Spinning Reserves from Responsive Loads

Report ORNL/TM-2003/1

Heuristic optimization of clusters of heat pumps: A simulation and case study of residential frequency reserve

The technological challenges of adapting energy systems to the addition of more renewables are intricately interrelated with the ways in which markets incentivize their development and deployment. Households with own onsite distributed generation augmented by electrical and thermal storage capacities (prosumers), can adjust energy use based on the current needs of the electricity grid. Heat pumps, as an established technology for enhancing energy efficiency, are increasingly seen as having potential for shifting electricity use and contributing to Demand Response (DR). Using a model developed and validated with monitoring data of a household in a plus-energy neighborhood in southern Germany, the technical and financial viability of utilizing household heat pumps to provide power in the market for Frequency Restoration Reserve (FRR) are studied. The research aims to evaluate the flexible electrical load offered by a cluster of buildings whose heat pumps are activated depending on selected rule-based participation strategies. Given the prevailing prices for FRR in Germany, the modelled cluster was unable to reduce overall electricity costs and thus was unable to show that DR participation as a cluster with the heat pumps is financially viable. Five strategies that differed in the respective contractual requirements that would need to be agreed upon between the cluster manager and the aggregator were studied. The relatively high degree of flexibility necessary for the heat pumps to participate in FRR activations could be provided to varying extents in all strategies, but the minimum running time of the heat pumps turned out to be the primary limiting physical (and financial) factor. The frequency, price and duration of the activation calls from the FRR are also vital to compensate the increase of the heat pumps’ energy use. With respect to thermal comfort and self-sufficiency constraints, the buildings were only able to accept up to 34% of the activation calls while remaining within set comfort parameters. This, however, also depends on the characteristics of the buildings. Finally, a sensitivity analysis showed that if the FRR market changed and the energy prices were more advantageous, the proposed approaches could become financially viable. This work suggests the need for further study of the role of heat pumps in flexibility markets and research questions concerning the aggregation of local clusters of such flexible technologies.Comisión Europea 69596

Market Design for Generation Adequacy: Healing Causes rather than Symptoms

Keywords JEL Classification This paper argues that electricity market reform – particularly the need for complementary mechanisms to remunerate capacity – need to be analysed in the light of the local regulatory and institutional environment. If there is a lack of investment, the priority should be to identify the roots of the problem. The lack of demand side response, short-term reliability management procedures and uncompetitive ancillary services procurement often undermine market reflective scarcity pricing and distort long-term investment incentives. The introduction of a capacity mechanism should come as an optional supplement to wholesale and ancillary markets improvements. Priority reforms should focus on encouraging demand side responsiveness and reducing scarcity price distortions introduced by balancing and congestion management through better dialog between network engineers and market operators. electricity market, generation adequacy, market design, capacity mechanis

Comments in Response to FERC Rulemaking on Regional Transmission Organizations

On May 13, 1999 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO). The purpose of the NOPR is to seek comments on proposed regulatory rules that would encourage transmission system owners to participate in regional transmission organizations. Such organizations would manage various aspects of the operation and expansion of the nation's high voltage electric transmission system to support developing competitive wholesale and retail electric generation service markets that rely on these transmission networks. Regional integration of transmission systems is thought to be required to manage more effectively transmission network operations, to internalize various network externalities, and to facilitate the development of competitive electricity markets. Four non-profit Independent System Operators (ISOs) have already been created from the three existing tight power pools covering the Northeastern states and in California. However, the development of similar RTOs in other parts of the country has been slow. The FERC initiative aims at speeding up the development of such regional organizations. My comments focus primarily on the future structure of the regulatory framework that governs how transmission owners and operators will be compensated for providing transmission service. I also present a framework for evaluating the benefits and costs of not-for-profit ISOs that operate transmission facilities owned and maintained by others vs. for-profit Independent Transmission Companies (Transcos) that own, maintain, and operate their own transmission facilities. The success of the ongoing restructuring of the nation's electricity sector and its reliance on decentralized competitive generation service markets depends heavily on the existence of a robust transmission network that operates efficiently. Indeed, the new decentralized industry structure with a large number of economic agents pursuing their own self interests requires a more robust transmission network and enhanced operating capabilities than was the case during the era of vertically integrated regulated monopolies. Recent historical evidence suggests, however, that resources devoted to maintaining, operating, and expanding the nation's transmission networks are declining rather than increasing in relative terms. Continuing to rely on FERC's historical transmission regulatory framework is not likely to foster the kind of robust transmission networks that are required to support efficient competitive electricity markets. Traditional transmission regulatory procedures pay too much attention to the direct costs of transmission (capital and operating costs) and too little attention to the indirect costs of transmission (congestion, ancillary services, and local market power mitigation costs). It is very important for the FERC to adopt new regulatory mechanisms that provide transmission owners and operators with powerful economic incentives to operate transmission networks efficiently and to invest the resources necessary to expand their capabilities efficiently. These incentives should be an integral component of a performance-based regulatory (PBR) framework for the regulation of transmission rates that rewards transmission owners for achieving these objectives and penalizes them for failing to do so. There is a growing debate over whether RTOs should be non-profit ISOs or for-profit Transcos or some combination of the two organizational forms. This debate raises important issues, though the signal to noise ratio that has characterized this debate has not been very high. There are potentially significant costs resulting from the separation of ownership and maintenance decisions from transmission operating decisions, as is the case with ISOs. On the other hand, there are potential benefits associated with independence of the transmission operator from generation and marketing activities and the internalization of significant regional loop flow and related network externalities within a single organization. There are significant incentive issues that must be addressed both for non-profit ISOs and for-profit Transco monopolies. Viewed properly, it is not so much a choice between a not-for-profit ISO and a for-profit Transco, as it is a choice about the distribution of responsibilities between them.

