Optimization of Distributed Energy Resources to Balance Power Supply and Demand in a Smart Grid

Energy crisis is one of the major problems for the economic growth and development of Bangladesh. The gap between power supply and demand is increasing day after day. Moreover, most of the power plants are based on fossil fuel and have the risk of being phased out in future. This paper aims to solve these problems by balancing the power supply and demand in a smart environment, focusing mainly on distributed energy resources (DER). The main DER components of the system are power plants based on renewable energy sources (RES). Since RES are intermittent, back up from fossil fuel based plants are also integrated in the final model to increase the system reliability. During off-peak hours residual energy from RES will be stored in the proposed storage arrangement. The proactive consumers (prosumer) in the demand side will have the scope to sell this stored energy to the national grid during peak hours in a proposed smart bilateral network. Finally, grid monitoring and metering interface with an advanced control mechanism has been developed, which is expected to increase the flexibility of the prosumer to handle their energy usage and costs.