Decentralized Control and Coordination of Distributed Resources for Emerging Applications in Electric Power Systems

Alejandro D. Dom´?nguez-Garc´?a
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
E-mail: aledan@ILLINOIS.EDU

Abstract
On the distribution side of an electric power system, there exist many distributed resources (DRs) that can be
potentially used to provide ancillary services to the grid they are connected to. An example is the utilization of
plug-in-hybrid vehicles (PHEV) for providing active power for up and down regulation. Proper coordination and
control of DRs is key for enabling their utilization in the procurement of these ancillary services. One solution
to this coordination and control problem can be achieved through a centralized control strategy where each DR
is commanded from a central decision maker. An alternative solution—and the one this talk will focus on—is to
distribute the decision-making process among the DRs. In order to achieve so, the DRs need to exchange information
with a number of other “close-by” DRs, and subsequently make a local decision based on this available information.
In this talk, we discuss the problem of dispatching a set of distributed resources (DRs) without relying on a
centralized decision maker. We propose low-complexity iterative algorithms for DR dispatch that rely, at each
iteration, on simple computations involving local information acquired through exchange of information with
neighboring DRs. In general, the goal is for the DRs to collectively provide a certain amount of a resource (e.g.,
active or reactive power). We address two different problems: (i) the constrained fair-splitting problem, in which the
amount of resource that each DR can provide is limited by capacity constraints, but there is no cost associated to
the amount of resource provided; and (ii) the constrained optimal dispatch problem, in which there are constraints
on DR upper and lower capacity, and each DR has associated a quadratic cost. We illustrate the application of
the proposed algorithms to the problems of generation control in microgrids and voltage control in distribution
networks.

Bio Sketch
Alejandro Dom´?nguez-Garc´?a is an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
at the University of Illinois, Urbana, where he is affiliated with the Power and Energy Systems area. His research
interests lie at the interface of system reliability theory and control, with special emphasis on applications to electric
power systems and power electronics.
Dr. Dom´?nguez-Garc´?a received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, in 2007 and the degree of Electrical Engineer from the
University of Oviedo (Spain) in 2001.
Dr. Dom´?nguez-Garc´?a received the NSF CAREER Award in 2010, and the Young Engineer Award from the
IEEE Power and Energy Society in 2012. He is an editor of the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems and the
IEEE Power Engineering Letters. He is also a Grainger Associate since August 2011.