Coordinated Operational Optimization Approach for PV Inverters and BESSs to Minimize the Energy Loss of Distribution Networks

The article presents a coordinated operational optimization approach for PV inverters and battery energy storage systems (BESSs) to minimize the energy loss in distribution networks with time-varying load demand and PV generation. PV inverters are modeled to inject available PV generation into a network during PV generation hours and to provide VAr compensation during rest of the time. BESSs are modeled to store surplus PV power during high penetration of PV generation and to discharge stored energy during no/low PV generation hours. An optimization problem is formulated to determine the optimal VAr compensation setpoints for PV inverters and optimal charge/discharge schedule for the BESSs. The maximization of PV hosting capacity and the minimization of energy loss are the objective functions for the first and second stages, respectively. The limits on bus voltage magnitude, line flow, state-of-charge (SOC) of BESSs, charging and discharging of BESSs, PV inverter capacity, etc., are considered to be the operational constraints. The CONOPT solver of general algebraic modeling system software is used for solving the optimization problem. The contribution of the proposed approach is to show that significant energy loss reduction can be obtained with the optimal time-varying setpoints of PV inverters and BESSs.