Abstract
This paper presents a planning model that utilizes mobile energy storage systems (MESSs) for increasing the connectivity of renewable energy sources (RESs) and fast charging stations (FCSs) in distribution systems (DSs). The proposed planning model aims at enabling high penetration levels of green technologies while minimizing the total DS cost that includes investment, operating, and emission costs. The proposed model determines the optimal MESS sizes and transportation schedules as well as the optimal sizes and locations of wind-based distributed generators (DGs), photovoltaic (PV) DGs, and FCSs. The model takes into account techno-economic and environmental factors in addition to the power variations of RESs, FCSs, and load demands. The proposed planning model is applied on two benchmark test systems (i.e., 33-bus and 69-bus DSs). To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed model, the results obtained from the model are compared to those obtained from a traditional planning technique. The comparison of the results demonstrates that the proposed model with MESSs successfully achieves a significant cost saving and increases the penetration levels of RESs and FCSs.