Distributed Control and Efficient Optimization Methods for Smart Grid

Smart grid proactively uses the state-of-the-art technologies in communications, computing, and control to improve efficiency, reliability, sustainability, and stability of the electrical grid. In particular, distribution networks are expected to undergo dramatic changes by incorporating a large number of sensors and thousands of controllable devices such as distributed generators, batteries and flexible loads. To be able to efficiently operate such complex large-scale systems, new sets of control and optimization tools should be developed. On a slow time scale, optimization theory plays a major role in solving various large-scale decision-making problems for future power transmission and distribution systems. One major challenge is the design of computational methods for handling fairly detailed power system models that often include continuous and discrete nonlinearities. It is also important to develop distributed computation techniques to shift the computation from a centralized platform to many computing devices