c
 and emergency conditions to the Master controller.

The Master controller performs various optimization




  


 
 functions for the reliable and economical operation





   

  
 
 of the Microgrid. Slave controllers perform local
 


 
  


   settings based on the commands received from the
    
 

 

  
 
 Master controller.

 




 


 
 








       Microgrid operates in three modes: Normal, Emergency


 



 

 


and Island. Some general functions like optimization,


 

    
 


 
 
  




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 performance assessment, and protection, are common to all





   



  
 modes of operation. Specific functions, like Black start


 

 
 








  capability, are seen only in the Island mode of operation.

     c


  
c!
 
 Artificial Intelligence plays a vital role in Microgrid


 


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   operation, allowing it to provide better solutions to different


  
 
. problems. Though Artificial Intelligence techniques include
Keywords: micro grid control, neural network,
power system operation
INTRODUCTION
The inter-connection of a large number of
renewable energy sources to the grid causes problems of
control and stability, and also raises concerns about
reliability, power quality and security. To resolve these
concerns, the preferred approach is to view Distributed
Energy Resources (DER) and their associated loads as a
single entity, the 'Microgrid'. Essentially, Microgrid is a
smaller portion of the power system. It accomplishes
enhanced reliability of supply, quality of power and
optimal cost of operation using a combination of DER
(like solar photovoltaic cells, small wind turbines and fuel
cells), storage (like batteries and fly wheels) and loads.
In a conventional grid, utilities manage the
balancing of demand with supply, as well as handling other
functions like stability and power quality. In a Microgrid
environment, however, these functions are largely self-
managed 1, in one of the following ways:
@? Decentralized control -- is based on the principle
that decisions should be taken locally, by the
controllers, as centralized control is difficult.
Different agents like load agent, power seller agent,
and DER agent, communicate with each other to
perform the common goals of Microgrid operation.
@? ^ierarchical control -- is achieved by using three
levels of controls -- System, Master and Slave
(Micro source and Load controllers). The System
controller provides information like market signals
Artificial Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic (FL), Genetic
Algorithms (GA), Multi Agent Systems (MAS), and Expert
Systems (ES), this article focuses on the application of ANN
to solve Micro grid problems.
ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS
ANN are composed of simple, highly inter-
connected processing units -- neurons. These work in unison
to solve specific problems. They are non-linear by nature,
with excellent features like fault-tolerance and the capability
for self-learning, which makes them robust and perfectly
suited for parallel processing. ANN are also good at
extracting the relationship between input and output variables
where well-defined or easily computable co-relations do not
exist, provided there is enough data for training.
ANN techniques are relatively easy to implement
and do not require any prior knowledge of the system model.
They include powerful pattern recognition capabilities and
are flexible to model, making them attractive for solving real
world problems. While applying ANN techniques to any
particular problem, there are issues with respect to data,
modeling and training which need to be considered.
NEED FOR ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS IN
MICROGRID
Microgrids are characterized by self-sustainability, fault
tolerance, reliability, security and power quality. To achieve
these objectives, efficient, fast, and scalable optimization and
control algorithms are required. These algorithms should be
capable of processing information intelligently and taking
critical decisions dynamically.
Though conventional techniques are successful in solving
most of the problems in Microgrid domain, there are
 situations where they lead to unsatisfactory results. These
include:
@? -arious forecasting tasks, like renewable energy
forecasting, storage forecasting and demand
forecasting, that need intelligent rules.
@? The use of new equipment like storage systems,
where monitoring and mapping of faults to different
fault conditions of the equipment is difficult.
@? The use of new equipment like power electronic
interfaces, where monitoring and mapping of faults
to different fault conditions and development of
control mechanisms is challenging.
@? The renewable energy system planning stage of the
Microgrid, where the algorithms developed need to
incorporate the practical knowledge of power
engineers.
@? The inclusion of renewable energy sources, for
which the calculation of generation units to be
committed and the economic scheduling of these
units for optimal operation is highly complex.
^ence the conventional way of modeling the algorithms for
these types of situations needs to be augmented or replaced
with intelligent techniques that are robust and fault-tolerant.
with a high degree of accuracy (in the order of 1-5% error).
In the case of a Microgrid, the load profile is not smooth, and
the uncertainty increases as the Microgrid gets smaller. Due
to high variations in the load profile, it is difficult to
accurately forecast demand. ^ence, the models developed
should try to predict the load with reasonable accuracy. Some
of the factors to be considered while developing the ANN
model are:
o? Increased responsiveness of demand to predicted
real-time electricity prices as compared to
conventional grids.
o? Classification of load profiles of different
customer classes based on the consumption of
electricity.
o? Need to input past demand as different
components (like base load, peak load, valley load,
average load and random load), instead of
combining them into a single input.
o? Dependence of the type of Microgrid on specific
input variables. e.g., Type of day
(weekday/weekend) input may not have much
effect on forecasting for a ^ospital Microgrid,
whereas it is a major factor impacting the load
profile of a Residential Microgrid.
ANN provides a promising alternative in the situations ï


