Towards a Blackout-Resilient Smart Grid Architecture

Abstract:
The growing prominence of renewable energy sources, which were not considered within existing power system restoration methods, is introducing both challenges and flexibilities for the Smart Grid restoration. This paper introduces a concept for an automatic, decentralized restoration approach for distribution level of the Smart Grid. The prime goal is the development of a restoration method that uses available renewables to restore the ICT system and to serve as many loads as possible. This enables further grid restoration on the one hand and reduces the effects of a long-term blackout for customers on the other. By setting up a network function virtualization-based communication infrastructure, the resilience of the ICT system in a blackout situation is enhanced. An agent-based restoration algorithm is then executed in order to restore the grid successively.