Optimal Integration of Microgrids in Smart Grids During Cold-Load Pick-Up

This paper explores the use of microgrids during cold-load pickup (CLPU) phenomena, which are typical after an outage in distribution networks with high share of ther-mostatically controlled load (TCL). We present a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation for scheduling service restoration (SR). The proposed model computes the optimal re-connection sequence, generation and storage levels for the microgrids as well as power supply level from the main grid. The model is tested on different modifications of the IEEE-13 feeder network. The proposed approach is suitable for practical SR scheduling and to test the CLPU capabilities of a distribution network during the planning process.