Abstract:
Due to their intermittent nature, high penetration of renewable energy resources
(RES) can deteriorate power system reliability. A battery energy storage system
(BESS) offers an opportunity to reduce the uncertainty associated with RES and
hence improve power system reliability. In the last decade, the cost of BESS has
declined, and it has become increasingly feasible, but the BESS deployment decision
ultimately depends on its Net-Benefit to the investor. Depending on the perspective
of the investor, a private firm or the system operator, the deployment decision
involves discovering the most optimal location, capacity, and technology of BESS.
A sensitivity analysis based on Z-bus matrix is used for selecting the optimal
location. In this thesis, from the narrow perspective of a private investor, the NetBenefit
function is the energy arbitrage value of BESS minus its overall cost.
However, the system operator additionally values BESS because it enables more
reliable system operation at reduced operating costs by increasing the utilization of
RES generation and reducing the need to dispatch thermal power plants. After
examining multiple power system reliability indices, the product of Expected
Unserved Energy (EUE) and Value of Lost Load (VoLL) is incorporated into the
Net-Benefit function of the system operator. In this thesis, MATPOWER Optimal
Scheduling Tool (MOST) is used for testing the proposed Net-Benefit functions on a
standard reliability test system (RTS) known as RTS-GMLC. Besides two types of
lithium-ion BESS, lead acid and vanadium redox flow technologies are explored in
this research. Three diverse case studies are examined in three exploration phases;
the first phase helps determine search space whereas the second one narrows it down
and the third phase finds the optimal BESS solution. Presented research results
demonstrate that, over a period of 15 years, optimal BESS deployment can offer as
much as $M164.8 and $M33.6 Net-Benefits to the system operator and private
investor respectively.