Allocation of Microgrid-Forming resources for distribution systems reliability improvement

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel method to allocate distributed generation and energy storage as Microgrid-Forming Resources (MFR) to improve the reliability of medium voltage (MV) grids. A graph-based approach is used, which simplifies the circuit analysis and reduces computational time when compared to exhaustive search methods. First, a medium voltage substation-level Nodal Fault-Effect Matrix (NFEM) is derived from the feeder’s topology, which is used for predictive reliability calculations, and calibrated with historical data. Second, a reduced set of scenarios of MFR allocation are generated using a graph community approach and evaluated in terms of reliability improvement and power and energy requirements of the distributed resources. Two case studies are presented based on real grids with different reliability characteristics and the results indicate that the proposed approach is an insightful tool for distribution system planners to evaluate the integration of microgrids to improve system reliability.