Storage coordination and peak-shaving operation in urban areas with high renewable penetration

As renewable power generation gains importance, balancing of power demand and supply becomes more and more challenging. This paper addresses this challenge by exploring the potential of individually-owned storage units in decentralised power systems with a high share of renewables. The focus is on the influence of coordination and peak-shaving operation of these individual units in realistic urban areas. Currently extensive amount of research exits on specific applications related to storage coordination. However, in these studies often simplified consumer models are used. This study considers a representative mixed residential and commercial neighbourhood in Amsterdam. The influence of storage coordination and peak-shaving operation on the neighbourhood's energy autonomy and on the peakiness of the power exchanged with the main grid are addressed. Results show that, compared to individual storage operation, coordinated storage operation increases renewable energy utilisation by 39%, decreases the excess energy transferred to the grid by almost threefold and increases the neighbourhood self-sufficiency by 21%. Peak-shaving operation reduces the highest power peak of the year by 55%. These results are statistically significant (p-value < 10−4). Thus, in realistic urban areas storage coordination improves local energy autonomy, while peak-shaving operation reduces peaks in power flows exchanged with the main grid.