European Case Studies for Impact of Market-driven Flexibility Management in Distribution Systems

The amount of distributed generation and consumption is growing worldwide and consequently also the need to increase the hosting capacity of distribution systems. To achieve this, possible measures include building new lines, enhancing the grid infrastructure, and providing higher efficiency of the existing grid. Several projects propose to include the control of power generation and Demand-Side-Management, like solar photovoltaic power curtailment and managing flexible demand, as a measure to increase the hosting capacity of the grid. The use of automated demand response through Information and Communications Technologies seems to be a promising solution, which can be rapidly implemented cost-effectively in distribution systems. Automated Demand Response includes a set of activities aimed to reduce or shift electricity use to improve the grid operation. Generators and consumers may be encouraged by the right incentives to activate their flexibilities and consequently increase the hosting capacity of the electricity distribution systems. For this reason, smart grid technologies are expected to play an essential role in the development of future power systems. In this paper, we present the results of different European case studies, which investigated the impact of market-driven automated flexibility management in smart grids. The findings indicate that automated Demand Response can contribute to distribution system stability and increase the renewable energy share, but also requires high computational power and complex coordination architectures.