A Methodology for Optimal Distributed Storage Planning in Smart Distribution Grids

This paper proposes a methodology for optimal planning of distributed storage systems (DSS) in smart grids with high penetration of renewable sources. The DSS can provide distribution systems with various benefits, including arbitrage gain, reduction in the system losses, system resilience enhancement, reduction in nondispatchable energy curtailment, and peak load shaving. In particular, by alleviating the peak load, the system upgrade time can be deferred to future years, resulting in noticeable financial gains for the system operator. In this paper, the problem of DSS planning for optimizing the discounted economic gain of the system operator is formulated and solved as a mixed-integer convex program. Various economic gains are taken into account and the stochasticity of the loads and renewable generations is accounted for by evaluating the total expected gain. Numerical results for DSS planning on a 69-node, 11-kV smart grid and using real data of smart meters and renewable energy sources are presented and discussed.