Utilizing flexibility resources in the future power system operation: Alternative approaches

Future power system will experience large amount of renewable generation with highly stochastic and partly unpredictable characteristics. To safely operate power system, new Flexibility Resources (FRs) are needed to participate in the operation. Some of the new FRs are linked to the electricity system, but they are managed outside of the electrical network by other energy sectors.

To this end, an Integrated Energy System (IES) is needed to exploit such cross-sectoral opportunities. On the other hand, small FRs at the distribution level exist which can play an important role in the future. To exploit existing FRs, however, new operational strategies are needed. In this paper, Transactive Energy (TE) and Control-Based Approaches (CBA) are explained as the two mainstream frameworks in relation to the future energy system operation.

The paper investigates benefits and drawbacks of each framework and finally defines a benchmark to better understand the potential of these solutions for the future energy management. The paper also concludes that more comprehensive operational approaches, beyond distribution system management, are required to fulfill the upcoming requirements.