?

?


-- In a Microgrid, most
outlined above. of the generation sources are renewable, where the output
depends on meteorological parameters like sunshine, wind
speed and temperature. The complex interaction of these
APPLICATION OF ARTIFICIAL NEURAL
parameters makes renewable generation forecasting a
NETWORKS TO MICROGRID FUNCTIONS challenging task, prone to significant forecasting errors due
to the highly stochastic nature of weather forecasts. ^ence an
Power system problems can be classified as non-linear, accurate prediction model is required.
dynamic, discrete, stochastic and random. Of these, non-
linear problems are difficult to solve and ANN techniques are
well suited to provide better solutions 2. The role of ANN in ?
?


-- In general, there are 2 types of
solving non-linear problems like Forecasting (Demand and
Renewable Generation), Protection, Intelligent diagnosis and
Stability of Microgrid is discussed below.
FORECASTING
One of the primary objectives of the Microgrid is to operate
economically and reliably. This depends greatly on accurate
demand forecasting and renewable generation forecasting.
@? ?????????
?

wind power forecasting. The first one forecasts the wind
speed and converts it to power using an empirical formula.
The second one directly forecasts wind power generation.
There are various physical and statistical models for wind
power prediction of up to 3 days ahead. The physical models
require mathematical modeling of various energy sources -- a
complex task. The statistical models aim to find the
relationship between meteorological predictions, historical
measurements and output generated.
As wind speed is dynamic and intermittent, and a high degree

-- The purpose of demand of non-linearity exists between wind speed and the power
forecasts is to predict the power that will be consumed by the generated, we suggest a hybrid neural network model with 2
load. In conventional power systems, demand depends on the modules to forecast wind power accurately. The first module
weather, type of day and random activities or incidents. predicts the wind speed and this can be converted to wind
There are various statistical and Artificial Intelligence power using an empirical formula. The second module
techniques which can forecast the load for the next 24 hours predicts the wind power directly. The outputs of the two
modules can be combined recursively to arrive at an accurate insights for understanding the impact of inputs on relay
final forecast. characteristics need to be given.

u?
?


-- Solar power forecasting is j


? 


