Integrating communication reliability into multi-community hierarchical energy storage sharing for enhanced operational efficiency and viability

Advances in information and communication technology enable flexible energy sharing among distributed energy resources and regional energy communities, holding promise for decarbonizing the modern power sectors. Communication reliability (CR), characterized by error-free delivery, governs the timely transmission of control commands, impacting the energy sharing efficiency and even energy storage system safety. However, geographically distributed user-side storage systems typically rely on public networks rather than dedicated communication lines. Inevitable network congestion and electromagnetic interference in such scenarios cause dynamic fluctuations in communication quality, thereby introducing risks of operational suboptimality or even system-wide faults. Therefore, this study proposes a reliable hierarchical energy storage sharing paradigm that transforms CR assessment from post-operation verification to pre-dispatch decision criteria, and links the operation of power systems and communication systems to ensure the viability of control command transmission under dynamically varying network conditions. A case study from New South Wales, Australia is conducted, illustrating that at a CR of 0.95, the average supply-demand gap is reduced by 1.38% when CR is integrated versus neglected, by which the mitigation of supply-demand imbalances is validated. Under imperfect communication conditions, the scheduling success rate is boosted from 61.8% to 97.8% by the hierarchical scheduling model, with a mere 0.27% cost premium being incurred compared with the globally optimized centralized benchmark. Furthermore, the positive promotional effect of CR on the energy sharing rate is verified and quantified, where power procurement costs are reduced by 6.83% and total system sharing volume is increased by 20.64% as CR is raised from 0.60 to 0.95, with a Pareto-optimal operating range of 0.80 to 0.84 being identified for the optimal trade‑off between system performance and energy operational benefits under the current parameters. This study provides a cost-effective and communication-viable solution for multi-community energy sharing to system operators.