Placement of Utility Scale Battery Storage and Solar on Rural Distribution Systems

Utilities consider rural areas the most vulnerable portion of the system. These areas are typically the worst-performing circuits within a territory and are also more suscepti-ble to wear, weather, and longer outage time. This paper analyzes integrating distributed storage and solar in rural systems, repre-sented by radial feeders at the edge of the grid. More specifically, we propose to combine distributed energy storage and solar in rural systems to reduce system stress by decreasing the range of load peaks. This integration will consider system constraints, such as line capacities and voltage deviations. Additionally, the proposed model will utilize a Gradient Boosting Regressor to perform load forecasting to program the behavior of the battery storage devices. We will use the IEEE 34 Node system as a foundation for the analysis to demonstrate how the addition of these devices is accommodated and affects the circuit. This paper shows how placing distributed energy resources at the utility level increases peak energy savings of approximately 196 kWh and decreases the system's peak-to-peak power to create a more constant load demand and minimize the need for expensive peak generation. The group establishes this by integrating time studies and load forecasting to make a more realistic model for a utility engineer.