Earning money while making power grid more stable—energy consumers can have key role in supporting grid flexibility

By offering flexibility companies to renewable vitality programs, shoppers can each assist in balancing energy grids and obtain monetary advantages. Hosna Khajeh’s doctoral dissertation from the University of Vaasa, Finland, introduces new strategies that allow the environment friendly utilization of vitality customers’ flexibility assets in distribution and transmission networks.

As using weather-dependent renewable energy sources will increase, power systems have to grow to be extra versatile to ensure energy supply always. One of many essential steps for the longer term is making it doable for shoppers to assist each nationwide and native energy grids with their present flexibility assets—akin to house batteries, air conditioners, and renewable vitality setups.

In her doctoral dissertation in electrical engineering, Hosna Khajeh reveals how particular person vitality customers, native vitality communities, and industrial hydrogen programs can grow to be flexibility service suppliers for each transmission and distribution system operators.

“While flexibility services for transmission system operators are well-developed, less attention has been given to those for distribution system operators,” factors out Khajeh, who will defend her dissertation on 3 December on the University of Vaasa.

Khajeh states that buyers offering flexibility companies not solely advantages the system operators, but additionally the vitality customers themselves, since they’d revenue financially from harnessing their very own assets.

Sensible strategies for offering flexibility companies

In her dissertation, Khajeh introduces completely different mathematical strategies that allow shoppers to enhance grid stability. “The presented methods help flexibility providers in effectively scheduling their resources, controlling their energy use based on the needs of system operators, and boosting their profits.”

Distribution system operators, akin to Vaasan Sähköverkko in Finland, can even make the most of the findings to strengthen their networks, create new companies, and make {the electrical} community extra versatile.

Implementation requires world enhancements from automation to planning

Khajeh factors out that to deploy these new strategies for offering flexibility companies from family prospects, enhancements and investments are required each in Finland and globally. “We need flexibility utilization enabling advanced automation and telecommunication solutions, common transmission and distribution network planning and operating principles as well as market platforms and tariff solutions.”

In her analysis, Khajeh used worth and frequency information from Finnish nationwide electrical energy transmission grid operator Fingrid’s open information platform, together with modified vitality consumption information from Finnish households offered by Vaasan Sähkö, a Finnish electrical energy firm.