Collaborative Operational Coordination for Enhanced Energy Sustainability: With Demonstrated Feasibility, Viability, and Practical Implementation

The current grid planning and operating practices and procedures are not conducive to energy sustainability in the face of climate change concerns, greenhouse gas mitigation objectives, and pollution reduction targets. As a case in point, while energy transition and grid transformation are driven by high levels of environmentally friendly Variable Energy Resources (VERs) and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), the present operating procedures result in frequent curtailment of these resources due to their variability in the face of conservative limits on injections into and withdrawals from the grid established by static hosting capacities. Moreover, lack of adequate coordination among various actors in the emerging high VER/DER grid, who separately pursue their economic incentives and operational objectives exacerbates the problem. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">In this paper we take a two-pronged approach to address this issue. First we elaborate on a new process to establish Dynamic Operating Envelope at various grid locations allowing for less conservative limits on injections and withdrawals. We then address the important issue of operational coordination among DER asset operators, Aggregators, Distribution System Operators (DSOs) and bulk power grid and market operators (TSOs). We include results of field implementation of the operating strategy involving both of these techniques.