Contingency Management in Power Systems and Demand Response Market for Ancillary Services in Smart Grids with High Renewable Energy Penetration

Abstract

The modern power grid has seen a marked increase in renewable energy generation resources. The intermittent nature of these resources give rise to additional challenges in maintaining grid stability. To design a grid which is secure, a number of factors need to be considered. On a basic level, security is defined as the ability of a certain system configuration to continue to function and withstand a wide range of operating parameters, outside influences, or even subsystem failures. In the event of contingencies such loss of a generation unit, the entire system needs to be able to remain operating long enough for the grid operators to restore stability. Maintaining a balance of power is critical to the continued operation of the grid at these times. Development and implementation of smart grid technologies offers advantages over traditional electric utilities. In these days, demand response programs have been developed to help traditional power market to provide different services such as contingency reserves specially with increasing penetrations of renewable energies. Demand response is Voluntary (and compensated) load reduction used as a bulk system reliability resource. Demand-side provision is a good source of ancillary services, because the larger number of participants increases competition, lowers cost and leads to a better utilization of resources. The focus of this thesis is on demand response market in order to provide different ancillary services such as contingency reserves. This market framework is presented as an alternative to the traditional vertically-integrated market structure, which may be better suited for developing demand response and smart grid technologies.