Congestion management with aggregated delivery of flexibility using distributed energy resources

Abstract

Increasing penetrations of small scale electricity generation and storage technologies are making an important contribution to the decentralisation and decarbonisation of power system control and operation. Although not currently realised, coordination of local distributed energy resources (DERs) and a greater degree of demand flexibility through digital aggregation, offer the potential to lower the cost of energy at source and to enable remuneration for consumer participation, addressing the rising costs of energy supply, which impacts strongly on all consumers. Methods are required to manage potential distribution network constraints caused by flexible DERs, as well as for determining the risk to delivery of flexibility from these DERs for aggregators. A heuristic network flexibility dispatch methodology is proposed, which can be used to calculate the probability of constraints, and any required adjustments of flexible agent positions to resolve them, at half hourly resolution. The aggregator can use this methodology to manage their portfolio risk, while a distribution system operator can estimate required flexibility to manage constraints down to low voltage level.

Power Cloud Framework for Prosumer Aggregation to Unlock End-User Flexibility

“…The management of the aggregation to reduce congestion and provide flexibility using distributed energy resources is also an important issue. In [4], a heuristic dispatching approach is used. In [5], distributed resources are involved in providing voltage support and optimizing real-time operations in the distribution and transmission networks.…”

An initial validation of a real-time cloud-based ‘web-of-cells’ energy management system

“…While the electricity sector in Scotland has made substantial progress in reducing its reliance on fossil fuels (final figures for 2019 indicate that the equivalent of 89.5% of gross electricity consumption was from renewables, up from 76.2% in 2018 [7]), electricity only accounts for 24% of the final energy consumption in Scotland [5]. There is, therefore, a further challenge to reduce the emissions associated with heat and transport sectors [8]. It is widely accepted that the electricity system will be instrumental in reducing the emissions associated with these remaining sectors (e.g.…”