Smarter grids using distributed learning control

Abstract

The emerging science of smart grids has often featured people from outside the area of power grids who are not engaged with the needs of industry and often ignore the existing science of power grids built up for nearly a century. The lead author has been participating in moves (see Power Globe for instance) towards a revival of a more considered scientific approach such as happened in the power grids area from the late 70’s to the mid 90’s (and led to many of the leaders of fundamentals of power grids such as Ilic, Wu, Sauer etc). The lead author is a long-standing participant in the study of power grids with a strongly scientific view (he is also independently active in stability theory, control theory and network science) and the other coauthors are younger experts in control theory and learning respectively. This paper will review some recent progress with a more scientific view to complement and enhance the more realistic developments in industry.