Optimal Allocation of Battery in Electrical Distribution Systems with Distributed Resources

Energy consumption with recovery of surplus production and availability at peak times is desirable for sustainable environments. The objective of the present paper is to plan storage systems based on battery banks in electrical distribution systems having distributed resources. In particular, wind-based power is considered, and the goal is to determine the quantity, location and capacity of batteries, as well as their operation conditions considering investment and operating costs. In this sense, a three-stage method is proposed. The first one determines candidate buses for battery allocation by applying a proposed sensitivity index that seeks to improve the quality and computational efficiency, obtained from an optimal power flow model. The second stage comprises a metaheuristic algorithm to optimize quantity and location of batteries and an optimal power flow to determine the batteries’ capacity, where the power injected or absorbed by batteries is modeled as an optimization variable. Finally, the optimal power flow of the third stage seeks to optimize the batteries and system operation. Four case studies are presented with different test systems. The proposed approach proved to be applicable for these systems, since it provides a reduction in the total planning and operating cost considering grid reliability and gives results that have good cost reduction from comparison with other solutions of literature. The main motivation is to show the applicability of a novel approach based on optimization procedure and sensitivity index to investigate issues that are relevant for planning storage systems in distribution networks.