Risk assessment of renewable energy and multi-carrier energy storage integrated distribution systems

Abstract

High-power renewable energy sources (RESs) are recognized as a significant trend for the development of power distribution systems in an eco-friendly manner. Due to the aging of distribution system infrastructure, many existing systems do not have the appropriate strength level to host the high penetration of RESs. Therefore, increasing the hosting capacity of RESs in distribution systems will lead to an increase in operational risks. Hence, distribution system operators are looking for operational solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of using non-dispatchable high-power RESs in existing systems. According to some strong evidence, multi-carrier energy storage systems (ESSs) can provide more operational flexibility for power distribution systems to enhance system strength levels in the presence of a high proportion of renewable power. Motivated by this observation, this paper presents a stochastic risk assessment strategy to comprehensively evaluate the performance of distribution systems considering the high penetration of renewable power generation and multi-carrier ESSs from an economic and technical risks point of view. From the technical standpoint, the branch power flows outside permissible ranges and the bus voltages over-limits are used to assess the operational risk of distribution systems when hosting high-power RESs with/without multi-carrier ESSs. The multi-energy storage systems are equipped with power-to-gas and tri-state compressed air energy storage facilities to exploit economic opportunities from gas networks as well as to mitigate techno-economic risks. In the proposed strategy, the scenario-based stochastic programming approach is used to handle renewable power volatility and demand uncertainty. The presented risk assessment strategy is applied to the 33-bus test system, and the operational risks of the test system are significantly reduced while minimizing the operational costs through the coordination of the multi-type ESSs.