Enhancement of flexibility exploitation by Soft Open Point adoption on power distribution networks

The increasing generation from Renewable Energy Sources and the growing final consumption electrification, key elements of the energy transition, will have a strong negative impact on the whole power system, particularly on distribution networks. Adopting new operational strategies, including exploiting the flexibility from Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) to address technical issues, will be necessary for a massive distribution system modernisation effort. However, a critical point for the optimal use of flexibility services from DER is the typical radial operation of power distribution networks that may limit the flexibility perimeter, causing insufficient availability of flexible resources for solving specific technical issues or a lack of competition among them (thin local ancillary…