More than one billion people do not have electricity access [1], largely because of insufficient centralized power systems in developing countries.
engineering
Description
INTRODUCTION
More than one billion people do not have electricity access [1], largely because of insufficient centralized power systems in developing countries. The need for electricity in remote and rural areas and the evolving demands on the existing bulk power infrastructure have driven extensive development of microgrids in recent years. Microgrids naturally incorporate distributed renewable sources and are inherently decentralized. However, designing and installing a microgrid to electrify an off-grid community typically requires specialized planning. Electrical networks which could be formed by the ad hoc interconnection of modular power sources and loads by non-specialist users would remove barriers to energy access, allowing decentralized electricity markets to proliferate in an unprecedented manner. Broadly, the critical challenges of ad hoc microgrids are: 1) the microgrid components (power sources, loads, and lines) should be designed so that any network formed by connecting many units always has an appropriate and stable equilibrium point, 2) the sources should be controlled in a coordinated and decentralized manner to manage power dispatch, and 3) the system should function entirely autonomously under significant uncertainty regarding the network configuration and power supply and demand. To evaluate stability, traditional power system operators use computationally intensive simulations and empirical testing of the pre-determined network topology
