EAGER:Renewables: Reversing the Death Spiral: Sustainable Integration of Renewables and Storage in Distribution Systems

这项研究开发了新的模型和方法，解决了在配电系统中整合可再生能源和储存的问题，目标是扭转因并入太阳能和风能等基于消费者的可再生能源以及分布式能源储存的电网而导致的“死亡螺旋”。死亡螺旋指的是一种情况，在这种情况下，计划外的可再生能源和存储的整合可能会将电网推向次优运行状态，这种情况即使不是不可能纠正，也是代价高昂的。该项目直接解决了大规模整合可再生能源发电的主要障碍；预计解决这一问题将产生重大的社会效益。该方法的一项关键创新是开发了新的整合模式，在这种模式下，公用事业公司拥有并运营可再生的整合和储存业务。通过对分布式可再生资源的协调整合，所提出的整合模式能够有效地收获可再生资源，同时为消费者提供比基于消费者的整合方案更多的经济利益。预期的调查结果将为未来电网的监管政策制定提供见解和一般指导方针。它具有提供洞察力的潜力，使监管机构和行业能够扭转上述死亡螺旋。本研究的多学科性质将为研究生提供丰富的经验，并将丰富本科课程。提出并分析了基于效用的整合模型和涉及公用事业和消费者的混合模型。利用博弈论的方法，描述了公用事业公司和消费者之间的互动，并量化了零售利润和消费者剩余之间的基本权衡。刻画了不同集成模式下零售利润和消费者剩余之间可实现的权衡的帕累托前线，并由此得到了最优的可再生集成和存储操作。该项目还解决了涉及多种不确定因素和在多个服务提供商之间互动中缺乏公共信息的实际问题。开发了新的在线学习技术，以实现零售电力的最优动态定价。该研究项目在理论和实践上推进了最先进的技术，并有助于建立一条经济上可行、操作上安全的途径，实现清洁能源的可持续整合。

This research develops new models and methodologies that address integrating renewables and storage in distribution systems with the goal of reversing a "death spiral" resulting from integration into the power grid of consumer-based renewable generation sources such as solar and wind, as well as distributed energy storage. The death spiral refers to a situation in which unplanned integration of renewables and storage may drive the power grid toward a suboptimal operating situation that is costly, if not impossible, to correct. This project directly addresses this major obstacle to large scale integration of renewable generation; it is expected that resolving this problem will have major societal benefits. A key innovation of the approach is the development of new integration models in which the utility owns and operates renewable integration and storage operations. With a coordinated integration of distributed renewable resources, the proposed integration model is able to harvest renewable resources efficiently and, at the same time, provide more economic benefits to consumers than what can be achieved by consumer-based integration schemes. The expected findings will provide insights and general guidelines for regulatory policy making for the future power grid. It has the potential of providing insights allowing regulators and industry to reverse the death spiral referred to above. The multidisciplinary nature of this research will provide a rich experience for graduate students and will enrich the undergraduate curriculum.Utility-based integration models and hybrid models involving both utilities and consumers are proposed and analyzed. Using a game theoretic approach, interactions between utilities and consumers are characterized and fundamental tradeoffs between retail profit and consumer surplus are quantified. Pareto fronts of achievable tradeoff between retail profit and consumer surplus under different integration models are characterized, from which optimal renewable integrations and storage operations are developed. The project also addresses practical issues involving various uncertainties and the lack of public information in the interactions of multiple service providers. New online learning techniques are developed for optimal dynamic pricing of retail electricity. The research project advances the state of the art in theory and practice and helps to establish an economically viable and operationally secure pathway toward sustainable integration of clean energy sources.