Abstract
This paper presents numerical analysis of two alternative optimization approaches intended to support an EV aggregation agent in optimizing buying bids for the day-ahead electricity market. A study with market data from the Iberian electricity market is used for comparison and validation of the forecasting and optimization performance of the global and divided optimization approaches. The results show that evaluating the forecast quality separately from its impact in the optimization results is misleading, because a forecast with a low error might result in a higher cost than a forecast with higher error. Both bidding approaches were also compared with an inflexible EV load approach where the EV are not controlled by an aggregator and start charging when they plug-in. Results show that optimized bids allow a considerable cost reduction when compared to an inflexible load approach, and the computational performance of the algorithms satisfies the requirements for operational use by a future real EV aggregation agent.

Abstract

Abstract
The decarbonization of the economy, for which the contribution of power systems is significant, is a growing trend in Europe and in the world. In order to achieve the Paris Agreement's ambitious environmental goals, a substantial increase in the contribution of renewable sources to the energy generation mix is required. This trend brings about relevant challenges as the integration of this type of sources increases, namely in terms of the distribution system operation. In this paper, the challenges foreseen for future power systems are identified and the most effective approaches to deal with them are reviewed. The strategies include the development of Smart Grid technologies (meters, sensors, and actuators) coupled with computational intelligence that act as new sources of data, as well as the connection of distributed energy resources to distribution grids, encompassing the deployment of distributed generation and storage systems and the dissemination of electric vehicles. The impact of these changes in the distribution system as a whole is evaluated from a technical and environmental perspective. In addition, a review of management and control architectures designed for distribution systems is conducted. This article is categorized under: Energy Infrastructure > Systems and Infrastructure Energy Infrastructure > Economics and Policy

Abstract
The penetration of distributed generation in medium (MV) and low (LV) voltage distribution grids has been steadily increasing every year in multiple countries, thus creating new technical challenges in grid operation and motivating developments in distributed optimization for flexibility management. The traditional centralized optimal power flow (OPF) algorithm can solve technical constraints violation. However, computational efficiency, new technologies (e.g., edge computing) and control architectures (e.g., web-of-cells) are demanding for distributed approaches. This work formulates a novel distributed multi-period OPF for three-phase unbalanced grids that is essential when integrating energy storage units in operational planning (e.g., day-ahead) of LV or local energy community grids. The decentralized constrained optimization problem is solved with the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) adapted for unbalanced LV grids and multi-period optimization problems. A 33-bus LV distribution grid is used as a case-study in order to define optimal battery storage scheduling along a finite time horizon that minimizes overall grid operational costs, while complying with technical constraints of the grid (e.g., voltage and current limits) and battery state-of-charge constraints.

Abstract
The adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) will revolutionize the storage capacity in the power system and, therefore, will contribute to mitigate the uncertainty of renewable generation. In addition, EVs have fast response capabilities and are suitable for frequency regulation, which is essential for the proliferation of intermittent renewable sources. To this end, EV aggregators will arise as a market representative party on behalf of EVs. Thus, this player will be responsible for supplying the power needed to charge EVs, as well as offering their flexibility to support the system. The main goal of EV aggregators is to manage the potential participation of EVs in the reserve market, accounting for their charging and travel needs. This work follows this trend by conceiving a chance-constrained model able to optimize EVs participation in the reserve market, taking into account the uncertain behavior of EVs and their charging needs. The proposed model, includes penalties in the event of a failure in the provision of upward or downward reserve. Therefore, stochastic and chance-constrained programming are used to handle the uncertainty of a small fleet of EVs and the risk profile of the EV aggregator. Two different relaxation approaches, i.e., Big-M and McCormick, of the chance-constrained model are tested and validated for different number of scenarios and risk levels, based on an actual test case in Denmark with actual driving patterns. As a final remark, the McCormick relaxation presents better performance when the uncertainty budget increases, which is appropriated for large-scale problems.

Abstract
This paper tackles the efficient Power-Flow solution of ill-conditioned cases. In that sense, those methods based on the Continuous Newton's philosophy look very promising, however, these methodologies still present some issues mainly related with the computational efficiency or the robustness properties. In order to overcome these drawbacks, we suggest several modifications about the standard structure of the Continuous Newton's method. Thus, the standard Continuous Newton's paradigm is firstly modified with a frozen Jacobian scheme for reducing its computational burden; secondly, it is extended for being used with High-order Newton-like method for achieving higher convergence rate and, finally, a regularization scheme is introduced for improving its robustness features. On the basis of the suggested improvements, a Power-Flow solution paradigm is developed. As example, a novel Power-Flow solver based on the introduced solution framework and the 4th order Runge-Kutta formula is developed. The novel technique is validated in several realistic large-scale ill-conditioned systems. Results show that the suggested modifications allow to overcome the drawbacks presented by those methodologies based on the Continuous Newton's method. On the light of the results obtained it can be also claimed, that the developed solution paradigm constitutes a promising framework for developing robust and efficient Power-Flow solution techniques.