Integration of Flexibility into an Energy System with High Shares of Solar PV – Contribution from the Project C/sells
Presentation at the Solar Integration Workshop on 15th and 16th October 2019 in Dublin
Since January 2017, more than 70 project partners are investigating the transformation towards a digital energy system within the project C/sells. Over a period of four years, a combination of theoretical research and development as well as practical application in field trials will be used to investigate and demonstrate the implementation of an intelligent energy supply of the future. The key focus of the project is on the integration of solar PV, since the project region consists of the southern German states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse with high solar potential.
The main topics of FfE within the project deal with the integration of flexibility into the system. Firstly, the aggregation and extrapolation of measured consumption data in the low voltage grid allow estimating the grid state and therefore, quantifying the potentially available flexibility. Similarly, the development of forecasting methods for residential consumers enables relevant stakeholders to predict the grid load and consider this for the flexibility activation process.
Another focus is the specification and evaluation of business models and business cases in a future decentralized energy system. The developed tools can be applied to assess the potential economic viability of different concepts for flexibility integration for all relevant stakeholders. Additional analyses of electricity market data and market interaction are required to reliably estimate the behavior of potential market participants. Moreover, technical and regulatory requirements of identified business models are investigated and applied as another criterion for comparison.
The last area of research deals with the problem of incentivizing flexibility by small-scale appliances. For assets such as electrical heating systems or electric cars, models like local flexibility markets are being developed by project partners. These are not appropriate for household appliances though. Therefore, variable electricity rates for residential customers are analyzed as means to tap this additional potential, but also as a potential incentive for owners of the aforementioned assets who are not willing to participate in a flexibility market. The developed simulation model allows optimizing rate parameters based on measured consumption data, leading to recommendations regarding optimal rate structures and price spreads.
