Dynamic resource coordination can increase grid hosting capacity to support more renewables, storage, and electrified load growth

Abstract

We show that dynamic coordination of distributed energy resources (DERs) can increase the capacity of low- and medium-voltage grids, improve reliability and power quality, and reduce solar curtailment. We develop three approaches to compute hosting capacity on a representative distribution grid with realistic scenarios. A deterministic iterative method provides insight into how dynamic operation and DER interactions enhance capacity and affect power flows, demonstrating clear gains over static methods even with low-to-moderate levels of storage and flexible demand. A stochastic programming approach jointly optimizes DER siting and sizing, showing that nodal colocation and complementary effects expand the feasible region of solar, heat pump, and battery penetrations by over 22X. This enables up to 200% solar, 100% battery, and 90% heat pump penetration. Batteries emerge as the most critical technology, followed by heat pumps and electric vehicles. A Monte Carlo-based extension shows that uncertainty significantly impacts hosting capacity and grid metrics, with 46% higher volatility under dynamic operation.