Energy storage operation for voltage control in distribution networks: a receding horizon approach

The widespread diffusion of renewable energy sources and low carbon technologies in distribution electricity grids calls for counteracting overvoltage and undervoltage arising in low voltage (LV) feeders, where peaks of load demand and distributed generation are typically not aligned in time. In this context, deployment of energy storage systems (ESSs) in appropriately selected nodes of the network is recognized as a viable approach to tackle the problem. This paper proposes a voltage control scheme based on a receding horizon approach to operate the ESSs installed in an LV network. The essential feature of the approach lies in the very limited information needed to predict possible voltage problems, and to compute the storage control policy making it possible to counteract them in advance. The procedure is successfully applied to an Italian LV network, featuring demand and generation profiles, which cause overvoltage and undervoltage in the absence of voltage control.