Certification prerequisites for activities related to the trading of demand response resources

Certification according to international standards brings many benefits to the society, including technical, economic and environmental aspects. In this context, this paper highlights the benefits of certification of Demand Response, including the additional credibility which provides to the trading of flexibility and higher confidence between different players. The consequence is a dynamic environment which facilitates the market acceptance of Demand Response services and products, providing significant benefits to providers and users of such services. A methodology for the systematic certification of different activities related to the transaction of Demand Response resources has been developed and it is presented here. In particular, three types of certificate have been specified, considering the certification of the entity providing the resource (Demand Response Provider), the contractual framework between the provider and the requester (Demand Response Product) and the physical platform to enable and guarantee such transaction (Demand Response Energy Service Trader). The results of this paper may help regulators and standardization bodies in the design and specification of a future norm to allow the certification of the above-mentioned activities, or a further development of existing regulation for certification of energy efficiency systems (like ISO 50001), where certification of Demand Response activities could be complementary.This work was completed in the framework of the DRIP project (11ENV/DE/340) co-funded by the European Commission through the LIFE Environment Programme. The authors deeply thank all the participants in the project for their help and support that made possible this work.Alcázar-Ortega, M.; Calpe Esteve, CM.; Theisen, T.; Rodríguez-García, J. (2015). Certification prerequisites for activities related to the trading of demand response resources. Energy. 93:705-715. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2015.09.082S7057159

Incentive-based demand response programs designed by asset-light retail electricity providers for the day-ahead market

Following the deregulation experience of retail electricity markets in most countries, the majority of the new entrants of the liberalized retail market were pure REP (retail electricity providers). These entities were subject to financial risks because of the unexpected price variations, price spikes, volatile loads and the potential for market power exertion by GENCO (generation companies). A REP can manage the market risks by employing the DR (demand response) programs and using its' generation and storage assets at the distribution network to serve the customers. The proposed model suggests how a REP with light physical assets, such as DG (distributed generation) units and ESS (energy storage systems), can survive in a competitive retail market. The paper discusses the effective risk management strategies for the REPs to deal with the uncertainties of the DAM (day-ahead market) and how to hedge the financial losses in the market. A two-stage stochastic programming problem is formulated. It aims to establish the financial incentive-based DR programs and the optimal dispatch of the DG units and ESSs. The uncertainty of the forecasted day-ahead load demand and electricity price is also taken into account with a scenario-based approach. The principal advantage of this model for REPs is reducing the risk of financial losses in DAMs, and the main benefit for the whole system is market power mitigation by virtually increasing the price elasticity of demand and reducing the peak demand