Capacity Market and (the Lack of) New Investments: Evidence from Poland

Capacity remuneration mechanisms operate in many European countries. In 2018, Poland implemented a centralized capacity market to ensure appropriate funding for the existing and new power generation units to improve long-term energy security. One of the declarations made while the mechanism was deployed was its beneficial influence on incentives for investments in new units. In this context, this paper aims to analyze the effects of the capacity mechanism adopted for investments in new power generation units that may be financed under the capacity market mechanism in Poland. The analysis is conducted for four types of capacity market units, the existing, refurbishing, planned, and demand-side response types, and includes the final results of capacity auctions. The results prove that the primary beneficiaries of the capacity market in Poland have been the existing units (including the refurbishing ones) responsible for more than 80% of capacity obligation volumes contracted for 2021–2025. Moreover, during the implementation of the capacity market in Poland, the planned units that signed long-term capacity contracts with a total share of 12% of the whole market were already at the advanced phases of construction, and the investment decisions were made long before the implementation of the capacity market mechanism. Therefore, they were not associated with the financial support from the capacity market. The study indicates that the capacity market did not bring incentives for investments in new power generation units in the investigated period.

5G Wireless Networks in the Future Renewable Energy Systems

This paper focuses on the strategies that employ the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks in the optimal management of demand-side response in the future energy systems with the high penetration of renewable energy sources (RES). It also provides a comparison between advantages and challenges of 5G networks in demand-response renewable energy grids. Large-scale renewable energy integration always leads to a mismatch between generation and load demand in the short run due to the intermittency. It is often envisioned that 5G wireless networks that were recently launched and would most likely be fully deployed worldwide by 2035 would bring many technological and economic benefits for a plethora of the future high-renewables grids featuring electric transport and heating as well as prosumers generating renewable energy and trading it back to the grid (for example, in the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) framework) and among themselves using peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Our paper offers a comprehensive analysis of 5G architecture with the perspectives of optimal management of demand-side response in the smart grids of the future. We show that the effective deployment of faster and more reliable wireless networks would allow faster data transfers and processing, including peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trade market, Internet of Vehicles (IoV) market, or faster smart metering, and thence open the path for the full-fledged Internet of Energy (IoE). Moreover, we show that 5G wireless networks might become in the future sustainable energy systems paving the road to even more advanced technologies and the new generations of networks. In addition, we demonstrate that for the effective management of energy demand-side response with a high share of renewables, certain forms of governments funding and incentives might be needed. These are required to strengthen the support of RES and helping to shift to the green economy.

Coordinated Frequency Regulation of Smart Grid by Demand Side Response and Variable Speed Wind Turbines

Frequency stability of the power system is impacted by the increasing penetration of wind power because the wind power is intermittent. Meanwhile, sometimes the demand side loads increase quickly to require more power than total power produced. So balancing the active power in the power system to maintain the frequency is the main challenge of the high penetration of wind power to the smart grid. This paper proposes coordination rotor speed control (RSC), pitch angle control (PAC) and inertial control (IC) to control wind turbines, together with demand side response (DSR) participating in frequency regulation to balance active power in the power system. Firstly, the model of a single area load frequency control (LFC) system is obtained, which includes variable-speed wind turbines (VSWT) and DSR containing aggregated air conditioners and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Then the RSC, PAC and IC, which controls wind turbines participating in frequency regulation in the power system, are introduced, respectively. Finally, the coordination of these three methods for wind turbines in different wind speeds is proposed. Case studies are carried out for the single area LFC system with a wind farm and DSR supported grid frequency. Coordination RSC and PAC combined IC are used to control wind turbines with DSR to balance active power in the power system. The proposed method used in the power system with high penetration of wind power and fluctuation of demand load is tested, respectively. Coordinated RSC or PAC with DSR can increase penetration of wind power and reduce peak load.

Fast frequency oscillations detection in low inertia power systems with excessive demand-side response for frequency regulation

The reduction in inertia present in electric power systems due to the increase in renewable generation interfaced with power converters presents various challenges in power system operation. One of these challenges is keeping the frequency of the system within acceptable bounds, as the reduced inertia allows faster changes in frequency. A possible way to mitigate this effect is to introduce a certain degree of frequency response in the demand side, in such a way that a loss in generation leads to a decrease in the demanded power, levelling the generation-demand balance. In this paper, one limitation of this approach is analysed, specifically the case where the demand response is excessive to the system inertia and demand, producing fast frequency oscillations. A scenario where this happens, on a simulated islanded system based on the electric power system of the island of San Cristóbal, in Galápagos (Ecuador), is studied, and a method of detecting these oscillations is proposed, as a first step to develop an appropriate response to them.

An Energy Management Optimization Method for Community Integrated Energy System Based on User Dominated Demand Side Response

With the development of integrated energy systems (IES), the traditional demand response technologies for single energy that do not take customer satisfaction into account have been unable to meet actual needs. Therefore, it is urgent to study the integrated demand response (IDR) technology for integrated energy, which considers consumers’ willingness to participate in IDR. This paper proposes an energy management optimization method for community IES based on user dominated demand side response (UDDSR). Firstly, the responsive power loads and thermal loads are modeled, and aggregated using UDDSR bidding optimization. Next, the community IES is modeled and an aggregated building thermal model is introduced to measure the temperature requirements of the entire community of users for heating. Then, a day-ahead scheduling model is proposed to realize the energy management optimization. Finally, a penalty mechanism is introduced to punish the participants causing imbalance response against the day-ahead IDR bids, and the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) theory is introduced to enhance the robustness of the scheduling model under different prediction accuracies. The case study demonstrates that the proposed method can reduce the operating cost of the community under the premise of fully considering users’ willingness, and can complete the IDR request initiated by the power grid operator or the dispatching department.