Author Description

This dissertation, "An Investigation Into the Electric Spring Technologies" by Shuo, Yan,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: The deployment of renewable energy sources (RESs) could relive the grid from the heavy reliance on fossil fuel for power generation. On the other hand, the increasing penetration of stochastic RESs poses new challenges for the grid. Recent report and survey indicate that when RESs reach a certain level of the total power generation, the stability of the power grid could be interrupted. Maintaining the balance of power supply and demand is the elementary rule of keeping the grid stable. This task has become increasingly challenging when the share of RESs keeps escalating. Supply-side management is one pillar of the solution in taming the intermittency of RESs. Power limiting and droop control are typical examples of supply regulation to provide frequency and voltage support. An alternative approach is to use storage facilities in keep the supply-to-demand balance at the expense of high price and limited capacity. It is notable that the upgrade of power grid into a smart version spurs the renovation of all sectors from supply to demand. Under this trend, traditional control paradigm of "supply following demand" in the grid is gradually being supplemented by "demand following supply," In the face of climbing share of RESs, such a change become especially necessary. "Demand-side management (DSM)" techniques such as load scheduling, direct load control, real-time pricing, and demand bidding have been proposed. While these DSM methods provide forecasts and informatio