Exploring future opportunities and challenges of Demand Side Management with Agent Based Modelling

Electricity systems worldwide are transforming in-line with the global decarbonisation goals. On the supply side, renewable energy resources are replacing fossil fuels which introduces uncertainty in electricity generation. On the demand side, heating and transport electrification coupled with continuous integration of small scale renewables and energy storage are transforming the interactions between consumers and generators. These changes are raising new challenges for system operators in terms of balancing electricity in the grid. Demand-side management (DSM), whereby electricity consumption is coordinated with variable supply from renewables, has been shown to offer a promising solution to the above problem. However, the extent to which the future impact of DSM has been holistically assessed is arguable. Current model-based assessment of DSM primarily focuses on its benefits, ignoring the potential challenges since the testing tends to be carried out in an isolated and idealistic setting. This work proposes a model for Electricity System Management using an Agent based approach (or ESMA), which includes heterogeneous consumers, aggregators, the system operator, and market. The main feature of the model is its capability to simulate different regimes of DSM: decentralised (performed by consumers), semi-centralised (performed by aggregators), and centralised (performed by the system operator). The impact of each DSM regime is assessed in terms system costs, greenhouse gas emissions and consumer bills in the context of the British electricity system for 2015-2050. It is found that a trade-off exists between consumer autonomy and system optimality with regards to DSM. It is argued that the level of information sharing between consumers and the system can be minimised, as better learning and predicting algorithms are developed. The thesis is concluded with a discussion on the potential consumer tariff structure which would reward consumer flexibility

Centralized vs. distributed energy storage – Benefits for residential users

Funding Information: This research was funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Research Council ( EPSRC ) through the Realising Energy Storage Technologies in Low-carbon Energy Systems (RESTLESS) project ( EP/N001893/1 ), for which the authors are very grateful. The contribution by BZ have been partly supported by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and the RE-INVEST project “Renewable Energy Investment Strategies – A two-dimensional interconnectivity approach” funded by Innovation Fund, Denmark. The authors would also like to thank Professor Richard Green (Imperial College London) for useful suggestions. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)Distributed energy storage is a solution for increasing self-consumption of variable renewable energy such as solar and wind energy at the end user site. Small-scale energy storage systems can be centrally coordinated by “aggregation” to offer different services to the grid, such as operational flexibility and peak shaving. This paper shows how centralized coordination vs. distributed operation of residential electricity storage (home batteries) could affect the savings of owners. A hybrid method is applied to model the operation of solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage for a typical UK householder, linked with a whole-system power system model to account for long-term energy transitions. Based on results, electricity consumers can accumulate greater savings under centralized coordination by between 4 and 8% when operating no technology, by 3-11% with electricity storage alone, by 2-5% with stand-alone solar PV, while 0-2% with PV-battery combined. Centralized coordination of home batteries offers more optimized electricity prices in the system, and as such, higher private savings to all consumers. However, consumers without onsite energy technologies benefit more than PV-battery owners. Therefore, based on system-level benefits of aggregation, the regulator should incentivize prosumers with PV-battery, who are able to balance their electricity supply-demand even without central coordination, to let their storage be controlled centrally. Possible revenues of storage owners from ancillary services as well as the cost of aggregation (e.g., transaction fees charged by aggregators) are not considered in this analysis.Peer reviewe