Theoretical research for the application of flow storage battery in demand side management

Demand side management (DSM) is an important strategy for the electric power industry. As the load demand is growing fast and the difference of peak and valley power is becoming larger with an annual increasing trend, it is necessary to take measures to implement peak load shifting. Flow storage battery (FSB) is well suited for the application owing to its high energy efficiency, fast response, long life and low maintenance requirements. This paper firstly introduces the advantages of FSB compared with other storage batteries, then the detailed model and battery properties are presented. Because FSB has the potential to save cost for both system equipment and customers, an optimal mathematical model is constructed to maximize the savings of customers to find the corresponding optimal capacity of FSB. A benchmark medium-voltage (MV) distribution network from German is used as an example to study the application of FSB in DSM in the constant power control mode. The result is significant to demonstrate that the application of FSB in DSM to implement the load shifting has great advantages and well potential to practical application.