Assessing the benefits for the distribution system of a scheduling of flexible residential loads

The integration of distributed renewable energy sources (RES) and the electrification of devices raise new challenges for the distribution system operator (DSO). This paper assesses the benefits for the distribution system of scheduling flexible residential loads and focuses on electric vehicles (EV). We propose an extensive load model and formulate a bilevel Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimization problem. At the lower level, we minimize individual household electricity bills using dynamic pricings. At the upper level, we aim to smooth the power load curve of a typical Brussels MV/LV transformer. Harnessing load flexibility incentivizes load aggregators to participate in power grid balancing or the ancillary services market. It also allows the DSO to manage the transformer load to avoid grid congestion.