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Due to the promoted integration of renewable sources, a further growth of strongly transient, distributed generation is expected. Thus, the existing electrical grid may reach its physical limits. To counteract this, and to fully exploit the viable potential of renewables, grid-balancing measures are crucial. In this work, battery storage systems are embedded in a grid simulation to evaluate their potential for grid balancing. The overall setup is based on a real, low-voltage distribution grid topology, real smart meter household load profiles, and real photovoltaics load data. An autonomous optimization routine, driven by a one-way communicated incentive, determines the prospective battery operation mode. Different battery positions and incentives are compared to evaluate their impact. The configurations incorporate a baseline simulation without storage, a single, central battery storage or multiple, distributed battery storages which together have the same power and capacity. The incentives address either market conditions, grid balancing, optimal photovoltaic utilization, load shifting, or self-consumption. Simulations show that grid-balancing incentives result in lowest peak-to-average power ratios, while maintaining negligible voltage changes in comparison to a reference case. Incentives reflecting market conditions for electricity generation, such as real-time pricing, negatively influence the power quality, especially with respect to the peak-to-average power ratio. A central, feed-in-tied storage performs better in terms of minimizing the voltage drop/rise and shows lower distribution losses, while distributed storages attached at nodes with electricity generation by photovoltaics achieve lower peak-to-average power ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Hosting capacity knowledge is of great importance for distribution utilities to assess the amount of PV capacity possible to accommodate without troubling the operation of the grid. In this paper, a novel method to quantify the hosting capacity of low voltage grids is presented. The method starts considering a state of fully exploited building rooftop solar potential. A downward process is proposed—from the starting state with expected violations on the grid operation to a state with no violations. In this process, the installed PV capacity is progressively reduced. The reductions are made sequentially and selectively aiming to mitigate specific violations: nodes overvoltage, lines overcurrent and transformer overloading. Evaluated on real data of fourteen low voltage grids from Austria, the method proposed exhibits benefits in terms of higher hosting capacities and lower computational costs compared to stochastic methods. Furthermore, it also quantifies hosting capacity expansions achievable by overcoming the effect of the violations. The usage of a potential different from solar rooftops is also presented, demonstrating that a user-defined potential allows to quantify the hosting capacity in a more general setting with the method proposed. • A novel method to quantify the hosting capacity of low voltage grids. • Comparison of the performance of the method proposed with stochastic methods from the literature. • Quantification of expansions in the hosting capacity as a result of the application of the method proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

PV hosting capacity quantification is currently of importance for distribution system operators to manage upcoming PV installation requests, especially within low-voltage grids. The violation-mitigation-based (VMB) method presented a novel downward approach to quantify the PV hosting capacity in low-voltage grids, having the advantage of also quantifying possible expansions in the hosting capacity. The VMB method, however, requires typically hundreds of power flow simulations to quantify the hosting capacity in a low-voltage grid. In this paper, we address this issue by introducing sensitivity matrices to optimize the downward process of quantification. Evaluated in 79 low-voltage feeders from Austria, the enhanced VMB method reduces the number of iterations required from a median of 1764 to 7 while obtaining the same or higher hosting capacity values. The reduced computational effort permits the application of the method proposed at a large-scale. The application of the method proposed on the standard CIGRE residential low-voltage grid is also presented for possible comparison with other methods. • A heuristic method to quantify the hosting capacity in low voltage grids. • The use of voltage and current sensitivities to reduce the computational effort. • Evaluation of the method proposed on real low voltage grids from Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...