Siripha Junlakarn

Advisor(s):

Marija Ilić

Research Project Description:
This work focuses on generating fair electricity pricing, based on reliability, for distribution utilities and their customers. Although different end-users might have different reliability preferences, these preferences are not taken into account in the investment decision made by a utility company. If the utility can provide differentiated reliability options according to customer preferences, it enables customers to price their reliability options according to their need. With new technologies, such as distribution automation, demand response (DR), and distributed generation (DG), they could enable the utilities to provide differentiated reliable services. This provision could be done by supplying power to customers who are willing to pay for it. An electric utility would deploy sectionalizing switches to reconfigure the networks such that switches operate in an optimal way to deliver power to priority customers. Moreover, if the power grid is disconnected from the main substation, a DG located in the grid could be utilized to supply power to customers corresponding to their adjusted energy demand during power outages. Besides, the application of this work could be used to manage long power outages in grids.

Under the current provision of reliability, customers rarely have a choice to avoid that power outage, except installing their backup generators. Furthermore, customers’ preferences for service quality are not taken into account in the investment decision made by utility companies. Although utility companies are regulated to provide the acceptable level of reliability, existing regulatory methods do not guarantee that such a level would reflect customers’ demands for reliability. In addition, the regulatory practices are facing challenges from investments in new technologies, such as distribution automation, DR, DG, and etc. The investments in new technologies depart from traditional grid investments due to uncertainty of technical changes. Although both the utility and the regulator may not have much experience assessing the new technologies, in practice, utility companies seem to have better information on opportunities for investments than does the regulator. With the asymmetric information, it is difficult for the regulator to approve investment proposals and incentivize utilities to invest in new technologies.

Smart grid technologies, such as distribution automation and advanced metering infrastructure, can effectively manage power outages and provide a differentiation of reliability based on customers’ value of reliability. The provision of differentiated reliability could be done by supplying power to customers who are willing to pay for it. An electric utility would deploy sectionalizing switches to reconfigure the networks such that switches operate in an optimal way to deliver power to priority customers. Moreover, if the power grid is disconnected from the main substation, a DG located in the grid could be utilized to supply power to customers corresponding to their adjusted energy demand during power outages.

We have studied reconfiguration as a possible approach to providing differentiated reliability options to customers in urban and suburban distribution networks by reconfiguring the networks such that sectionalizing and tie switches operate in an optimal way to deliver power to priority customers. The problem was formulated as an optimization problem with the objective of minimizing utility liability while assuring the supply of power to priority customers. The optimization was performed off-line and the optimal switch combinations were stored in a database for use by the utility in real time. In the study, we also found that utilities would invest in providing differentiated reliability options as long as the cost of these investments is lower than the liability cost utilities must pay for failing to deliver service.

Our next goal is to find a way to encourage the distribution utility to effectively invest in the reliable services. This could be a market mechanism that separates reliability market from energy market in order to maximize social welfare among all market participants; end-users, DG owners, and the electric utility.

Research Interests: Distributed Generation (DG), Reliability, Reconfiguration, Protection System

Publications:

Book Chapter:

S. Junlakarn, and M.D. Ilic, “Toward Reconfigurable Smart Distribution Systems for Differentiated Reliability of Service," Engineering IT- Enabled Sustainable Electricity Services: The Tale of Two Low-Cost Green Azores Islands, Springer, Chapter 18, 2013.

Journal Paper:
S. Junlakarn, and M.D. Ilic, “Distribution System Reliability Options and Minimizing Utility Liability," IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 2014, available online.

S. Junlakarn, M. Ilic, “Toward Implementation of the Reconfiguration for Providing Differentiated Reliability Options in Distribution Systems,” in Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting.

S. Julakarn, and N. Hoonchareon, “Optimal Sizing of Distributed Generators in Consideration of Impacts on Protection Coordination Using Genetic Algorithms,” in Proceedings of the 30th Electrical Engineering Conference (Thailand), 2007 (in Thai).

S. Julakarn, C. Panitchart, and N. Hoonchareon, “On Determination of Optimal Locations and Sizes of Distributed Generation for Reducing Distribution Loss Using Deterministic Approach,” in Proceedings of the 29th Electrical Engineering Conference (Thailand), Vol. 1, pp. 161-164, 2006 (in Thai).

S. Julakarn, P. Indradesa, N. Hoonchareon, and B. Eua-Arporn, “Impacts of Distributed Generation on Distribution System Protection and Reliability,” in Proceedings of the 29th Electrical Engineering Conference (Thailand), Vol. 1, pp. 13-16, 2006 (in Thai).

S. Junlakarn, and D. Banjerdpongchaive, “Demand Forecast and Performance of Block Ice Producing Control System,” in Proceedings of the 28th Electrical Engineering Conference (Thailand), 2005 (in Thai).

Poster:
S. Junlakarn, C.Y. Tee, and M.D. Ilic, "Providing Differentiated Level of Reliability: Technology Options and Investment Decision," in Proceedings of the 8th Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Conference, 2012.

Thesis:
Siripha Junlakarn, "Optimal Sizing of Distributed Generators in Consideration of Impacts on Protection Coordination Using Genetic Algorithms," Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) Thesis, Chulalongkorn University, 2007 (in Thai).

Awards/Fellowships:
Full scholarship – the Royal Thai Government (2010 – present)
Full scholarship – the Center of Excellence in Electrical Power Technology, Chulalongkorn University (2005 – 2007)

Personal Webpage: https://sites.google.com/site/puisiripha/