??
?? 
?
dependent on multiple inputs like solar radiation, installation
angle, temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity,
time, and day type. All of these do not have a significant
impact on forecasting at all time intervals. In order to
determine the effect of these multiple inputs on the forecasted
solar power output, we propose an integrated architecture
with different models, each of which has unique inputs. Each
model forecasts a solar power output and all the outputs can
be combined recursively to deliver an accurate final forecast.
PROTECTION
The presence of Distributed Generation (DG) in a
Microgrid environment influences the design of the
protection system. Conventional distribution networks which
have unidirectional current flow employ over-current
protection schemes. But, with the inclusion of DG, network
power flows may change, making conventional protection
schemes unsuitable. Moreover, as the Microgrid acts as a
single entity to the main grid, the protection scheme should
include the capability to isolate itself in case of a fault in the
main grid. Similarly, the protection scheme should be
capable of localizing faults within the Microgrid. In
particular, the sensitivity and selectivity of the protection
system needs to be carefully designed to ensure secure and
reliable operation of the Microgrid.Conventional techniques
involve complicated calculations and may introduce errors in
the estimated fault distance 3. These can be overcome by the
application of ANN. For the reasons mentioned below, we
feel that ANN is suitable for designing an efficient Microgrid
protection scheme.
@? ANN considers the whole input space in protection
systems, while conventional fault classification
algorithms do not.
@? ANN have emerged as a pattern recognition
technique, perfect for solving pattern recognition
problems like distance protection.
@? ANN are, by nature, fault tolerant and capable of
handling corrupt data, making them good at fault
detection and fault location.
@? ANN determines fault direction accurately which is
vital due to the intermittent generation and periodic
load variation inherent in Microgrids.
As the inputs of the neural network model may affect the
operating boundaries of the relay characteristics, proper
All electrical equipment is subject to incipient faults.
These have to be monitored before they actually occur, so as
to avoid equipment failure, which results in substantial
financial loss. The incipient faults can be detected using
diagnostic techniques by observing the degradation in system
performance. Due to the nature of observed data and
available knowledge, diagnostic methods are often a
combination of statistical inference and machine learning
methods.
ANN are a better option for diagnosing faults in electrical
equipment for the following reasons:
@? They can interpolate from previous learnings and
give a more accurate response to unseen data,
making them better at handling uncertainty.
@? They are fault tolerant, so they handle corrupt or
missing data more effectively.
@? They are good non-linear function approximators by
nature, making them better at equipment
diagnostics.
@? They are more suitable for extracting the
relationship between input and output in fault
detection and diagnosis applications.
STABILITY OF MICROGRID
The time varying dynamics of an electric power
system are non-linear in nature and modeling these dynamics
with conventional techniques is challenging. Moreover, these
techniques are not applicable to the entire spectrum of
operating conditions. The integration of renewable energy
sources adds another dimension of complexity to the design
of various conventional controllers in a Microgrid. And the
data obtained from various sensors can be faulty due to bad
connections and communications or hardware failures.
As ANN are robust and fault tolerant, they are used to
design efficient power system controllers -- for PQ control,
droop control and frequency/voltage control -- that stabilize
the Microgrid during disturbances. These controllers:
@? Are efficient at handling slow and fast variations,
generation variation and fast islanding arising from
 the inclusion of renewable energy sources in
Microgrids.
@? Are efficient at handling disturbances caused by
various power electronic interfaces in Microgrids,
through a faster controller mechanism.
@? Are effective at tuning controller parameters with
the non-linear and stochastic equipment used in the
Microgrid.

CONCLUSION

The concept of Microgrid is gaining ground and demanding

new computational technologies for efficient, reliable and
secure operation, and control. With the inclusion of
intermittent renewable energy sources and dynamic loads,
operation and control of the Microgrid becomes complex.
^ence, conventional modeling techniques need to be
augmented or replaced with Artificial Intelligence techniques
to handle Microgrid operations securely, efficiently and
economically.

In this paper, we presented our point of view on the role of

Artificial Neural Networks in realizing some of the functions
of a Microgrid. We recommend further research into this
topic for an in-depth understanding of suitability of various
ANN algorithms.

References

[1] M. A. Pedrasa, 'Overview of Microgrid Management and Control',

Energy Systems Research Group, University of New South Wales.

[2] Raj Aggarwal and Y. Song, 'Artificial Neural Networks in Power

Systems -- Part 3', Power Engineering Journal, December 1998.

[3. K. K. Li, L. L. Lai and A. K. David, 'Application of Artificial Neural

Network in Fault Location Technique', International Conference on Electric
Utility Deregulation and Restructuring and Power Technologies, London,
April 4-7, 2000.