Under high solar photovoltaic (PV) penetration scenarios, energy storage devices at the community level will become crucial for reducing peak loads and improving grid reliability. Currently, pilot projects are aimed to demonstrate the value of utility-owned community energy storage systems that are centrally operated. However, the centralized control architecture is prone to single point failure of the control hub, it does not scale well to large regions, and has only limited benefits to electricity customers other than improving the power quality of the utility, and providing limited blackout protection.
Intellectual merit: The research deals with synthesis of scalable and robust distributed energy storage systems to improve grid load and grid reliability, by exploiting solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Progress will be made on two fundamental issues: first, on the development of quantifiable PV forecast methodologies that can help the effective operations of distributed energy storage. Second, on the theoretical analysis that can guide the design of distributed storage sizing over different communities; investigating community decomposition, optimal joint sizing of community energy storage, and the optimal operation of the storage based on forecasts, anomalies, and distributed algorithms.
Broader impacts: The research will impact higher level of renewable energy penetration by making use of distributed storage devices in the distribution systems. The education and outreach efforts will include a number of activities such as (1) an annual half-day workshop on renewable energy to San Diego K-12 teachers, (2) weekly visits by UCSD undergraduate engineering students to Encinitas Unified School District 5th and 6th grade elementary schools to present lesson plans on renewable energy, and (3) a dorm building dashboard energy display indicating current energy use and current potential for demand response (4) mentoring of minority students through summer internships via the UCSD IDEA student center, and (5) minority outreach efforts via the societies of Women in Engineering at UCSD and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
