Spatial and temporal variation in the value of solar power across United States electricity markets
Not provided.
Energy & Fuels↗
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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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The Impact of Co-Located Clusters of Inverter-Based Resources on a Performance-Based Regulation Market Metric.
Abstract not provided.
Haines, John↗
Critical Review of Platinum Group Metal-Free Materials for Water Electrolysis: Transition from the Laboratory to the Market : Earth-abundant borides and phosphides as catalysts for sustainable hydrogen production
To combat the global problem of carbon dioxide emissions, hydrogen is the desired energy vector for the transition to environmentally benign fuel cell power. Water electrolysis (WE) is the major technology for sustainable hydrogen production. Despite the use of renewable solar and wind power as sources of electricity, one of the main barriers for the widespread implementation of WE is the scarcity and high cost of platinum group metals (pgms) that are used to catalyse the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Hence, the critical pgm-based catalysts must be replaced with more sustainable alternatives for WE technologies to become commercially viable. This critical review describes the state-of-the-art pgm-free materials used in the WE application, with a major focus on phosphides and borides. Several emerging classes of HER and OER catalysts are reviewed and detailed structure-property correlations are comprehensively summarised. The influence of the crystallographic and electronic structures, morphology and bulk and surface chemistry of the catalysts on the activity towards OER and HER is discussed.
Chemistry↗
Techno-Economic Analysis and Market Potential of Geological Thermal Energy Storage (GeoTES) Charged With Solar Thermal and Heat Pumps into Depleted Oil/Gas Reservoirs and Shallow Reservoirs: A Technology Overview: Preprint
Depleted oil/gas reservoirs represent a waste of underground resources and investments of drilling, and also a potential risk to the earth's environment. Geologic thermal energy storage (GeoTES) is proposed as a solution to convert depleted oil/gas reservoirs into long-term seasonal energy storage. GeoTES can be hybridized with other techniques for viable commercial deployment, such as 1) concentrating solar power (CSP) collectors and 2) heat pumps with excess renewable energy. Here, a technology overview is given on the two GeoTES technologies, which includes system overview, techno-economic models, and case study. Both GeoTES technologies show great potential in the economics of individual project deployment and applicability across the US.
concentrating solar power↗
Capacity Markets for Transactive Energy Systems
Capacity markets provide important incentives for resource adequacy in electricity markets and may become more important for providing sufficient revenue and generation capacity with changes to energy market prices driven by increasing levels of zero marginal cost resources. However, current capacity market designs also have important shortfalls that may limit the benefits they can provide to the future grid. Current capacity markets are primarily designed for participation from conventional thermal generators, but markets are evolving with increasing levels of variable renewable energy resources. However, further reforms may be necessary to enable more participation from DERs and demand-side resources. To understand the benefits and shortfalls of current capacity market design, we review the historical reasons electricity markets have needed capacity markets or capacity payments for resource adequacy, and how current capacity market designs may create challenges for incorporating increasing levels of DERs and demand-side resources. We then consider how transactive systems, which allow the coordination of bids and offers for DERs and demand-side resources through a market interaction approach, administered by a Distribution System Operator (DSO), can address traditional resource adequacy problems due to inelastic consumer demand. We also consider the need for a DSO-level capacity market in helping to meet resource adequacy, reliability, and other electricity market objectives. We find that because the missing money in electricity markets is largely driven by incentives to meet resource adequacy goals, and the bulk grid would always supply power to the DSO, that resource adequacy is unlikely to be a determining factor in the need for a DSO-level capacity market. Many current reliability problems could also be addressed by the incorporation of more flexible demand enabled with transactive energy systems. However, other DSO objectives, including resilience, reactive power, voltage control, environmental policies, and energy equity could lead to specific challenges that could be aided by a DSO-level capacity market. We consider the possibility of a DSO-level capacity market in addressing these challenges as well as its potential role in coordinating with the Independent System Operator (ISO) who operates the wholesale market. We conclude with suggestions for future research, including the need to develop analytical models of DSO-level capacity market designs to address these potential objectives and examine their implications for DSOs and consumers.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Scale and Regionality of Nonelectric Markets for U.S. Nuclear Light Water Reactors
