Towards a Real-World Dispatchable Feeder

With the integration of renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, and batteries at the low-voltage distribution grid level, residential buildings are increasingly evolving from consumers to prosumers. As the prosumers burden the distribution grid with their uncertain interactions, the need for solutions to counteract this uncertainty becomes more important. One such solution is schedule-based control strategies, such as the dispatchable feeder. Thereby, the dispatchable feeder uses intelligent managed flexible components such as battery energy storage system (BESS) and controllable loads to follow a committed schedule. While the concept of the dispatchable feeder is widely discussed in the literature, the practical challenges associated with its real-world implementation remain under-explored. Therefore, this paper identifies challenges associated with the real-world implementation of the dispatchable feeder in residential buildings. Further, it discusses important future research questions regarding the concept and its valuable integration into the real world. It also proposes an experimental research infrastructure for systematically investigating the raised questions using the real-world laboratory of the Energy Lab 2.0.