Local short-term uncertainties and their impact on the economics of
distributed flexibilities.

Motivation

   Environmental and economical concerns have led to a strong investment in Renewable Energy Sources in the last few years. At the same time, and due to the same reasons, Distribution System Operators (DSOs) have not invested on the upgrade of their infrastructures. For this reasons Distribution Networks are operating near it limits.

 

   With the development of Smart Grid applications, DSOs may rely on distributed flexibilities to postpone network upgrades. To do so, they need to activate distributed resources to avoid network constraints.

 

   It is usually considered that DSOs select their operation strategy between Day Ahead and Real Time using the best forecasts available at the moment. When defining the right strategy, the DSOs must make a tradeoff between costs and quality of service.

 

   Since the availability and the cost of activation of the Distributed Flexibilities can change when approaching real time, forecast accuracy is particularly relevant to ensure the suitability of the decisions made.

 

   In this master’s Thesis, we propose to address the problem of choosing the right activation strategy considering the window of time and the amount for the various types of distributed flexibilities depending on uncertainties on the constraints and resources.