A Bi-level Planning Program of Microgrid Including Gravity Energy Storage

As a relative new energy storage technique, gravity energy storage (GES) can assuage fluctuations caused by renewable energy in microgrid due to its quick response, high energy density, and large-scale storage capacity. GES lifts and drops concrete bricks to realize energy storage and release, respectively. A double-tower model of GES is used to describe its special charge and discharge feature. Then, a bi-level planning program of microgrid including GES is proposed, which considers operation problem at the planning stage. The sizing problem is established on the upper level (UL), while the operation problem is formulated on the lower level (LL). The genetic algorithm (GA) combined with mixed integer linear programming (MILP) is adopted to solve the bi-level optimization model. The effectiveness of microgrid including GES is validated by case studies.