DESCRIPTION
The current electrical power system is among the most complex and important systems created by humans and it also plays a central role in the transition towards a sustainable future. There has already been made a step towards this future by the massive integration of renewable energy sources (wind, PV), as well as new demand technologies (heat pumps, EVs). Unfortunately, this leads to large fluctuations, uncertainties and peaks in the generation and also in the demand. The grid infrastructure, built with a centralized and planned energy production in mind, cannot cope well with these new developments, as shown in several stress tests (e.g. Lochem IPIN project IN4Energy). To prevent possible power outages, flexibility services on the consumer side need to be integrated into the system. Controlling this additional flexibility adds another layer of complexity to the already difficult problem of managing the power system.
This project aims to design market mechanisms which incentivize the energy consumers and prosumers to bring in their flexibility in such a way that it supports the system in reducing peaks and fluctuations and making full use of the renewable energy sources. The mechanisms will be built on state-of-the-art smart grid and transactive energy frameworks and will make use of self-managing and -organising characteristics in order to ensure system resilience. The algorithms should also be able to adopt to uncertain and unpredictable events. To be able to develop such algorithms, ideas and techniques from game theory, optimization, probability theory as well as electrical engineering need to be merged together.