With a remarkable increase in variable renewable energy sources (VRE), such as photovoltaic and wind power, and new power devices including batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) as well as a digitalization, we need to pursue an energy system which supports a sustainable supply of low-carbon and high-quality electricity.

In Hayashi laboratory, the research activities are aiming at establishment of advanced energy management to support low-carbon and sustainable society, where VRE and distributed energy resources (DER) such as batteries and EVs play a primary role, utilizing accumulated data obtained through Applied Mathematics and Machine Learning approach while based on Power System Engineering.

(1) Research on cooperative planning and control of DERs with bulk power grid

To cope with complexity of voltage management with a massive penetration of VER and DERs into a power grid, control logics of various voltage regulation devices, batteries, and smart inverters, as well as methodologies to maintain power quality are investigated. In addition, determination of the network configuration which minimizes power losses is studied.

(2)Research on effective use of VRE with uncertainty

To make the most of VRE, it is required to predict their power generation at a few hours/days later as precise as possible based on the present weather conditions and the forecast. In addition, to assure stable power supply, it is necessary to prepare buck-up generators and/or state-of-charge of batteries based on the forecast for the situation in which the prediction is not successful. We conduct a research to develop a forecast methodology based on variable available data and to effectively apply the forecast with uncertainty to device controls.

(3) Research on smarter electric power consumption

To enable the use of high-quality electricity the same as before by making most of the present power grid, it is important to grasp the power demand and to develop a function of shifting the time and the place of the demand without deteriorating consumersÅfeconomy and convenience. We conduct R&D to realize demand response using DERs as well as a residential EMS (HEMS) and a building EMS (BEMS) cooperating with a grid EMS (GEMS) for smart energy consumption.

These researches are carried out by using the advanced network simulator (ANSWER), which emulates the real control logics used in actual power grids, and the simulation models to evaluate cooperative EMSs in a city scale.

Overview of advanced energy management research