Impact Assessment of Different Battery Energy Storage Technologies in Distribution Grids with High Penetration of Renewable Energies

The need for increasing further the penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) is demanding a change in the way distribution grids are managed. In particular, the RESs intermittent and stochastic nature is finding in Battery Energy
Storage (BES) systems its most immediate countermeasure. This work presents a reality-based assessment and comparison of the impact of three different BES technologies on distribution grids with high RES penetration, namely Li-ion, Zn-Air and Redox Flow. To this end, a benchmark distribution grid with real prosumers’ generation and load profiles is considered, with the RES penetration purposely scaled up in such a way as to violate the grid operational limits. Then, further to the BES(s) placement on the most affected grid location(s), the impact of the three BES types is assessed considering two Use Cases: 1) Voltage & Congestion Management and 2) Peak Shaving & Energy shifting. Assessment is conducted by evaluating a set of technical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), together with a simplified economic analysis.