Deploying battery energy storage in the utility distribution grid

Pioneering efforts in showing how electricity energy storage can be a valuable asset in a Smart Grid Distribution System have been in process for the last few years. Several demonstration projects were completed to show how substation loading could be controlled and managed to delay upgrades. The next step was to show how the load deferral benefit could be combined with distribution circuit automation to use battery storage as a system reliability enhancement tool. This presentation provides an overview of how the systems function to allow the batteries in a substation to allow portions of a network to function as an “island” power system.