Connecting renewable power plants to the grid must comply with certain codes and requirements. One requirement is the ramp rate constraint, which must be fulfilled in order to avoid penalties. As this service becomes compulsory with an increased grid penetration of renewable, all possible solutions must be explored especially that large battery energy storage systems are still expensive solutions. Thus, in order to make battery investment economic viable, the use of second life batteries is investigated in the present work. This paper proposes a method for determining firstly, the optimal rating of a second life battery energy storage system (SLBESS) and secondly, to obtain the power exchange and battery state of charge profiles during the operation. These will constitute the cycling patterns for testing batteries and studying the ageing effect of this specific application. Real data from the Spanish electricity market for a whole year are used for validating the results.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Voltage source converters (VSCs) are highly vulnerable to DC fault current; thus, protection is one of the most important concerns associated with the implementation of multi-terminal VSC-based DC networks. This paper proposes a protection strategy for medium voltage DC (MVDC) distribution systems. The strategy consists of a communication-assisted fault location method and a fault isolation scheme that provides an economic, fast and selective protection by means of using the minimum number of DC circuit breakers (DCCBs). This paper also introduces a backup protection which is activated if communication network fails. The effectiveness of the proposed protection strategy is analyzed through real-time simulation studies by use of the hardware in the loop (HIL) approach. Furthermore, the effects of fault isolation process on the connected loads are also investigated. The results show that the proposed strategy can effectively protect multi-terminal DC distribution networks and VSC stations against different types of faults.

The integration of renewable energies and the usage of battery energy storage systems (BESS) into the residential buildings opens the possibility for minimizing the electricity bill for the end-user. This paper proposes the use of batteries that have already been aged while powering electric vehicles, during their main first life application, for providing residential demand response service. The paper considers the decayed characteristics of these batteries and optimizes the rating of such a second life battery energy storage system (SLBESS) for maximizing the economic benefits of the user's energy consumption during a period of one year. Furthermore, simulations were performed considering real data of PV generation, consumption, prices taken from the Spanish market and costs of battery and photovoltaic systems.

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A fault location method and a fault clearance strategy are presented in this paper for medium voltage dc (MVDC) distribution system. MVDC systems are applicable for connection between microgrids (MGs) and integration of renewable energy systems (RESs) to distribution systems. Due to the specifications of fault current in dc systems, it is difficult to coordinate the over current (O/C) relays based on the time inverse grading. Hence, in this paper, a communication link between O/C relays is used to diagnose the fault location. On the other hand, the fault clearance is done by the operation of dc circuit breakers (DCCB) and isolator switches. In this protection strategy, O/C relays detect the faulty part using communication links and after the fault extinguishing by DCCBs, the dc switches isolate the faulty part. Finally, the sound parts of the system re-energize when DCCB are re-closed. Moreover, data transmission by communication links is based on the standard messages of IEC61850 protocol.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version