Assessment of capacity management approaches in distribution grids

The increasing share of RES in today's power grids is accompanied by additional challenges for grid planning and operation. Furthermore, an increasing number of flexible loads and generation units causes additional imponderability for the distribution system operation. To ensure a secure system operation, it can become necessary for the system operator (DSO) to interfere with RES generation and market participation of flexible units. The interference of the DSO, especially in terms of market participation needs to be non-discriminating but also technically and economically efficient. This paper proposes a non-discriminating method for capacity management in distribution grids by use of an approved capacity factor. The method is further compared with an optimal unit commitment of flexible units under direct consideration of grid constraints. It can be shown, that the proposed, non-discriminating approach accomplishes a market participation close to the technical (but discriminating) optimum and thus offers a straightforward and efficient method for DSOs to manage grid capacities.