Coordinating strategic aggregators in an active distribution network for providing operational flexibility

The support of distributed energy resources (DERs) for providing operational flexibility can be beneficial from the transmission system operators' (TSOs') viewpoint. Despite all opportunities, using DERs within an active distribution network (ADN) for providing flexibility brings operational challenges such as lines congestions and excessive voltage deviations management. Moreover, there are information asymmetries challenges for coordinating the DERs specifically when the strategic aggregators are introduced to manage them. In this paper, a local coordinating mechanism is proposed for the strategic aggregators to provide the operational flexibility. This paper furthers efforts toward proposing an iterative distributed algorithm converging to the Nash equilibrium (NE) of the non-cooperative game incorporated in the proposed mechanism. To validate the performance of the proposed mechanism, the IEEE 33 nodes radial distribution network is considered for a case study. The efficiency of the obtained NE and the proposed iterative distributed algorithm are thoroughly analyzed in the case study.