Abstract

Distributed energy resources (DER) have the potential to significantly contribute to network security and hence release latent capacity of existing transmission assets. In this context, we propose a distributionally robust approach to network security in order to recognize the limited data and knowledge associated with the underlying process behind the realization of system contingencies within the transmission expansion planning (TEP) problem, and thus determine the optimal portfolio of DER services necessary to displace, in a secure fashion, inefficient network investments. To do so, we propose a two-stage optimization model where the first stage determines the transmission expansion plan and the scheduling of DER post-contingency services in coordination with further corrective control measures such as generation reserves. The second stage minimizes the expected cost of corrective actions under various contingencies. Through various case studies, we demonstrate the benefits of security services provided by DER and the advantages of our proposed distributionally robust approach (where outage rates are assumed ambiguous) against alternative n-K security and stochastic approaches, where outage rates are either ignored or assumed fully known, respectively.