This study assesses existing and potential industries that could conceivably be directly coupled to existing nuclear reactors. The goal is to identify the scale, location, and accessibility of the candidate industrial-product markets, as well as process feedstocks that are available near the plants to establish new industries. For example, CO 2 as a feedstock can be combined with H 2 to produce formic acid (FA), transportation fuels, and lubricants. These new plants can be entirely supported with the heat and electricity provided by a nearby NPP. The potential demand for nonelectric industrial products was assessed by documenting current and possible growth of nonelectricity product markets considered. This assessment used DOE- and industry-supported tools, data, and projections to capture regional industrial market opportunities. Electricity-capacity markets that reward large and reliable generators, such as NPPs, were considered because the electricity market will likely continue to be an important revenue source to NPPs. The key is to balance the needs of energy customers so as to optimize revenue for the affiliated energy customers or partners. In most cases, flexible plant energy delivery and power generation for the grid will require either energy storage or a stock of intermediate products to sustain the industrial customers when the NPP dispatches electricity to the grid. A diverse mix of temperate regions with operating NPPs around the U.S.—representing a variety of operating markets, local generation mix, and seasonal climates—were chosen for this market study. Both current and future market opportunities for candidate industrial-product markets surrounding these NPPs were studied. Figure 2 illustrates the regions chosen for this study. The success of developing nonelectric industrial-product markets as alternative revenue-generating sources for LWRs depends, not only on demand from growing existing markets, such as petroleum refining and NH 3 production, but also on the development of new markets such as light-duty (LD) and heavy-duty (HD) hydrogen FCEVs, synfuels, chemical production, biofuels, metal refining, injection of hydrogen into NG pipelines for gas power-generating units, FA, polymers, and close-coupled industrial heat applications, all of which can significantly increase demand relative to current levels while decarbonizing energy sectors. This study also presents a sample analysis of the economics of hydrogen production in an area of Minnesota, considering the capital and operating costs of a hydrogen plant as well as the local market demand for hydrogen. It includes some assumptions on electricity-grid pricing, showing how hydrogen could be integrated with an NPP and be competitive with the incumbent hydrogen-production process, steam methane reforming (SMR). The objectives of this study include: Provide U.S. NPP operators a robust sampling of the market demand location, scale, and accessibility (including storage and transportation) of the wide variety of industrial-product choices that can be produced using nuclear thermal energy and electricity proximate to a subset of U.S. NPPs to inform the industry of the potential opportunity; show examples and trade-off analyses of how U.S. LWR operators can access these markets, including storage and transportation of industrial products to their intended markets; and present a general analysis example for one industrial product (hydrogen) in one region (Minnesota area), including production, storage, and transportation, to show how nuclear-hybrid integrated energy systems (IESs) could access local markets and improve the profitability of an NPP.
03 NATURAL GAS↗
Voluntary Renewable Energy Procurement Programs in Regulated Utility Markets
Multinational corporations are increasingly purchasing renewable energy (RE) to fulfill international commitments, reduce supply chain emissions, limit environmental impact, and secure stable and affordable electricity. The potential scale of global corporate RE purchasing has been estimated to be nearly 100 GW and growing; however, many markets still lack supportive enabling environments for corporations to access RE through on-site project development or private sector transactions. Even where allowed by law, on-site generation may be insufficient due to space and technical constraints, introducing additional challenges. Utility green pricing and utility green tariff programs backed by renewable energy certificates (RECs), referred to as utility green procurement programs (GPPs) in this report, offer powerful market-based solutions to utilities, regulators, and policymakers to provide corporate and other consumers with RE product options while generating revenue to support RE development. As RE markets expand around the globe, GPPs have proven to be effective mechanisms in market regimes, ranging from fully integrated state-owned utilities to broadly liberalized power markets. GPPs utilize RECs, which are a type of energy attribute certificate and closely resemble guarantees of origin, to track and ultimately monetize RE attributes that corporations and other buyers must procure to demonstrate progress against their RE commitments and make public claims of RE use. Time-tested and transparent REC accounting mechanisms provide market confidence, while at the same time offering flexibility to utilities, regulators, and customers for a range of applications. RECs are used in all types of electricity market structures, as indicated in Figure 1, but REC-based program designs and supporting components differ depending on the type of market. Liberalized markets allow for customers to contract directly with generators for electricity and RECs, while traditionally regulated markets with vertically integrated utility structures may have greater restrictions on generation asset ownership and electricity sales. RE markets can be further defined as being either mandatory or voluntary. Mandatory markets require suppliers to deliver specified amounts of RE to grid customers, such as under a renewable portfolio standard (RPS), while voluntary markets involve no legal mandates, but demand is driven by self-imposed customer goals.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
