The smart grid facilitates wider usage of highly variable wind power and adapts the microgrid concept to promote and coordinate various types of DERs/loads, such as DGs, ESSs, EVs, and DRLs. Because of the novelty, diversity, variability, and uncertainty of these devices, their operational mechanism and probabilistic and electrical characteristics are much more complicated than traditional ones. Recently, much research has been conducted on the modelling of DGs, but further investigation of steady-state/dynamic models of other components is also necessary. This theme aims to comprehensively investigate and develop accurate models for all important components, including wind generators, wind farms, ESSs, EVs, and DRLs.

Advanced ICTs provide the backbone for smart grid development and an opportunity for the development and application of advanced real-time monitoring systems. This theme focuses on development and application of one wide-area monitoring system (i.e., PMU application), one local monitoring system (i.e., RTTR application), and one evaluation method (i.e., reliability evaluation) to address the critical issues of power system blackout as discussed in Section 2. This work will provide useful references for other wide-area and local system monitoring and evaluation approaches. Benefits and expectations of communication networks for these and other power system applications will also be analyzed. MATLAB Simulink SimPowerSystems will be used as the simulation platform to comprehensively test the proposed works by applying them to IEEE test systems and realistic power systems.

New smart grid initiatives, such as DSM programs, VVO, microgrids, and various components with diverse technologies, significantly affect the objectives and solution methods for system planning. This theme focuses on further investigating critical issues resulting from these initiatives and their impacts on existing system planning with the aim to fully utilize their features and functions. With this new knowledge and information, effective planning tools for electrical generation, transmission, and distribution will be developed. The proposed methods will be implemented using MATLAB software and tested comprehensively by applying them to IEEE test systems and realistic power systems. The simulation results will be further validated using commercial software packages such as CYMDIST and PowerWorld simulator.

The smart grid changes the operational structure of conventional power systems from centralized to distributed. This change significantly affects the effectiveness of existing decision tools and control mechanisms for system operation. This theme focuses on addressing the challenges the smart grid faces with respect to secure and reliable operation. New decision tools for power system operation and new strategies and mechanisms for controlling and coordinating highly variable wind power generation and new devices will be developed.