Optimal planning of distributed generation from the DisCo and the DGO viewpoints considering the uncertainties in future demand and electricity price

ABSTRACT

Since electricity demand is increasing continuously, it is necessary to invest in expansion of distribution network capacity. From the asset management point of view, it is necessary to encourage the private sector to invest in distribution network. To do this, distribution network managers must provide important opportunities for private sector to profit from their investments. One of the options for private sector is to invest on distributed generations (DGs). In this regard, distribution company (DisCo) must sign power purchase agreement (PPA) with DG owners (DGOs). So, optimal siting, sizing and PPA rates from economic point of view are important challenges which are considered as the main contribution of this paper. The proposed methodology of this paper applies load and price uncertainties into the planning problem. The proposed scheme involves using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithms II (NSGA II), since it attains non-dominated solutions in which DisCo and the DGO can put their personal preferences into practice. To evaluate the effectiveness of the suggested method, the computer simulations are done on a 33-bus distribution network and the results are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Distributed generation
• electric distribution network
• contract price
• uncertainty
• stochastic programming
• multi-objective
• genetic algorithm

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and the reviewers for their support and constructive comments. The manuscript has been revised according to reviewers’ comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.