Adaptive robust economic dispatch and real-time control of distribution system considering controllable inverter air-conditioner clusters

With a tremendous number of renewable energy sources (RES) integrated into the distribution system, the inherent uncertainty of RES power generation brings about significant challenges in distribution and power balance within the distribution system. This article proposes an adaptive robust economic dispatch (ARED) model and a real-time control strategy for distribution systems as countermeasures, which make full use of the adjustable capabilities of controllable inverter air-conditioner (IAC) clusters. Firstly, the concept of the adjustable capacity curve (ACC) is developed to accurately quantify the adjustable capacity of an IAC cluster. Afterward, a two-stage adaptive robust optimization is formulated for ARED, which comprehensively takes the adjustable capacity of the IAC cluster and the uncertainty of RES into consideration. Meanwhile, the solution methodology of ARED is also designed based on the column and constraint generation (C&CG) algorithm, where the master problem is quadratic programming with quadratic constraints (QCQP), and the max-min sub-problem is reformulated to a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) form by taking advantage of linear duality theory and big-M method. Finally, a novel real-time decentralized control strategy for IAC clusters is also proposed for purpose of hedging against stochastic RES power fluctuation after every round of ARED decisions. The results of the case study validate the effectiveness of ARED model and real-time control strategy under different uncertainty scenarios of RES power generation.