Smart Microgrids : New Advances, Challenges & Opportunities in the Actual Power Systems

In recent years, electrical power and energy systems have undergone an unprecedented revolution never observed before. The liberalisation of electricity markets, the integration of electrical vehicles, information technology innovation, advanced communication systems, and smart-metering, etc., are all contributing to major changes in the basic operations of electrical power systems in their entirety. Consequently, all these aspects must enable electrical power and energy systems to become more intelligent, providing benefits, not only for the utilities and power systems operators, but also for consumers and society as a whole. This book aims to share, address and disseminate state-of-the-art research, development and implementation results of microgrids in a simple way, in order to bring researchers, engineers and practitioners world-wide together, from both academia and industry, with the aim of fostering new advances; identifying challenges and opportunities in technology operation; and planning and design interactions among engineers, researchers and stakeholders in this important field of knowledge. This textbook consists of six chapters that have been written by relevant academics, researchers and engineers. Most of the chapters include state-of-the-art of algorithms, methods, know-how and examples of applications in academic or industrial problems, as well as their solutions through the most adequate optimisation technique. Researchers, engineers and students are encouraged to develop their own simple computer programs in order to solve the problems they encounter using the techniques outlined in this book.