HIPPO – A Software Platform for Electricity Market Research and Development
The goal of this project is to provide Regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) a market design and prototyping software, High-Performance Power-Grid Optimization (HIPPO), that they can evaluate electricity market design options, calculate market planning strategies and operational performance. With the high standards and strict reliability requirements for operating power systems, impacts of new technologies need to be fully investigated prior to any consideration for adoption. A market design and prototyping software tool which can be used to prototype electricity market design options, to calculate market planning strategies and operational performance with high precision, and to investigate the impacts for integrating future power grid technologies will be valuable to RTOs/ISOs who operate power systems, to vendors like GE and ABB who provide the market solvers, and to market participants and researchers who are actively doing market research. HIPPO is a such tool that can be used to improve the current market operations and provide capabilities for rigorous forward-looking design and prototyping of next-generation energy markets. HIPPO has a high-resolution model for the day-ahead SCUC, which was validated with MISO and GE-Grid Solutions. HIPPO is built with parallel and distributed computing capabilities and can be executed in both multi-thread and high-performance computing (HPC) settings. This capability provides fast solution speed necessary to handle the larger and more complex SCUC problems of real-world cases and the potentially growing size and complexity of future scenarios. In addition, HIPPO has a concurrent optimizer (CO) which manages multiple algorithm executions simultaneously and leverages the advantages from different algorithms. This structure provides flexibility to better benchmark competing approaches. Highly accurate market model, fast solution technologies and flexible model and algorithm control are the features which will make HIPPO an extensible platform for developing and testing multiple approaches to meet a wide range of future market needs.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
Modeling and Market Design Considerations for Conventional and Decarbonized Resources
The following paper reviews various market design issues that will need to be reconsidered due to anticipated changes in the resources that supply energy in wholesale electricity markets. As the energy supply continues towards decarbonization, the change in resource technologies will affect the fundamentals of production scheduling and the policies to address supply variability and uncertainty. We show through simple numerical examples that the existing market design approach based on fuel costs will result in $0/MWh prices with intermittent price spikes during reserve shortages, but that incorporating more granular reserve pricing, energy storage participation, and price-responsive demand participation can restore efficient market clearing with reasonable pricing outcomes. The market design approach fundamentally shifts from fuel based to opportunity cost based. We briefly review alternative market design frameworks that can support this shift, including intraday markets, decentralized markets, flexibility options, and swing contracts. Market designs may also be required to accommodate or support various out-of-market policies and agreements; ideally, these external factors can be integrated into the market design to facilitate efficient exchanges across longer time scales, between other markets, and in support of public policy goals. The paper concludes by discussing how decarbonization trends may affect the design and use of production cost models for short term operations and long term planning studies.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Demand response providing ancillary services: A comparison of opportunities and challenges in US wholesale markets
Interest in using demand response (DR) resources to supply low cost reliability products to the bulk electricity system is on the rise due to the uncertain impacts of increasing penetrations of intermittent generation and recent rulings supporting demand side participation in wholesale markets from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. However, organized electricity and ancillary services markets are just beginning to support DR resources for ancillary services, and the set of rules and requirements for participation are unique to each market. This paper discusses the opportunities that exist in the ancillary service markets in each US Independent System Operator territory and identifies challenges to market participation for demand response resources. It compares resource requirements, limits to aggregation, measurement and verification, bidding requirements, market timelines, and the types of organizations that can play in the markets. Additionally, it uses market clearing prices and market size to compare what value may be extracted from these markets, and identifies how these prices are currently determined. Using these criteria, PJM and ERCOT have the most favorable conditions for demand response participation in ancillary service markets, and changes to rules that effect aggregation and minimum resource size could promote more participation in other AS markets across the US.
