Resource Adequacy Methodologies in the European framework – how to take flexibilities into account in future modelling of resource adequacy?

Abstract

The drastic increase of renewable energy sources in combination with the fade-out of big thermal units leads to an increase in the amount of flexibilities for the European electricity system. Since a huge amount of flexibilities are located in the distribution system area, the potential and proper amount for modelling is challenging to catch. Transmission system operators (TSOs) need to establish a way to retrieve this data to carry out analysis to determine their level of security of supply. Probabilistic resource adequacy assessments serve as a basis to terminate those levels and try to answer the question of sufficient generation can be provided every hour of the year to cover future demand. Within this study, some general introduction to Resource Adequacy Assessments within Europe is provided. Special focus is drawn to the implementation of flexibilities by the use of a new database supporting future flexibilities. Since probabilistic resource adequacy assessments constantly develop, an assessment of adding stepwise amounts of demand-side response (DSR) to the Austrian system is performed. DSR aims to increase or decrease demand by shifting peak values to time intervals when this would be beneficial to system operation using stimulation through market pricing signals.