Recent Advances in Smart Energy Grids

Dear Colleagues,

Driven by global net-zero commitments, renewable energy sources have expanded rapidly in recent years. However, the increasing penetration of renewable generation, together with its inherent intermittency and uncertainty, poses major challenges to the planning, operation, trading, and control of modern power and energy systems. In this context, smart energy grids are playing an increasingly important role in enabling high renewable penetration, improving system stability and resilience, and supporting flexible and efficient energy trading. These capabilities are essential to the transition toward low-carbon and net-zero energy systems.

This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances in smart energy grid technologies that support the integration of highly penetrated renewable energy sources into power and energy systems with improved stability, enhanced regulation capability, increased resilience, and coordinated multi-market operation. We particularly welcome contributions on advanced modeling, planning, prediction, optimization, control, market mechanisms, and power-electronic technologies for smart energy grids and related energy systems. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

1. Planning and optimal design of (micro-)smart energy grids, including multi-energy systems, energy storage systems, renewable energy sources, flexible resources, and regulators, using state-of-the-art optimization and decision-making methods.
2. Data-driven forecasting and predictive modeling for photovoltaics, wind power, load demand, and other uncertain energy variables, based on deep neural networks and related machine learning techniques.
3. Optimal operation and regulation of power systems with high renewable energy penetration, with emphasis on voltage regulation, frequency regulation, power balance, and dynamic stability.
4. Clustering-based modeling and optimal control of adaptive distribution networks for voltage regulation, economic dispatch, and coordinated resource allocation.
5. Multi-agent optimization and distributed coordination control for adaptive distribution networks and micro-smart energy grids.
6. Deep reinforcement learning-based optimization and control for adaptive distribution networks and micro-smart energy grids.
7. Resilient and secure distributed control strategies for micro-smart energy grids under cyberattacks, faults, disturbances, and other adverse operating conditions.
8. Energy policy, market design, and trading mechanisms for smart energy grids involving coupled electricity, carbon emission, renewable energy certificate, and other relevant markets.
9. Advanced power electronic control and converter technologies for enhancing fault ride-through capability, power quality, voltage sag mitigation, and related grid-support functions.
10. Other emerging methods and applications related to intelligent, resilient, low-carbon, and coordinated operation of smart energy grids and integrated energy systems.

Dr. Runfan Zhang
Dr. Huanhuan Li
Guest Editors

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