In this special issue, you will find six key papers that were selected from the International Conference on Future Power Systems (FPS2005), that took place on 16-18 November 2005 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. More than 200 extended abstracts from 32 countries were received. The international scientific committee selected 140 out of these to become full papers. The various contributions were presented either in one of the 20 (parallel) sessions or as a poster session. The conference started with a general session with prominent keynote speakers from the world of politics, research and industry. It provided an actual overview on the requirements for future electrical infrastructure and the trends that can be envisaged.
In the coming years the power supply industry will be challenged by structural changes both in production and transmission of electrical energy. These changes are mainly caused by increasing penetration of renewable energy based (distributed) generation units and the incorporation of new technologies like ICT and power electronics. The scope of the conference was to discuss the consequences of these developments and to propose solutions that will cope with these challenges.
In electrical power systems, the transmission and distribution networks form a vital link between generators and consumers. The generation and consumption of electrical energy takes place simultaneously, and it is important to keep the generated and consumed power in balance. Intelligence in power systems must preserve this balance and must maintain stability.
Until now large, controllable, power stations are connected to the transmission networks and the system is operated vertically. Electrically, the generation is firmly coupled and takes care of the voltage and frequency stability. As a result of deregulation, power stations may be operated differently, and their contribution to the preservation of the voltage and the frequency in the system will reduce or even vanish. The increasing penetration level of smaller scale, mostly non-controllable, decentralized generators, connected to the system at the lower voltage levels, can also lead to a reduction of available regulating power in the system.
Traditionally, the distribution network is a passive network that depends fully on the upper-level transmission network for energy delivery, control and regulation. As most of the distributed generation is connected to the distribution network, this network needs to change into a more active (intelligent) network that is able to control and regulate its own behaviour, without a large dependency on the transmission network.
The deregulation of the electric industry coupled with the emergence of a knowledge-based information economy makes the electric business subject to rapid change. The advances in technology, the communication and speed of computers, have opened outlooks and opportunities which up till now were unimaginable.