Comprehensive analysis of distributed energy resource penetration and placement using probabilistic framework

Abstract

Integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) affect system performance in multitude of ways such as reliability, losses and voltage profile. Thus, increasing distributed energy resource penetration necessitates impact assessment particularly when DERs comprise of stochastic RES based distributed generators (DGs) and storage system. This paper presents a formulation for the analysis of DER penetration and placement on system losses and voltage profile in probabilistic framework. Penetration level has been defined, giving due consideration to stochastic behaviour of RES based distributed generators. The work presented incorporates analysis and consideration of two important factors in placement problem, that is, intermittent nature of RES based distributed generators and dual nature of storage units. In order to account for uncertainties inherently present in RES, probabilistic load flow has been used in this work. Placement problem is solved for three different penetration levels, that is, 20%, 40% and 60% using utterfly particle swarm optimisation. The impact of seasonal effect on system losses and voltage profile in correlation with penetration levels has also been investigated. Results provide useful insights for identification of optimum penetration level.