Sustainable Energy Systems Planning, Integration and Management (Volume II)

1. Introduction

Affordable and clean energy is one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) introduced by the United Nations that are required to be followed by all developed and developing countries. Achieving this goal requires integrating more and more clean energy resources, such as solar and wind power, into energy systems. Hosting a high share of renewable energy resources requires a higher level of flexibility in the existing energy systems. To this end, the current energy systems need to be transformed into smart and sustainable energy systems, and various aspects of this transition require further study. The optimal planning and operation of energy systems considering the sustainable energy mix and taking into account the relationships between different energy carriers are among the topics that motivated this Special Issue.

2. Sustainable Energy Systems Planning, Integration, and Management

To cover the above-mentioned promising and dynamic areas of research and development, this Special Issue was launched to gather contributions in sustainable energy systems planning, integration, and management. In total, 12 papers were submitted to this Special Issue, out of which5 were selected for publication, which denotes an acceptance rate of 42%. The accepted articles in this Special Issue cover a variety of topics, ranging from the design and operation management of small to large-scale integrated systems to the control of power-electronic-based power and energy networks.

Focusing on low-carbon energy trading in integrated systems, the paper authored by Hong Li et al. [1] proposed a reward and punishment ladder-type carbon trading model where the impact of the carbon trading mechanisms on the carbon emission sources in the power system was comparatively analyzed. Special attention was paid to the low-carbon economic stochastic optimization dispatching model of the integrated power and natural gas energy system containing power-to-gas (P2G) while considering wind power uncertainty and carbon trading.

The work conducted by Gadupudi et al. [2] aimed at controlling the losses in the transmission system during peak energy demand circumstances with minimal losses in the economical and functional efficiency of the system. To this end, a seven-level voltage source converter (VSC) with binary-weighted transformers was proposed to control the reactive power variations and terminal voltage changes at dynamic circumstances in the transmission system. The dynamic load performance of the proposed static synchronous compensator was then verified for different instances of continuous inductive and capacitive loads with satisfactory results and low harmonic content. The cumulative load performance was also verified at various inductive and capacitive loads with reasonable results with low harmonic content.

The works conducted by Hosseinnia et al. [3] address the optimal siting and configuration of a smart parking lot and a combined hydrogen, heat, and power unit in a distribution network. To ensure good bilateral communication infrastructure, smart meter allocation was considered in the problem formulation. A techno-economic multi-objective function was proposed as the main function. Voltage drop and total investment cost reduction were defined as the technical and economic functions, respectively.

A comprehensive review of microgrid cybersecurity was provided in [4], with a focus on: (1) state-of-the-art microgrid electrical systems, communication protocols, standards, and vulnerabilities, together with prevalent solutions to cybersecurity-related issues within them; (2) recommendations to enhance the security of these systems by segregating layers of the microgrid; and (3) gaps in research in the area and suggestions for future work to enhance the cybersecurity of microgrids.

Finally, the authors of [5] examined the cultural, social, and behavioral factors affecting electricity consumption behaviors and identified the relevant requirements for implementing demand response programs. To this end, a complete analysis of existing methods for energy management and demand response implementation was performed, initially followed by setting up principles and theoretical frameworks considering sociological factors such as familiarizing clients with demand-side management programs, lifestyle theories, and the new environmental paradigm. Then, the effects of different electricity prices on customer reactions were explored. Next, taking into account the proposed concepts, the desirability function was presented, as well as the loss aversion concept.