The rapid development of photovoltaic (PV) systems in electrical grids brings new challenges in the control and operation of power systems. A considerable share of already installed PV units is small‐scale units, usually connected to low‐voltage (LV) distribution systems that were not designed to handle a high share of PV power. This study provides an in‐depth review of methods and strategies proposed to prevent overvoltage in LV grids with PV and discusses the effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages of them in detail. On the basis of the mathematical framework presented in this study, the overvoltage caused by high PV penetration is described, solutions to facilitate higher PV penetration are classified, and their effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages are illustrated. The investigated solutions include the grid reinforcement, electrical energy storage application, reactive power absorption by PV inverters, application of active medium‐voltage to LV transformers, active power curtailment, and demand response. Coordination between voltage control units by localised, distributed, and centralised voltage control methods is compared using the voltage sensitivity analysis. On the basis of the analysis, a combination of overvoltage prevention methods and coordination between voltage control units can provide an efficient solution to increase the PV hosting capacity of LV grids.

Trend-setting countries have promoted or even employed an increased number of electric vehicles (EVs) and other distributed energy resources (DERs) in their power systems. This development has triggered new and increasing challenges in the distribution system planning and operation, whereby the distribution systems must adapt to the increased share of DERs. However, EVs may also offer new opportunities and can be used to support the grid by providing several local and global power- and energy-based services. This paper presents a review and classification of the services potentially available from EVs for distribution systems, referred to as EV distribution system services (EV-DSS). A detailed description of recent services and approaches is given, and an assessment of the maturity of EV-DSS is provided. Moreover, challenges and prospects for future research are identified, considering key topics, such as the design of the market framework, economic assessment, battery degradation, and the impacts of the transmission system operator service provision by EVs on distribution networks. Thus, this paper offers a tool for stakeholders concerning services available from EVs and provides a broad literature framework that can be used as a base for further investigations. It is aligned with the current requirements to move toward the realistic implementations of EV-DSS.

The deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESS) is rapidly increasing as a prominent option to support future renewable-based energy systems. However, despite its benefits from a technical perspective, there are still challenges related to its economic viability. On the other hand, sizing BESS considering only their economic viability can be impractical because financial objectives could be in conflict with other aspects, such as battery degradation and grid impact. This paper proposes a multi-objective approach to determine the optimal size of BESS providing stackable services, such as frequency regulation and peak shaving. The proposed optimization method comprises financial and technical aspects represented by the payback period, battery life span, and grid impact. Given a set of market rules, a cost-benefit function, a regulation signal, consumption profiles and grid data, an enumerative approach is adopted to provide a set of Pareto optimal solutions. The performance of the proposed method is validated using the regulation market structure from PJM interconnection. Furthermore, a real 240-node distribution grid is used to assess the grid impact via OpenDSS. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach is a flexible and practical decision-making tool that investors can exploit when designing new BESS.

In this paper a new method is proposed to determine the minimum energy storage required to be installed at different locations of a low voltage (LV) grid in order to prevent the overvoltage due to high residential photovoltaic (PV) penetration. The method is based on the voltage sensitivity analysis of feasible scenarios associated with the net injected power into the grid by customers. A new concept is defined based on the remaining power curve (RPC) associated with the local generation and consumption, and the uncertainties related to PV output and load consumption are modeled in some RPCs with different occurrence probabilities without involving the time-series studies problems. The proposed method is capable of modeling output power of PV panels with different orientations as well as different electric vehicle (EV) charging patterns.