ECO-DAC Energy Control over Divide and Control

Abstract

The need for a smarter grid is emerging with the increase of peak demand and the integration of renewable resources. A great solution for peak shifting and renewable energy smoothing is through the usage of energy storage devices. This paper focuses on the energy storage power control problem in small to medium sized power distribution systems with loads, energy storage devices and renewable resources connected to the grid. To the best of our knowledge, solutions in this area either focus on the optimization problem with a convex optimization solver, that have high worst-case complexities or on sub-optimal heuristics. This paper provides a low-complexity solution, ECO-DAC, which is optimal in terms of minimizing a multi-tier cost function. We show on multiple case studies that it is possible to save up to 21% in costs for electricity drawn from the grid, compared to the no-battery case.