Community energy storage and capacitor allocation in distribution systems

This paper investigates the potential of community energy storage (CES) and capacitor (C) placement in large-scale distribution networks for energy loss minimization. An analytical approach is proposed to identify the optimal location, size and power factor of CES units to reduce energy losses at the peak load level. This method is also applied to find the optimal location, size, type and control scheme of capacitors under load variations to obtain a high loss reduction. The combination of CES and capacitor allocation to achieve a higher loss reduction is also presented. The proposed approach was tested and validated on 15 and 69-bus distribution test systems. Results show that the combination of simultaneous CES and capacitor placement can lead to high energy loss reduction and efficient energy usage.