Emerging sustainable solutions in smart grids such as Distributed Energy Resources(DERs), Vertical Farms (VFs), and Electric Vehicles (EV s) enhances the resilience of the
Active Distribution Networks (ADNs). We propose an operational framework to integrate
emerging technologies into ADN under solar and demand uncertainty to reduce the operation
cost, carbon emissions, and power quality issues of the smart communities. We primarily focus
on enhancing the reliability and efficiency of power systems through advanced optimization
techniques. A key contribution of this work is the development of a second-order cone
programming (SOCP) relaxation approach that addresses cycle constraints in the optimal
xxi
power flow (OPF) problem. We demonstrate how this method improves the tightness
of solutions and reduces computation burdens compared to traditional convex relaxation
methods. Additionally, we introduced a strategic bidding framework in electricity markets
based on the convexified AC market clearing problem (MCP) for market participants to
optimize their bids under various market conditions. Our results demonstrate that the
proposed framework renders 52.3% more profit for the market participants. The increase
in utilization of solar generation units and EV s in past decades, especially in California,
lead to power quality and uncertainty issues in the grid. We proposed the model of Smart
Inverters (SI s) to leverage the potential of DERs to offer grid services through reactive
power compensation. The results show that solar dispatchability increases by 12% and
voltage violation is mitigated when the proposed volt/VAR model is utilized for IEEE 33-bus
system. Furthermore, we propose the model of various systems in VFs as an emerging
sustainable demand responsive asset in ADNs to mitigate the carbon emissions of the smart
communities and increase the resiliency of ADNs against uncertainties in demand and solar
generation. To quantify the uncertainties more accurate based on the real data and decrease
the conservatism of the robust optimization (RO) method, we propose the data-driven mean
robust optimization (MRO) approach for the vertical farming expansion planning problem in
ADNs. It is shown that the proposed MRO method can mitigate the carbon emissions of the
smart city by up to 10% and decrease the total operation and planning cost of the system
compared to utilizing the more conservative RO method.