Assessment of battery energy storage for distribution capacity upgrade deferral

Battery Energy Storage (BES) is emerging as a potentially viable technology for many transmission and distribution applications. While many of the early BES systems have been deployed for market applications such as frequency regulation, BES systems also present potential alternatives to traditional distribution planning projects. Many utilities are investigating BES systems for their capability to defer traditional capacity upgrades and to support objectives such as meeting load growth and reliability needs. There are many detailed engineering considerations for BES to be used in such applications. To address these considerations, this paper presents a comprehensive and practical methodology for the technical assessment of the use of BES systems to defer (or avoid) distribution capacity upgrades.