Operation strategies of the load aggregator with electric energy storage

Today in competitive power markets, with higher level of penetration of variable renewable energy resources, electric energy price becomes more volatile and uncertain. The integration of distributed generation into the distribution systems makes the load more volatile. It becomes more challenging for load aggregators to manage energy purchasing cost facing the higher price and load uncertainties. With the rapid development of Electric Energy Storage (EES), operation for load aggregator is more flexible. Within this context, this paper investigates the operation strategies for the load aggregator to manage electric energy cost by utilizing EES. A novel Model Predictive Control (MPC)-based operation strategy is proposed. An operation strategy without EES and an operation strategy with EES are also discussed and studied for comparison. Case studies demonstrate the benefits of utilizing EES and the better performance of the proposed MPC-based operation strategy.