Deploying Battery Energy Storage in the Utility

Distribution Grid
Bradford P. Roberts, P.E., Life Senior Member, IEEE
FIGURE 1

AbstractPioneering efforts in showing how

electricity energy storage can be a valuable asset in a
Smart Grid Distribution System have been in process
for the last few years. Several demonstration projects
were completed to show how substation loading could
be controlled and managed to delay upgrades. The
next step was to show how the load deferral benefit
could be combined with distribution circuit
automation to use battery storage as a system
reliability enhancement tool. This presentation
provides an overview of how the systems function to
allow the batteries in a substation to allow portions of
a network to function as an island power system.
Index Termsenergy
islanding operations, PCS.

storage,

smart

grid,

I. INTRODUCTION

HIS panel session covers the role of energy storage in

smart grids. Building a true utility smart grid goes way
beyond adding advance metering services to every home and
business. Adding intelligence in the substations and
distribution circuits is equally important. Over the last four
years American Electric Power (AEP) and the S&C Electric
Company have worked to deploy several demonstration
projects that show the value of distributed storage in the grid.
The first project in 2006 was a deployment of a 1.0 MW, 7.2
MWh sodium-sulphur battery to peak-shave the summer load
on a 20 MVA transformer and delay the substation upgrade
for three-five years until firm load growth showed the need.
The project proved successful and showed that large-scale
batteries were a viable solution for load management. Figure 1
shows how the load peaks were managed during peak load
conditions.
____________________

B. P. Roberts is with S&C Electric Company, Franklin,

Wisconsin (email: broberts@sandc.com).

978-1-4244-6551-4/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

LOAD MANAGEMENT WITH DISTRIBUTED BATTERY STORAGE

II. UTILIZING DISTRIBUTED STORAGE FOR

RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT
In 2007 AEP launched additional projects to show how
distributed storage could improve system reliability and
reduce customer outage minutes, as well as control loads. This
process is called islanding a portion of a local grid and
powering it from a local source.
The ability to island is of great benefit because the
restoration process can be time consuming. Several challenges
encountered in the restoration process include: assembly of
restoration crews regardless of time of day, location of the
fault, which can be extremely difficult because electric lines
may stretch for several miles and then the actual repair and
restoration to service of the faulted electric service line or
component. While this extensive process is taking place, the
customers being served by that electric service line are
without power sometimes for several hours. Islanding creates
the ability to have most, if not all, of those customers served
by a local source while the restoration effort is ongoing. This
and several other benefits can be realized from islanding.
AEP selected three distribution areas in three states as
candidates for deployment of 2.0 MW, 14 MWh sodiumsulfur (NaS) batteries to show the value of islanding to
improve system reliability. Figure 2 shows one of the battery
system installations that have been functioning in the grid
since the summer of 2009.
FIGURE 2

2.0 MW SUBSTATION BATTERY WITH ISLANDING CAPABILITY

IV. CONCLUSION
The future of distributed storage will play a major role in
smart grid development. The size of these systems and their
point of deployment in the grid will depend on the unique
requirements on a case-by-case basis.

NAS Battery Station

Two 1 MW
NAS Units

V. BIOGRAPHY

Genset
PCS

Transformer

Each of these sites combined the battery with a set of

intelligent switches in the network down-stream of the
substation containing the battery.
Upon loss of the
transmission service to the substation, the battery system
controller and the intelligence in the distribution switches
know the amount (kVA and kW) of load in each circuit and
the condition of each load feeder. Based on this data at the
time of the service loss, the battery controller can initial a repowering of the down-stream island load. Restoration of
service occurs within a few seconds with as many circuits
possible based on the load prior to the service loss. Once
crews restore service to the substation the battery controller
re-synchronizes the island load with the source and restores
normal utility service in a seamless fashion.
III. THE NEXT STEP IN DISTRIBUTED ENERGY
STORAGE
The deployment of battery storage systems in the
distribution grid have shown an improvement in system
reliability is possible. The next step is adding stored energy
even closer to the load may have even greater value. In the
recent U.S. Department of Energy Energy Storage
Demonstration Stimulus Awards, funding was provided to
show how localized storage packages deployed in the lowvoltage utility grid could provide even greater benefit to a
smart grid system.
This concept is called Community Energy Storage (CES)
and is based on deploying small pad-mounted battery energy
storage units in residential neighborhoods to cope with
customer loads, roof-top photovoltaic systems and eventually
the impact of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) on
utility demand. These factors present a lot of unknowns for
future utility load forecasting. Large concentrations of PV
roof systems could disrupt utility voltage control as clouds
pass through an area of high PV concentration utilities with
large amounts of small CES units (typically 25 kW each)
could be controlled collectively to react the same as larger
systems installed in substations.

BRADFORD P. ROBERTS (M-1966, SM 2005) holds a BSEE

from the University of Florida. Mr. Roberts is currently employed
with S&C Electric Company in the Power Quality Products Division.
Mr. Roberts has held senior management positions in two of the
major UPS manufacturers during his career. Brad has published over
40 technical papers and journal articles on critical power system
design and technology.
He is a past chairman of the IEEE Power Engineering Societys
Emerging Technologies Coordinating Committee, current Executive
Director of the Electricity Storage Association and a member of the
CIGRE Working Group C6.15 Electricity Energy Storage Systems.
He is the 2004 recipient of the John Mungenast International Power
Quality Award and 2009 recipient of the Phil Symons Electricity
Storage Award.