Implementation and Simulation of Real Load Shifting Scenarios Based on a Flexibility Price Market Strategy—The Italian Residential Sector as a Case Study

Abstract

This work aims to evaluate the Flexibility Potential that a residential household can effectively provide to the public grid for participating in a Demand Response activity. In detail, by using 14 dwellings electrical data collection, an algorithm to simulate the Load Shifting activity over the daytime is implemented. That algorithm is applied to different scenarios having considered the addition of several technical constraints on the end users’ devices. In such a way, more realistic demand-side management actions are implemented in order to assess the Flexibility Potential deriving from the loads shifting. Basically, by performing simulations it is possible to investigate how the household appliances real operating conditions can reduce the theoretical Flexibility Potential extent. Starting from a Flexibility Price-Market-based Strategy, this work simulates the shifting over the day and night-time of some flexible loads, i.e., the shiftable and the storable ones. Specifically, all instants where load curtailments and enhancements occur over the typical day, the flexibility strategy effectiveness in terms of percentage, the power and energy that are potentially flexible, are evaluated. All the simulations are performed only for residential consumers to evaluate the actual dwellings Flexibility Potential in the absence of any electrical storage and production systems. The outcomes of these simulations show an average Theoretical Flexibility reduction, which is calculated as the fraction of appliances’ cycles shifting over the total ones, equal to 53%, instead of 66%; in a single dwelling, a maximum variation equal to 29% has been registered. In the end, the monthly average shifted energy per dwellings decreases from 27 to 18 kWh, entailing 32.5% off.