Investigating the Value of End-Users Controllability on Improving Network Operational Regimes
Lovro Lukač, Tomi Medved, Tomislav Antić, Tomislav Capuder · 2025
The continuous increase in the share of distributed energy resources (DER) impact everyday operation and create new challenges for distribution system operators (DSOs). In this paper, we investigate three novel concepts and their potential for DSOs. The hosting capacity (HC) concept is utilized to calculate the available network capacity for new connections during the planning phase and is the first concept investigated in this paper. We recognize the shortcomings of the HC concept and further analyze how applying the dynamic operating envelopes (DOE) concept creates the possibility to increase the network's capacity. By additional control of reactive power, it is possible to determine the total flexibility potential of the distribution network in the form of P-Q flexibility region which creates the need for the existence of local flexibility markets. Through various case studies, the impact of end-user controllability and flexibility on network conditions and change of export and import limits are analyzed. The analysis results showed that the DOE concept enable higher local production in relation to HC, while the exchange power with MV network remains similar. On the other hand the P-Q flexibility regions concept can increase this exchange power by 20 %.