The energy transition towards renewable energies is a global challenge accompanied by an attenuated
revival of the so called war of currents (alternating current (AC) vs. direct current (DC)) from the late 19th century. The global north is transitioning both from large-scale power plants based on AC towards relatively small-sized renewable energy sources often based on DC, and from AC transmission networks towards the integration of meshed high voltage DC transmission. At the same time, so far unelectrified areas in the global south are replacing kerosene lamps by household-based solar home systems and DC minigrids which can be interconnected to forma grid from bottom-up and eventually connect to the main AC transmission network. All those transitions pose the question of optimal transformation and operation of these (AC/DC) hybrid power systems. Although in this proposal we focus on electrical power systems, our theoretic approach will, in principle, be transferable to more general multimodal energy systems. We want to understand the behavior of hybrid power systems as an integral part ofmultimodal energy systems as a whole in order to make statements about improved operation regarding structural transformation (a priori) and control (a posteriori) in different geographic contexts, hence, departing from different initial and boundary conditions. To achieve this goal, this proposal addresses the consistentmodeling, design and analysis of multi-layered hybrid power systems with distributed control. Starting from the end of the title, “distributed control” refers to a scenario where control functionality is (spatially) distributed, and the distributed control units are required to achieve a common goal with limited communication exchange. “Hybrid power systems” refers to the AC/DC coupling within electrical power systems. This is becoming more prominent by both the increasing integration of DC based renewable energy sources and high voltage DC transmission lines to an AC dominated power network. “Multi-layered” addresses different network layers to be studied, i.e., households, microgrids as partly autonomous units of a size which is yet to be determined, microgrids coupled to a transmission network and finally hybrid AC/DC transmission networks.
