Agricultural Demand Response Aggregators in Electricity Markets: Structure, Challenges and Practical Solutions- a Tutorial for Energy Experts

Abstract

Worldwide, the demand-side flexibility is subject to extensive researches to hedge against the increasing penetration of intermittent renewable power and/or reduce the peak demand of the power system. The electricity consumptions, including residential, agricultural and industrial, have responsive behavior which can provide demand flexibility to the power system when aggregated and coordinated properly. Against the literature on residential and industrial sectors, the Demand Response (DR) potentials of the agricultural sector are still a challenge for energy policy-makers. This paper aims to fill the gap conducting a research study into DR opportunities for agricultural electricity consumption. This paper first introduces the main barriers to the agricultural DR, e.g. the size of the irrigation system, flexibility of water delivery, onsite labor, and on-farm power electronic control devices. Secondly, practical solutions are proposed to eliminate barriers. Finally, in order to facilitate the integration of demand flexibilities to the power system, a novel structure is suggested for the first time as Agricultural Demand Response Aggregator (ADRA). Therefore, reviewing the main barriers of ADR programs, suggesting practical solutions to break the barriers and finally suggesting a workable structure for the ADRA are the main contributions. To sum up, this tutorial gives energy experts a general overview to implement DR programs on agricultural lands optimizing the power system operation.