Model Predictive Control of Energy Storage Systems for Power Regulation in Electricity Distribution Networks

This paper proposes a control strategy for an Energy Storage System (ESS) installed on a secondary substation of an electricity distribution line in order to mitigate power variations with respect to the day-ahead planning caused by renewable energy sources on the distribution line. In particular, the aim of the controller is to keep the power profile of at primary substations close to a reference profile foreseen on a day-ahead basis while guaranteeing the stable operation of its ESS, in terms of their state-of-charge dynamics. The inclusion of the ESS contribution to the network operation is attained by the integration of properly defined power flow constraints in a Model Predictive Control Framework. The proposed approach has been validated through numerical simulations, representative of real operative scenarios.