Active Planning for Power Distribution Networks Based on Virtual Microgrids

In this paper, active planning for distribution networks is defined to optimize ability in active energy management (operation costs) and ability in active defense (autonomous capability in islanding operation) of virtual microgrids (VMs). A bilevel, mixed-integer, multi-objective optimization process is designed for active planning DGs in distribution networks. The optimization goals include both operation costs and autonomous capabilities. In partitioning distribution networks into VMs, the autonomous capability of VMs is considered by cohesion of a revised net-ability. Based on the PG & E 69-bus radical distribution network system with Monte Carlo simulation, the simulation result justifies the tradeoff between total operational cost and cohesion of revised net-ability. With the support of our proposed active planning, the upgraded active distribution networks with partitioned VMs can maintain reasonable operation cost but also resilient to potential outages.