Active power reference tracking in electricity distribution grids over non-ideal communication networks

Distribution system operators may in the future control active power of selected consumers and generators in order to achieve a desired grid behavior. For cost efficient deployment, this control application may use existing communication infrastructure with non-ideal properties, i.e. imposing delays and losses. This paper considers a control strategy for this use-case, called Active Power Reference Tracking, and investigates its performance for a realistic grid scenario with non-ideal communication using a Real-Time Co-domain Testbed and extensive simulation experiments. Results from the distributed implementation in the testbed show the effectiveness of the controller and that the considered scenario of the reference tracking application is not significantly affected by delays and losses as originating from PLC communication in good conditions. The subsequent simulation experiments show the resilience of the reference tracking control application to end-to-end message delays up to the order of 3 control periods and to message loss up to approximately 70%.