A networked control strategy for reactive power compensation in a smart power distribution network

Abstract:

In this talk we consider the problem of optimal reactive power compensation for the minimization of power distribution losses in a smart power distribution network. First, an approximate model for the power distribution network will be presented. This model allows to design a feedback control law for this task via the tools of convex, linearly constrained, optimization. In order to implement this control strategy, agents (compensators) need to access only local measurements and grid parameters. They also need to coordinate their behavior and to share information at two different levels: via a gossip-like communication channel and via proper interleaving of sensing and actuation on the physical system. Interestingly, the same feature can be recognized in different scenarios (e.g. radio power control, data traffic congestion). The analysis of the steady state behavior of the controlled system shows that the best performance can be achieved when the communication graph and the electric topology are jointly designed.

Presentation Slides

Biography:

Saverio Bolognani is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Dept. of Information Engineering of the University of Padova, Italy. He received his Ph.D. degree in information engineering from the same university, on the two topics of methods and applications in networked control and feedback control design for quantum systems. He has been a visiting student at the University of California, San Diego, and a short-term visiting student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His main current research interest is distributed control, optimization, and estimation in smart power distribution networks.