Hierarchical control framework to exploit community energy storage for both local and system benefit

According to the legally binding target for European governments, by 2020, 15-20% of the EU`s energy consumption should be produced from renewable sources. Furthermore, according to the National Grid`s estimate for future energy scenarios in the UK, by 2035/36 (according to the “Gone Green” future scenario) annual electricity demand could potentially reach 375TWh/year with the residential consumption energy forming 33% of the total electricity demand [3]. As claimed by the same scenario, Renewable Generation (RG) will represent 53% of the installed capacity and will provide 50% of the generated energy with wind and PV contributing almost 46% of the supply mix. The combination of integrating intermittent RG, reducing fossil fuel based generation and the electrification of heat and transport (which will inevitably lead to higher electricity demand), means that if the current electricity transmission and distribution system remains unchanged, it will struggle to meet: • Reduce Power quality • Overloading of distribution equipment (e.g transformers and feeders) • Increasing network losses • Higher number of system frequency deviations • Increased voltage unbalance • Fault detection and Location In systems dominated by Renewable Energy Sources (RES) the dominant challenges will be the reduced inertia of the electrical system and the associated increasing need for frequency regulation services. Over recent years small home Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in combination with solar PV systems have become commercially available and more affordable. The storage capacity of new, small scale residential BESS units (e.g Tesla Powerwall) is also increasing. The aim of this project is to investigate how domestic Battery Energy Storage Systems can contribute to Frequency Regulation services and at the same time provide benefit for electricity end-users through achieving local community objectives such as reduction of import at peak tariff periods and increased “self-consumption” of locally generated renewable energy. Furthermore, it will explore if the creation of energy community entities can improve these. In the process of tackling these questions a novel hierarchical control framework has been proposed which is able to exploit community BESS, for both local/community benefit and system benefit. In addition, while simulating the proposed control framework a novel electric vehicle model (EV) was developed in order to aid the investigation of future energy scenarios. Real time data from photovoltaic systems and the electrical system frequency data were analysed and used to understand the requirement for Frequency Regulation Services. This informed the development of a novel higher level control, the Adaptive Community Power Profiler – Energy Management System (ACPP-EMS) which was able to provide local and national benefit through controlling BESS in small communities with low level real time controllers by imposing Power Profiling targets to achieve multiple objectives. Simulation studies demonstrate the benefits provided by this controller