Empowering Low-Voltage Grids: Real-World Implementation of Home Batteries for Effective Congestion Management

The widespread integration of intermittent renewable energy sources has introduced significant challenges to electrical grid infrastructure, notably increasing congestion and compromising reliability. While extensive research has explored the application of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in transmission networks—where capacity expansion demands considerable economic investment and time—there are fewer studies focusing on their deployment within low-voltage distribution networks. Such deployment adopts a bottom-up approach, aiming to mitigate congestion and prevent adverse effects on medium and high-voltage grids through efficient lower-level asset management. This paper presents findings from a real-world implementation that tests the use of home batteries within a distribution network. The study involves the optimal scheduling of available assets in response to dynamic signals from the local Distribution System Operator (DSO) at the transformer level. The results regarding the transformer load demonstrate that the optimized battery schedules have reduced its fluctuation and consequently shifted its value to be higher than the DSO prediction most of the time.