Sharing energy resources in distribution networks: An initial investigation through OPF studies

Abstract

The ever-growing connection of distributed renewable generators is causing important modifications of the standard power flows and is increasingly challenging the operation of the electrical distribution network. In this light, electrical storage systems (ESS) will be key attributes for future grids that accommodate massive penetration of renewable plants. In this paper, the possibility to consider distributed energy resources (DER) as a common property of network community is investigated. More specifically, the base scenario with consumer-owned resources is compared to the case in which both photovoltaic (PV) arrays and ESS are shared and managed by the whole community. To do this, an efficient optimal power flow (OPF) problem with ESS charging/discharging dynamics based on the recent semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation is formulated. Finally, we use this framework to illustrate the effects of various shared solutions on a real Italian low voltage (LV) network.