Automatic Generation Control in Modern Power Systems with Wind Power and Electric Vehicles

The modern power system is characterized by the massive integration of renewables, especially wind power. The intermittent nature of wind poses serious concerns for the system operator owing to the inaccuracies in wind power forecasting. Forecasting errors require more balancing power for maintaining frequency within the nominal range. These services are now offered through conventional power plants that not only increase the operational cost but also adversely affect the environment. The modern power system emphasizes the massive penetration of wind power that will replace conventional power plants and thereby impact the provision of system services from conventional power plants. Therefore, there is an emergent need to find new control and balancing solutions, such as regulation reserves from wind power plants and electric vehicles, without trading off their natural behaviors. This work proposes real-time optimized dispatch strategies for automatic generation control (AGC) to utilize wind power and the storage capacity of electric vehicles for the active power balancing services of the grid. The proposed dispatch strategies enable the AGC to appropriately allocate the regulating reserves from wind power plants and electric vehicles, considering their operational constraints. Simulations are performed in DIgSILENT software by developing a power system AGC model integrating the generating units and an EVA model. The inputs for generating units are considered by selecting a particular day of the year 2020, when wind power plants are generating high power. Different coordinated dispatch strategies are proposed for the AGC model to incorporate the reserve power from wind power plants and EVs. The performance of the proposed dispatch strategies is accessed and discussed by obtaining responses of the generating units and EVs during the AGC operation to counter the initial power imbalances in the network. The results reveal that integration of wind power and electric vehicles alongside thermal power plants can effectively reduce real-time power imbalances acquainted in power systems due to massive penetration of wind power that subsequently improves the power system security. Moreover, the proposed dispatch strategy reduces the operational cost of the system by allowing the conventional power plant to operate at their lower limits and therefore utilizes minimum reserves for the active power balancing services.