An Energy Management System for Joint Operation of Small-Scale Wind Turbines and Electric Thermal Storage in Isolated Microgrids

Unlike stationary wind turbines, a small-scale mobile wind turbine (MWT) can travel, via a truck, between isolated microgrids (MGs) to meet the supply-demand balance requirements locally. This spatio-temporal flexibility can bring benefits to the system operators and the energy management system (EMS) performance across MGs. Another flexible resource, electric thermal storage (ETS), can also unlock capabilities for the EMS by maximizing the renewable energy utilization and shifting demand. This paper develops an EMS optimization model for joint operation of MWT and ETS in isolated MGs. The proposed model is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem. Case studies of an integrated transportation and energy network — a Sioux Falls transportation network and four IEEE 33-node distribution systems —demonstrate the operating cost reduction and highlight the load shifting benefits of jointly operating MWT and ETS.