Network-Aware Coordination of Residential Distributed Energy Resources

Rooftop solar and batteries, along with other distributed energy resources (DERs), add a new demand-side flexibility, which, when harnessed, will enable distribution operators to more efficiently manage their constrained networks. This paper presents network-aware coordination (NAC), an approach for coordinating DER within unbalanced distribution network constraints, which utilizes the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMMs) to solve a distributed receding-horizon OPF. As far as we are aware, this paper is the first to report on the practical implementation and performance of an ADMM-based technique solving a significant network problem in live operations. We present real-world trial results of NAC coordinating 31 residential batteries on a constrained feeder within Tasmania’s 11-kV distribution network. The batteries are coordinated to manage the network’s constraints during periods of high feeder demand, decreasing the need for expensive conventional network management, in this case a diesel generator. We achieve a 34% reduction in diesel over seven peaks with 31 batteries capable of meeting 10% of peak demand. Supplementary simulations indicate the potential for a 74% diesel reduction if battery numbers were increased to 100. We find that compared to uncoordinated battery response, the NAC achieves 13% lower total costs over the trial period.