Federated Controls for Distributed Energy Resource Management Applied to a Feeder with High Solar Generation and Battery Storage

Distributed energy resources (DERs) deployments are rapidly increasing in power systems, and recent policies encourage market participation of these DERs. Different from traditional resources, DERs are usually small in size but large in number and connected to the distribution system, which poses significant challenges to system operators. Prevailing DER management strategies might not scale well for future needs, and therefore we developed a federated DER management architecture and controls that aim to provide a flexible approach to manage the operations of heterogeneous DERs. The controls include stochastic day-ahead optimization, model predictive con-trol, and a simple real-time management scheme. We present the simulation results of the controls as applied to a real feeder with high solar generation in Southern Company's service territory.