Sensitivity-Guided BESS Siting and Sizing with Uncertainty-Aware Scheduling in Renewable-Rich Distribution Networks

Abstract

High penetrations of wind and photovoltaic generation create simultaneous challenges for battery energy storage system (BESS) planning in distribution networks, including differences in nodal regulation value, power-energy configuration, and day-ahead operation under forecast uncertainty. This study develops a sequential planning-to-operation workflow comprising candidate-bus generation, siting and sizing within the candidate set, and finite-scenario day-ahead scheduling for a fixed configuration. First, nodal net-injection sensitivities, Jacobian-assisted pre-screening, and deterministic topology/support safeguards are used to generate the main candidate set, and alternating-current (AC) finite-difference refinement is performed only for the sensitivity-led fast set; in the IEEE-33 system, this refinement reduces the number of AC power-flow calls from 65 for full-node analysis to 17. Next, Sensitivity-Guided Envelope-Based Nonanticipative Adjustable Recourse Optimal Power Flow (SG-ENAR-OPF) is solved separately for each bus in the main candidate set; the BESS location and power/energy capacities are jointly determined subject to the P-Q LinDistFlow model, BESS duration constraints, a shared affine response, and finite-scenario constraints. The full-node audit serves only as an independent paper-level validation benchmark and is not part of the deployable workflow. After the configuration is fixed, interval forecasts for load, photovoltaic (PV) output, and wind-turbine (WT) output at // are used to construct 25 static load-renewable disturbance points and seven temporal stress paths, over which a shared finite-scenario day-ahead policy is optimized. The IEEE-33 MAIN case selects Bus 30, with BESS capacities of approximately 10.66 MW/10.66 MWh. Using scaled public time-series data, the final policy is replayed over 46 consecutive 24 h execution windows, comprising 1104 h actual trajectories; under the 0.002 MW/MWh storage-engineering criterion, all 46/46 windows pass storage engineering validation, and energy continuity is maintained across all 45/45 interday boundaries. Further nonlinear AC post-validation converges at all 1104/1104 operating points, of which 1058/1104 satisfy the complete voltage and branch-capacity constraints. Supplementary results for IEEE-69 show that the workflow can be executed on a second radial test feeder. However, the conclusions are strictly limited to the tested feeders, finite scenarios, scaled public-data settings, and stated engineering tolerances and do not constitute a formal guarantee over a continuous uncertainty domain or of general cross-system applicability.