title: Data-driven modeling of solar-powered urban microgrids.
abstract: Distributed generation takes center stage in today's rapidly changing energy landscape. Particularly, locally matching demand and generation in the form of microgrids is becoming a promising alternative to the central distribution paradigm. Infrastructure networks have long been a major focus of complex networks research with their spatial considerations. We present a systemic study of solar-powered microgrids in the urban context, obeying real hourly consumption patterns and spatial constraints of the city. We propose a microgrid model and study its citywide implementation, identifying the self-sufficiency and temporal properties of microgrids. Using a simple optimization scheme, we find microgrid configurations that result in increased resilience under cost constraints. We characterize load-related failures solving power flows in the networks, and we show the robustness behavior of urban microgrids with respect to optimization using percolation methods. Our findings hint at the existence of an optimal balance between cost and robustness in urban microgrids.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Arda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Halu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Social Science, Networks Department, IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies, 55100 Lucca, Italy.; Institute for Complex Systems of the National Research Council, Physics Department, University of Rome "Sapienza," Piazzale Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3414-2686
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scala
authors.affiliation: Center for Complex Engineering Systems at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Abdulaziz
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6472-9341
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khiyami
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Marta C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: González
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012993:Solar Energy
keywords: complex networks; distributed generation; microgrid; power systems; resilience; solar PV
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