A flexibility management system for behind-the-meter flexibility with distributed energy resources: A sensitivity analysis

Abstract

The increasing uncertainty in power systems with high penetration levels of renewable energy fosters the research on the control, management, and operation of distributed energy resources and its coupling with the current grid operation and control scheme alongside future energy markets and flexibility services. This work proposes a flexibility management system for the behind-the-meter flexibility of the distributed energy resources, which employs an adaptive auto-regression forecasting module to predict the energy cost overruns of the system throughout the energy exchanges at the point of interconnection. In addition, a cost–benefit analysis is used to evaluate and optimize the DER set-point profiles to minimize the installation’s energy cost, which, together with power redispatching and unit recommitment modules, are executed to adjust the DER operating points according to real-time deviations and short-term flexibility requests. A reference case and sensitivity analysis are performed to demonstrate the efficiency of the management system and the influence of relevant parameters. According to the results, the proposed flexibility management system reduces the total energy cost by 45% and 27.8% using quadratic and linear cost function approaches, respectively, with an average calculation time of 236 s per 900 s of execution.