MacDonald, Jason↗
Markets and Economic Requirements for Fission Batteries and Other Nuclear Systems
Fission Batteries (FBs) are nuclear reactors defined by five characteristics which enable large-scale deployment: cost competitive, standardized sizes for economic mass production, easy installation and removal, secure and safe unattended operation with high reliability. FBs are not defined by technology or power level. Technical and market considerations suggest that most FBs will produce 20 to 30 MWt. This proceedings reports on the outcomes of two workshops that were held in January 2021 to better define markets and economic challenges for FBs. Three major markets were identified. The largest market is the industrial and commercial heat market. There are about 4000 industrial users (excluding utilities) that require more than one megawatt of heat. The number of customers versus size of heat demand was determined. In a low-carbon world there is the potential for many additional customers—including expanded biofuels production and district heat. The second market is for non-grid electricity. This includes co-generation plants that produce heat and electricity for a single customer. The third market is the maritime market with ~100,000 ships worldwide. In the United States, natural gas is the low-cost energy option today and will remain so unless constraints or taxes impact its use. If restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, the FB competition includes natural gas with carbon capture, biofuels, hydrogen and grid electricity. Natural gas with carbon capture is not economically viable on a small scale. Biofuels may be expensive but may be the economically preferred option for locations with small energy demands of a few megawatts. Hydrogen is a potential competitor with many of the characteristics of natural gas. Grid electricity is not a competitive source of heat. For FBs to be economically competitive, the price of delivered heat must be $20-50/MWh ($6-15/million BTU). The economically competitive range for non-grid electricity is estimated at $70-100/MWh. These electricity prices are competitive with the retail prices of electricity in many parts of the United States for the customer. FBs are not expected to be competitive selling wholesale electricity to the grid. To achieve the aforementioned cost targets for heat and electricity markets, FB designers must (1) maximize the power output within the constraints of a FB (e.g., truck transportability, passive decay heat removal), (2) drastically reduce the size of onsite staff, (3) adopt core designs with low fuel costs (enrichment and fabrication), and (4) develop a system design that is efficiently manufactured in factories. The business case depends upon more than being just a replacement for natural gas. The largest incentives for adoption of FBs is where they create new markets and new sources of revenue. An example is the paper and pulp industry that burns biomass wastes to provide heat and electricity to make paper. An external heat source could meet the demand for heat and electricity by the paper process and enable converting waste biomass into liquid biofuels rather than burning to provide heat. Other markets, such as data centers, are driven by special energy requirements such as extreme reliability. Most customers are not in the energy business but need heat and electricity to produce a product—a manufactured good, education, retail sales (shopping malls), marine transport or some other product. As a consequence, there will be large incentives to lease rather than own FBs. Leasing avoids the regulatory challenges that remain with the owner of the FB. Leasing creates large incentives for FP standardization of sizes and transportability to maintain the value of the FB at the end of the lease—similar to the leasing of jet engines and aircraft. The economic constraints combined with technical constraints suggest competitive FBs will likely have outputs exceeding 10 MWt. There appear to be little incentives for very long-lived reactor cores because such machines require much larger inventories of fuel. Maintenance requirements and the options to provide technology updates may favor shorter lifetimes (~5 years). The assessment is that there is the potential for FBs to be economically viable and play a major role in global decarbonization in three markets: heat, non-grid electricity and maritime applications.
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
Mitigation-Aware Bidding Strategies in Electricity Markets
Market power exercise in the electricity markets distorts market prices and diminishes social welfare. Many markets have implemented market power mitigation processes to eliminate the impact of such behavior. The design of mitigation mechanisms has a direct influence on investors' profitability and thus mid-/long-term resource adequacy. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing market power mitigation mechanisms, this paper proposes a mitigation-aware strategic bidding model and studies the bidding strategies of the market participants under current practice. The proposed bidding model has a bilevel structure with strategic participant's profit maximization problem in the upper level and the dispatch problem for market operators in the lower level. In particular, the consideration of potential offer mitigation is incorporated as upper-level constraints based on the conduct and impact tests. This bilevel problem is reduced to a single-level mixed-integer linear program using the KKT optimality conditions, duality theory, and linearization. Numerical results illustrate how a strategic player can exercise market power to achieve a higher profit even under the current market power mitigation process and we analyze the social impact that the market power exercise results.
