Cost Allocation of Distribution Networks in the Distributed Energy Resources Era

Abstract

Increasing power injection of distributed energy resources (DER) (including prosumers) has been changing the way the distribution system is operated and managed. Thus, conventional network usage tariffs are no longer fair enough to distribute the network costs to the various system participants. Within this scope, this work studies innovative cost allocation models that fairly distribute fixed, network usage and power losses costs to all system participants. A three-stage model is designed, in which: (i) an alternating current optimal power flow (AC OPF) for the distribution grid is performed; (ii) two different power tracing models (namely, the Abdelkader's and Bialek's tracing methods) are implemented and compared; and (iii) the distribution of costs through a MW-mile variant. The model is tested and validated in a 33-node distribution network considering high penetration of DER.