Modelling reserve management strategies and assessing impacts on short term markets with the OPTIMATE prototype simulation platform

The OPTIMATE prototype is a tool developed to perform simulations involving multiple market areas and market rules. The platform models the sequence of actions taken by Transmission System Operators, Market Players and Power Exchanges from day-ahead to real-time. The purpose of the present paper is first, to present the most recent developments of the platform regarding reserve management strategies; second, to illustrate those updates with a study performed with the whole chain of modules of OPTIMATE from the day-ahead to the real-time, focusing on two opposite reserve management strategies. In this study, tendering more up and downward reserves sometimes implies more generation curtailment mainly because more conventional generation units are started up to provide the reserve capacity while subsidized renewables still sell energy on markets at low prices. This also implies the presence of more offers on spot markets changing thus energy prices and cross-border exchanges.