Hybrid AC/DC microgrid planning with optimal placement of DC feeders

With the significant increase in DC loads (such as data and telecommunication centers) at the power distribution level, an additional set of power electronic converters are required to connect these DC loads to the AC-dominant power network. Notably, hybrid AC/DC microgrids (MGs) serve as promising solutions to satisfying both the AC and DC loads with a reduced number of installed converters. Since DC loads may be randomly distributed in the MG, how to place DC feeders to simultaneously fulfill the economic and security requirements of MG operations remains a challenging problem. To address this issue, this paper proposes a hybrid AC/DC MG planning model to determine the optimal placement of DC feeders with the objective of minimizing the total cost of the investment of distributed energy resources (DERs), converters, and AC/DC distribution lines, as well as the operation of DERs. In particular, the power flow of the hybrid AC/DC MG is derived in a unified manner and then incorporated in the planning model. Eventually, the proposed model suffices to find the optimal number and siting for both DERs and DC feeders while ensuring the continuality of the DC feeders. The proposed model is tested in two MG-based distribution systems, and its effectiveness is validated by the results of numerical experiments.