This MSCA project has advanced energy internet planning, operation, and control in three main areas:
1. Structure Planning: In WP3, we discovered that loss of controllability is a key factor in energy internet cascading failures. Our new structure planning model, integrating network controllability and economic operation, is pioneering in using a controllability index for this purpose. This model has the potential to significantly reduce the risk of large-scale failures.
2. Control Strategy: WP 4 introduced novel distributed and adaptive control strategies for the energy internet. Compared with the existing studies, the proposed methods, fully distributed and not requiring expert knowledge or system models, are particularly effective for energy networks with high renewable energy penetration. This achievement has the potential to accelerate the digital decision-making.
3. Trading Mechanism. In WP5, we presented unique distribute optimization methods to achieve the optimal energy generation/consumption and optimal energy flow allocation. Compared with the existing studies, our proposed methods can simultaneously hold the features of initialization-free, distributed implementation, asynchronous communication, and strong robustness to cyberattacks. In addition, we also established the theory foundation. With this effort, this project generated new distributed power trading method and theory to solve a class of new distributed optimization problem.
The outputs of the project possess good potential impacts, since our research are capable of contributing to two UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 1) Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7); 2) Climate Action (SDG 11). Specifically, we developed distributed and mode-free control method to deal with the uncertainty of the renewable energy and enhance the system adaptivity. Meanwhile, we designed distributed trading mechanisms that are beneficial for the local utilization and integration of renewable energy sources. Thus, the outputs of the project provide potential solutions to increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. It fits well with the 2th targets of SDG 7. Moreover, we opened up new method to reconfigure the energy internet from the concept of controllability view against system cascading failure. Thus, it can effectively strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters, which fits well with the 1th target of SDG 11.