Flexibility Scheduling for Distribution Systems: A Case Study in Austria

Distribution systems could face imminent network constraints violation due to the increasing penetration of uncertain renewable generation and uptake of electric vehicles. This phenomenon could be particularly observed in Austrian distribution systems, because the voltage of each bus must be within ±2% of the nominal value, according to Austrian network regulations. These constraints can be addressed using flexible resources, such as Battery Energy Storage System, Electric Vehicles (EV), and residential building energy management systems operated to optimally access their latent flexibility. The scheduling of flexible resources yields a non-convex, stochastic, multi-period problem due to the modelling of non-linear power flow equations, uncertainty in forecast errors, and the time-dependent nature of flexible resources. This paper proposes an optimal scheduling scheme, which employs a convexification method to pursue the global minimum with an efficient computation, and applied 2-point estimate method to model uncertainty. The method is demonstrated on an Austrian distribution network.