Cost–benefit analysis for energy storage exploitation in distribution systems

Energy storage devices are valuable components of the future Smart Distribution Systems, thanks to their ability to increase the flexibility of the overall system and to provide a wide range of services to the Distribution System Operators and to the customers. However, their costs are still high and they still need economic incentives for their development. These incentives cannot be given to any project but only to those that demonstrate their effectiveness. This evaluation is not easy, because it depends on the rate of the ESS device, its location on the network and the kind of services provided. The paper proposes a hybrid methodology, based on the combination of a Multi-Objective optimization and a Cost-Benefit Analysis, in order to build a simple look-up table that easily allows identifying those project proposals that can be considered convenient a priori.