their values is also proposed. The resulting augmented simulation model (ASM) is then employed in an artificial intelligence-based sequential decision-making optimization to yield the most critical cyberattack scenarios as measured by their impact on the defined KPI. The methodology is successfully tested based on an electrical power distribution system use case.

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arXiv2024

EV-EcoSim: A grid-aware co-simulation platform for the design and optimization of electric vehicle charging infrastructure

To enable the electrification of transportation systems, it is important to understand how technologies such as grid storage, solar photovoltaic systems, and control strategies can aid the deployment of electric vehicle charging at scale. In this work, we present EV-EcoSim, a co-simulation platform that couples electric vehicle charging, battery systems, solar photovoltaic systems, grid transformers, control strategies, and power distribution systems, to perform cost quantification and analyze the impacts of electric vehicle charging on the grid. This python-based platform can run a receding horizon control scheme for real-time operation and a one-shot control scheme for planning problems, with multi-timescale dynamics for different systems to simulate realistic scenarios. We demonstrate the utility of EV-EcoSim through a case study focused on economic evaluation of battery size to reduce electricity costs while considering impacts of fast charging on the power distribution grid. We present qualitative and quantitative evaluations on the battery size in tabulated results. The tabulated results delineate the trade-offs between candidate battery sizing solutions, providing comprehensive insights for decision-making under uncertainty. Additionally, we demonstrate the implications of the battery controller model fidelity on the system costs and show that the fidelity of the battery controller can completely change decisions made when planning an electric vehicle charging site.

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arXiv2023

Robust Decentralized Secondary Control Scheme for Inverter-based Power Networks

Inverter-dominated microgrids are quickly becoming a key building block of future power systems. They rely on centralized controllers that can provide reliability and resiliency in extreme events. Nonetheless, communication failures due to cyber-physical attacks or natural disasters can make autonomous operation of islanded microgrids challenging. This paper examines a unified decentralized secondary control scheme that is robust to inverter clock synchronization errors and can be seamlessly applied to grid-following or grid-forming control architectures. The proposed scheme overcomes the well-known stability problem that arises from parallel operation of local integral controllers. Theoretical guarantees for stability are provided along with criteria to appropriately tune the secondary control gains to achieve good frequency regulation performance while ensuring fair power sharing. The efficacy of our approach in eliminating the steady-state frequency deviation is demonstrated through simulations on a 5-bus microgrid with four grid-forming inverters.

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arXiv2022

Identification of Intraday False Data Injection Attack on DER Dispatch Signals

The urgent need for the decarbonization of power girds has accelerated the integration of renewable energy. Concurrently the increasing distributed energy resources (DER) and advanced metering infrastructures (AMI) have transformed the power grids into a more sophisticated cyber-physical system with numerous communication devices. While these transitions provide economic and environmental value, they also impose increased risk of cyber attacks and operational challenges. This paper investigates the vulnerability of the power grids with high renewable penetration against an intraday false data injection (FDI) attack on DER dispatch signals and proposes a kernel support vector regression (SVR) based detection model as a countermeasure. The intraday FDI attack scenario and the detection model are demonstrated in a numerical experiment using the HCE 187-bus test system.

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arXiv2022

Inferring power system dynamics from synchrophasor data using Gaussian processes

Synchrophasor data provide unprecedented opportunities for inferring power system dynamics, such as estimating voltage angles, frequencies, and accelerations along with power injection at all buses. Aligned to this goal, this work puts forth a novel framework for learning dynamics after small-signal disturbances by leveraging Gaussian processes (GPs). We extend results on learning of a linear time-invariant system using GPs to the multi-input multi-output setup. This is accomplished by decomposing power system swing dynamics into a set of single-input single-output linear systems with narrow frequency pass bands. The proposed learning technique captures time derivatives in continuous time, accommodates data streams sampled at different rates, and can cope with missing data and heterogeneous levels of accuracy. While Kalman filter-based approaches require knowing all system inputs, the proposed framework handles readings of system inputs, outputs, their derivatives, and combinations thereof collected from an arbitrary subset of buses. Relying on minimal system information, it further provides uncertainty quantification in addition to point estimates of system dynamics. Numerical tests verify that this technique can infer dynamics at non-metered buses, impute and predict synchrophasors, and locate faults under linear and non-linear system models under ambient and fault disturbances.

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arXiv2021

Efficient Topology Design Algorithms for Power Grid Stability

The dynamic response of power grids to small disturbances influences their overall stability. This paper examines the effect of network topology on the linearized time-invariant dynamics of electric power systems. The proposed framework utilizes ${\cal H}_2$-norm based stability metrics to study the optimal placement of lines on existing networks as well as the topology design of new networks. The design task is first posed as an NP-hard mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP) that is exactly reformulated as a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) using McCormick linearization. To improve computation time, graph-theoretic properties are exploited to derive valid inequalities (cuts) and tighten bounds on the continuous optimization variables. Moreover, a cutting plane generation procedure is put forth that is able to interject the MILP solver and augment additional constraints to the problem on-the-fly. The efficacy of our approach in designing optimal grid topologies is demonstrated through numerical tests on the IEEE 39-bus network.

