BESS-Sizing Optimization for Solar PV System Integration in Distribution Grid

Abstract Although renewable energies are beneficial to reduce carbon emissions, its intermittent characteristics may result in power-supply issues in distribution grid. Battery energy storage system (BESS) is generally regarded as an effective tool to deal with these problems. However, the development of BESS is limited due to its high capital cost. This paper proposes an optimization method for sizing and scheduling BESS and smart inverter (SI) of photovoltaic (PV) system. Scheduling optimization of related facilities is taken into account to ensure PV system owner’s investment returns and assist distribution system operator (DSO) to adjust the voltages. Besides, different electricity tariffs are compared to discuss their impacts on BESS investment. In the proposed method, the sizing and scheduling optimizations are coupled with thus increased dimension and complexity of the optimization problem. A revised electrons drifting algorithm (e-DA) is proposed and applied to the proposed optimization problem for improving the performance of method. The proposed method provides an incentive way to encourage PV system owners to invest BESS voluntarily, which not only raises the operational profits of PV system owner, but also improves power-supply quality of distribution system.