Wu, Yiqian↗
The interaction of wholesale electricity market structures under futures with decarbonization policy goals: A complexity conundrum
Competitive wholesale electricity markets can help facilitate energy system decarbonization by incentivizing investments in clean energy technologies that meet evolving system needs. We explore market structure impacts on generator operations and deployment by risk-averse, heterogeneous investor firms using the Electricity Markets and Investment Suite - Agent-based Simulation (EMIS-AS) model. Here we apply clean energy targets of 45%-100% by 2035 considering energy, ancillary services, capacity, and clean energy credit products and pricing and eligibility rules. Results highlight a complexity conundrum, whereby finding the "right" market design to achieve decarbonization goals and avoid unintended consequences can be a highly-nuanced, non-incremental challenge. Carefully designed energy-only markets can achieve the same clean energy targets as capacity market structures but with different revenue and profitability outcomes. Operating reserve demand curve-based scarcity pricing can substitute capacity markets for similar deployment outcomes. Carbon pricing alone is most effective at achieving decarbonization levels at low clean energy targets, and clean energy credit markets and carbon pricing are substitutionary at high clean energy targets. Restricting technology participation in capacity and operating reserve markets can impact deployment and operations, even for nonrestricted technologies. Adding an inertia product with fast frequency response yields insufficient provision at high clean energy targets, but work is needed to understand frequency requirements and capabilities.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Evaluation of Hybrid FPOG Applications in Regulated and Deregulated Markets Using HERON
Recent changes in the U.S. energy market, such as low natural gas prices and increased electricity production for variable renewable energy (VRE) sources, have led to an economic crisis for existing light-water reactor (LWR) nuclear power plants (NPP). Many owners and operators of LWRs have elected to decommission these plants rather than continue using them as consistent sources of clean baseload power. This has led to exploration of various possibilities to increase the economic viability of these units, including market restructuring to monetize benefits LWRs already provide to the grid through ancillary markets, load following and economic dispatch, and possible integration of secondary systems directly to the NPP for production of additional products through technologies such as hydrogen electrolysis or water desalination. Previous studies have considered the technologies associated with these Integrated Energy Systems (IES) activities, and the analysis of markets for these secondary products. To analyze the economic viability of various system configurations including IES, especially given the uncertainty surrounding load demand, electricity prices, and the availability of VRE resources, the stochastic technoeconomic analysis package HERON (Heuristic Energy Resource Optimization Network) was released earlier this year as an extension of the risk analysis framework RAVEN (Risk Analysis Virtual Environment). HERON focuses foremost on making the complex uncertainty quantification analysis tools approachable for energy systems analysts, also providing general dispatch optimization algorithms for those workflows. HERON continues to be improved and tested as a significant part of the IES viability analyses performed in this work. HERON is not a capacity expansion model. To consider market and grid energy system development in a variety of scenarios, HERON is best used in coupling with modelling tools such as US-REGEN, which sacrifice some of the uncertainty analysis and resolution of HERON's modelling for the ability to efficiently predict the change in the grid energy system's profile due to economic drivers over decades. HERON can then use this information to explore the economic viability of introducing changes to the predicted outcomes, such as the introduction of an IES. In this work, experts at EPRI using US-REGEN provide six projection scenarios for use in HERON stochastic technoeconomic analysis (STEA) in considering the options available for increasing LWR economic viability through introduction of a hydrogen-centric IES using a high-temperature steam electrolysis plant (HTSE), hydrogen storage, and a constant-rate contracted hydrogen consumer. The results obtained are differential in nature; they do not report expected profits for any configuration, but rather report on the possible increase in the NPV of a configuration with respect to a baseline no-IES configuration. Due to the uncertainty captured in the variable net load of the systems, there is likewise uncertainty in the mean values reported. We consider this viability both in terms of a regulated market, where the energy producers and IES are owned and operated by single entity, as well as a deregulated market, where the IES chooses its bid for electricity generation and is then dispatched by the grid system operator. Results indicate that for deregulated markets, the inclusion of the IES is often statistically beneficial. This is especially true in policies that are not favorable towards nuclear, as nuclear is less often dispatched and is forced to deal with frequent idle capacity. In the nominal case as well as the case of carbon tax policies, inclusion of the IES clearly benefited the economic performance of the NPP. In the regulated case, however, there was a trend towards minimizing the IES, likely due to the optimal sizing performed by US-REGEN of the NPP within the system as well as the lack of penalty for idle capacity at the NPP in the regulated market analyses.
