Dear Colleagues,

At present, sustainability is a key point in many research fields and domains. Rethinking policies, strategies, and developing new technology to keep the world growing at a fast pace in the different domains in a sustainable way is a challenging task. Power systems are no different, and in the last few years, new technologies have established a new paradigm to create and develop a future sustainable grid.

The European Union (EU) commission fixed a binding renewable energy target of at least 32% in the EU for 2030. As a consequence, huge investments have been made in renewable-based electricity generation plants and equipment in parallel with several smart grid initiatives to support this target achievement.

Power systems, namely at the distribution level, are facing new challenges to deal with the integration of intermittent renewable-based energy sources. Further, the expected mass penetration of electric vehicles will bring more complexity to the operation and planning tasks, but if properly undertaken, it can also allow unique opportunities. This Special Issue focuses on planning and operation of distribution power networks under smart grid paradigm where prosumers, electric vehicles, and other typical loads are usually connected. Topics of interest for publication include but are not limited to the following:

• Planning of smart grid considering uncertainty factors and/or multistage investments (e.g., renewable generation and electric vehicles growth in the mid-long term);
• Proposal for lowering grid operation cost and increasing the sustainability of smart grids (e.g., methods dealing with big data or smart metering to retrieve valuable information for grid operation);
• Renewable energy, demand-response, smart distribution grids;
• Energy management system in smart distribution grids;
• Advanced flexibility strategies for smart distribution grids;
• Electric vehicles planning and operation in smart grid (including behavior models for simulation and optimization of EVs in the grid).

Dr. João Soares
Dr. Bruno Canizes
Prof. Zita Vale
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Title: Enhanced Coordination Strategy for an Aggregator of Distributed Energy Resources Participating in the Day-Ahead Reserve Market
Authors: Cindy Guzmán-Lascano*; Nataly Bañol Arias**; John F. Franco*; Marcos J. Rider**; Rubén Romero*
Affiliation: * State University of Sao Paulo (UNESP) ** State University of Campinas-Brazil (UNICAMP)
Abstract: Integration of distributed energy resources (DERs), e.g. electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable distributed generation (DG) in the electrical distribution system (EDS), brings advantages to society but also introduces technical challenges (overloading and voltage issues). A DER aggregator, which has agreements with DERs to manage their consumption/generation, could collaborate with the EDS operator to mitigate those technical challenges. Previous approaches have mainly focused on the aggregator’s strategy to manage demand aiming the maximization of profits. Therefore, methods to support the aggregator’s strategy need to be extended to facilitate the integration of renewable DG, leading to an enhanced coordination of DERs. This paper proposes a linear programming model for the aggregator’s coordination strategy to maximize its profit through the management of DERs and the participation in the day-ahead reserve market; the model uses EV charging control to provide up/down reserve and reduces its cost taking advantage of DG. The mathematical model represents the daily EDS operation (hourly resolution) to enforce voltage and current constraints. A case study carried out in an unbalanced 34-bus EDS with more than 600 EVs, demonstrates that the application of the proposed method enhances the DER aggregator’s strategy, leading to better outcomes in both profits and EDS operation.