Investigating the LV network capacity for flexible energy storages, considering energy flexibility provision and the role of local flexibility

This paper demonstrates the impact of activating system-wide Energy Flexibility (EF) services through Flexible Energy Storages (FES) at the Low Voltage (LV) network. It estimates the LV network capacity for FES considering the over-voltage limit. The role of allocating FES for Local Flexibility (LF) provision to LV grid voltage support in a similar situation is investigated. The simulation study is carried out using OpenDSS co-simulated with Matlab for IEEE European test network. A Monte Carlo method based on random allocation of EF provision FES is used to demonstrate the impact on the voltage levels and estimate the LV grid capacity for FES. The same method was extended to investigate the effect of allocating LF services for a percentage of FES to voltage support and the impact of the allocated location. Results show an impact on the voltages when the FES in feeder activates the EF provision. Assigning the role of local flexibility provision for some of the FES increases the capacity for the total number of FES by reducing the risk of voltage violations. Incorporating LF provision minimizes the risk of operational issues while improving the capacity for the number of FES.