Coordination of DERs for Grid Reliability via Day-ahead Demand-Supply Power Bounds

TL;DR

This paper proposes a day-ahead two-layer coordination scheme for distributed energy resources (DERs) that enhances grid reliability by managing demand-supply bounds despite uncertainties and constraints, improving transformer violation reduction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel two-layer control scheme using demand bounds and supply optimization to coordinate DERs effectively under real-world uncertainties.

Findings

Captures 62% of the transformer violation reduction of an ideal centralized controller.

Addresses uncertainties and constraints in DER coordination.

Demonstrates effectiveness through simulation results.

Abstract

A previous study has shown that coordinating DERs to protect the distribution grid can significantly reduce the infrastructure upgrades needed to address future increases in DER and electrification penetrations. Implementing such coordination in the real world, however, is challenging due the temporal and spatial uncertainties about the loads and renewable generation, smart meter and network delays, incomplete information about the grid, different consumer objectives and privacy constraints, and scalability of the coordination scheme. This paper describes a day-ahead 2-layer DER coordination scheme that addresses these challenges. A global controller uses historical load data to compute day-ahead hourly demand upper and lower bounds for each consumer node. It then solves a largest volume axis-aligned box optimization problem to determine corresponding supply power bounds which if followed, ensures grid reliability. A local controller at each consumer node then determines the DER power injections which satisfy the consumer's objectives while obeying its supply bounds. Simulation results demonstrate, for example, that this scheme can capture 62% of the reduction in transformer violations achievable by the perfect-foresight centralized controller used in the aforementioned previous study.