Stochastic modeling for the aggregated flexibility of distributed energy resources ☆

This paper proposes an uncertainty modeling method for the aggregated power flexibility of DERs. Basically, both outer and inner approximated power-energy boundary models are utilized to describe the aggregated flexibility of controllable DERs. These power and energy boundary parameters are uncertain because the availability of controllable devices, such as electric vehicles and thermostatically controlled loads, cannot be precisely predicted. The optimal operation problem of the aggregator is thus formulated as chance-constrained programming (CCP). Then, a flexibility envelope searching algorithm based on the ALSO-X+ method is proposed to solve the CCP, the result of which is a conservative approximation of the original CCP but not as conservative as the Conditional Value-at-Risk approximation. After optimizing the aggregated power of the group of DERs, the decision at the aggregator level is disaggregated into the flexibility regions of individual DERs. Finally, the numerical test demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.