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arXiv2019

Smart Inverter Grid Probing for Learning Loads: Part I - Identifiability Analysis

Distribution grids currently lack comprehensive real-time metering. Nevertheless, grid operators require precise knowledge of loads and renewable generation to accomplish any feeder optimization task. At the same time, new grid technologies, such as solar photovoltaics and energy storage units are interfaced via inverters with advanced sensing and actuation capabilities. In this context, this two-part work puts forth the idea of engaging power electronics to probe an electric grid and record its voltage response at actuated and metered buses, to infer non-metered loads. Probing can be accomplished by commanding inverters to momentarily perturb their power injections. Multiple probing actions can be induced within a few tens of seconds. In Part I, load inference via grid probing is formulated as an implicit nonlinear system identification task, which is shown to be topologically observable under certain conditions. The conditions can be readily checked upon solving a max-flow problem on a bipartite graph derived from the feeder topology and the placement of actuated and non-metered buses. The analysis holds for single- and multi-phase grids, radial or meshed, and applies to phasor or magnitude-only voltage data. The topological observability of distribution systems using smart meter or phasor data is cast and analyzed a special case.

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arXiv2019

Smart Inverter Grid Probing for Learning Loads: Part II - Probing Injection Design

This two-part work puts forth the idea of engaging power electronics to probe an electric grid to infer non-metered loads. Probing can be accomplished by commanding inverters to perturb their power injections and record the induced voltage response. Once a probing setup is deemed topologically observable by the tests of Part I, Part II provides a methodology for designing probing injections abiding by inverter and network constraints to improve load estimates. The task is challenging since system estimates depend on both probing injections and unknown loads in an implicit nonlinear fashion. The methodology first constructs a library of candidate probing vectors by sampling over the feasible set of inverter injections. Leveraging a linearized grid model and a robust approach, the candidate probing vectors violating voltage constraints for any anticipated load value are subsequently rejected. Among the qualified candidates, the design finally identifies the probing vectors yielding the most diverse system states. The probing task under noisy phasor and non-phasor data is tackled using a semidefinite-program (SDP) relaxation. Numerical tests using synthetic and real-world data on a benchmark feeder validate the conditions of Part I; the SDP-based solver; the importance of probing design; and the effects of probing duration and noise.

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arXiv2019

Designing Power Grid Topologies for Minimizing Network Disturbances: An Exact MILP Formulation

The dynamic response of power grids to small transient events or persistent stochastic disturbances influences their stable operation. This paper studies the effect of topology on the linear time-invariant dynamics of power networks. For a variety of stability metrics, a unified framework based on the $H_2$-norm of the system is presented. The proposed framework assesses the robustness of power grids to small disturbances and is used to study the optimal placement of new lines on existing networks as well as the design of radial (tree) and meshed (loopy) topologies for new networks. Although the design task can be posed as a mixed-integer semidefinite program (MI-SDP), its performance does not scale well with network size. Using McCormick relaxation, the topology design problem can be reformulated as a mixed-integer linear program (MILP). To improve the computation time, graphical properties are exploited to provide tighter bounds on the continuous optimization variables. Numerical tests on the IEEE 39-bus feeder demonstrate the efficacy of the optimal topology in minimizing disturbances.

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arXiv2016

Enhancing Observability in Distribution Grids using Smart Meter Data

Due to limited metering infrastructure, distribution grids are currently challenged by observability issues. On the other hand, smart meter data, including local voltage magnitudes and power injections, are communicated to the utility operator from grid buses with renewable generation and demand-response programs. This work employs grid data from metered buses towards inferring the underlying grid state. To this end, a coupled formulation of the power flow problem (CPF) is put forth. Exploiting the high variability of injections at metered buses, the controllability of solar inverters, and the relative time-invariance of conventional loads, the idea is to solve the non-linear power flow equations jointly over consecutive time instants. An intuitive and easily verifiable rule pertaining to the locations of metered and non-metered buses on the physical grid is shown to be a necessary and sufficient criterion for local observability in radial networks. To account for noisy smart meter readings, a coupled power system state estimation (CPSSE) problem is further developed. Both CPF and CPSSE tasks are tackled via augmented semi-definite program relaxations. The observability criterion along with the CPF and CPSSE solvers are numerically corroborated using synthetic and actual solar generation and load data on the IEEE 34-bus benchmark feeder.

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