A Review of the Monitoring of Market Power The Possible Roles of TSOs in Monitoring for Market Power Issues in Congested Transmission Systems

The paper surveys the literature and publicly available information on market power monitoring in electricity wholesale markets. After briefly reviewing definitions, strategies and methods of mitigating market power we examine the various methods of detecting market power that have been employed by academics and market monitors/regulators. These techniques include structural and behavioural indices and analysis as well as various simulation approaches. The applications of these tools range from spot market mitigation and congestion management through to long-term market design assessment and merger decisions. Various market-power monitoring units already track market behaviour and produce indices. Our survey shows that these units collect a large amount of data from various market participants and we identify the crucial role of the transmission system operators with their access to dispatch and system information. Easily accessible and comprehensive data supports effective market power monitoring and facilitates market design evaluation. The discretion required for effective market monitoring is facilitated by institutional independence.Electricity, liberalisation, market power, regulation

Enabling Micro-level Demand-Side Grid Flexiblity in Resource Constrained Environments

The increased penetration of uncertain and variable renewable energy presents various resource and operational electric grid challenges. Micro-level (household and small commercial) demand-side grid flexibility could be a cost-effective strategy to integrate high penetrations of wind and solar energy, but literature and field deployments exploring the necessary information and communication technologies (ICTs) are scant. This paper presents an exploratory framework for enabling information driven grid flexibility through the Internet of Things (IoT), and a proof-of-concept wireless sensor gateway (FlexBox) to collect the necessary parameters for adequately monitoring and actuating the micro-level demand-side. In the summer of 2015, thirty sensor gateways were deployed in the city of Managua (Nicaragua) to develop a baseline for a near future small-scale demand response pilot implementation. FlexBox field data has begun shedding light on relationships between ambient temperature and load energy consumption, load and building envelope energy efficiency challenges, latency communication network challenges, and opportunities to engage existing demand-side user behavioral patterns. Information driven grid flexibility strategies present great opportunity to develop new technologies, system architectures, and implementation approaches that can easily scale across regions, incomes, and levels of development

Responsible Design of Drones and Drone Services:Legal Perspective Synthetic Report

The term “drone” is the common language of all types of aircraft without a pilot on board and their ancillary components, such as a control station, if applicable. In addition to the common term “drone”, other terms and acronyms, among others, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Unmanned Aircraft (UA), Pilotless Aircraft and Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) are also widely used in publications. In the past 5 years, drones have demonstrated significant growth in civil market as not only a leisure product but also a tool which can provide professional services. Professional uses of drones include, among others, agricultural services, surveillance, search and rescue, monitoring and inspection, parcel delivery and picturing and filming. Compared to conducting those services above by manpower, drones provide services in higher efficiency and accuracy, decrease the cost of actions, and expand the accessibility. The deployment of drones has impacts on individuals, the society and the environment. The potential threat to aviation safety as well as the safety of persons and properties on the ground is a central issue. In addition, given that drones are very often equipped with cameras and sensors, the potential violation to personal privacy and data protection by drone users is the major barrier that hinders the public acceptance of drone applications