Abstract
Large-scale deployment of renewable energy resources, both utility-scale and distributed, create reliability concerns for electrical power system operators. The weather-dependent, non-dispatchable nature of renewable resources decreases the ability of operators to match supply with demand. Concurrently, distributed energy resources, defined as small-scale loads, generation sources, and storage systems, are becoming ubiquitous within modern electrical systems. This literature review presents the grid services that utilities use to alleviate power systems reliability concerns, particularly those caused by renewable resources, and how aggregations of residential-scale distributed energy resources can be used to provide these services.By aggregating distributed energy resources en masse to provide grid services, grid operators can concurrently improve reliability while ensuring high penetration levels of renewable resources. Academic researchers have developed the theoretical methods for achieving these objectives. Standards bodies have created open communication frameworks for linking these resources with grid operators. And, large-scale utility programs have demonstrated the potential for providing grid services using aggregations of these resources. This manuscript presents a review of the literature, methods, and standards that have created the foundation for distributed energy resources to help decarbonize electrical power systems.
Highlights
Due to the growing impacts of climate change, electricity customers and societies are demanding that their electricity be sourced from greener alternatives
This is followed by a presentation of the services that utilities use to address these problems, known as ancillary grid services
The article presents a review of DER aggregation solutions that can be used to provide these grid services, dispatchable standby generation, demand side management, and asset aggregation
Summary
Due to the growing impacts of climate change, electricity customers and societies are demanding that their electricity be sourced from greener alternatives. A growing number of residential-scale equipment that have communications capability and a control module are being manufactured These devices can receive dispatch commands from a grid operator or aggregation service to provide frequency response, regulation, ramp-rate control, and volt/VAr support, among others. This manuscript addresses questions regarding how utilities can address the challenges imposed by RER using residentialscale DER assets, how those assets may be aggregated, how aggregations of such assets can be used to address grid issues through dispatch as ancillary services, and how communication and control may be realized using open protocols.
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