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
Quantifying market volume sensitivity to material property modifications in polyhydroxybutyrate: A parametric analysis approach
Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a biodegradable biopolymer, represents a promising alternative to petroleum-based thermoplastics. However, despite consistent market growth, PHB faces persistent commercialization challenges that limit widespread adoption. Existing research has focused predominantly on optimizing PHB production processes, leaving a critical gap in understanding which material property modifications would most effectively enhance market competitiveness. This study addresses this gap by systematically analyzing the relationship between polymer material properties and market performance using U.S. market data from 2008 to 2021 for 21 thermoplastic polymers across 19 material properties. We employed principal component regression to identify property modifications that could maximize market volume while reducing CO 2 emissions. Our parametric analysis revealed that two specific material properties – Hardness Shore A and Sheet Extrusion Temperature – significantly influence PHB marketability across different price points. Market simulations demonstrated that a 10% increase in Hardness Shore A could increase PHB market volume by 431.5 million kg while reducing emissions by 188.7 kg CO 2 . A similar 10% increase to Sheet Extrusion Temperature could yield a 297.5 million kg volume increase and a 99.2 kg CO 2 reduction in emissions. Critically, this approach is agnostic to the specific methods required to achieve these property changes, instead providing material scientists with quantitative, data-driven targets for R&D prioritization. Here, this framework offers a novel methodology for evaluating biopolymer competitiveness and supporting strategic decisions to accelerate PHB market adoption and contribute to decarbonization of the plastics industry.
09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
Economic evaluation of variable renewable energy participation in U.S. ancillary services markets
Variable renewable energy (VRE) is not yet meaningfully participating in U.S. ancillary services (AS) markets. VRE participation in AS markets could provide a new source of revenue for VRE resource owners to offset declining energy and capacity values and a new tool for power system operators to address emerging system constraints. This paper uses a price-taker dispatch model and historical prices to estimate the economic value of standalone and hybrid (battery-paired) VRE participation in AS markets, from the resource owner and electricity system perspectives, in each of the seven U.S. independent system operator and regional transmission organization (ISO/RTO) markets where ancillary service prices are set. Across ISO/RTO markets, average (2015–2019) simulated incremental revenues from power regulation market participation were 0.0–2.9 USD/MWh (+0–15% of revenue without participation) for standalone VRE owners and 1–33 USD/MWh (+1–69%) for hybrid VRE owners. However, ISO/RTO reserve markets are relatively thin and have the potential to become saturated by energy storage projects that are currently in ISO/RTO interconnection queues. In most markets, standalone and hybrid VRE could provide power regulation reserves during periods with high power regulation prices, suggesting that VRE participation in AS markets could have high system value. The analysis highlights the relevance of separate upward and downward power regulation products and indicates that ISOs/RTOs might consider initially focusing on enabling hybrid VRE provision of AS.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Price formation in zero-carbon electricity markets - fundamentals, challenges, and research needs
Future power systems dominated by zero-carbon generation resources may require significant revisions to electricity market designs to ensure capacity adequacy and market efficiency. Here, in this paper, we first conceptually outline key fundamentals underlying electricity market design and price formation in U.S. electricity markets. We then discuss a set of potential market design challenges related to price formation in a grid dominated by zero-carbon resources with marginal cost profiles that differ compared to traditional thermal resources. Next, we review electricity market design solutions that have been proposed in the literature to ensure market efficiency in zero-carbon systems, and the associated implications for price formation. We conclude by summarizing key observations and establishing a set of research questions that should be addressed to improve our understanding of market design, price formation, and market efficiency in zero-carbon power systems.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Distribution Market-Clearing and Pricing Considering Coordination of DSOs and ISO: An EPEC Approach
Distribution-level electricity market provides a platform for trading energy and grid services from large-amount of small-scale distributed energy resources (DERs) located on distribution grids. The behavior of the DERs in the distribution electricity market may ultimately impact the market-clearing and locational marginal prices (LMPs) in the wholesale market. This paper proposes a bi-level optimization model for distribution market clearing and distribution locational marginal pricing (DLMP) considering the interactions between distribution and transmission wholesale markets. In the proposed model, the upper-level model represents the distribution system operator (DSO) market-clearing and the lower-level model represents the wholesale market-clearing by the independent system operator (ISO). The LMP at the substation will impact the DER dispatch and power demands of the DSO as well as the DLMP. In turn, the power demands of the DSO will further impact the ISO market and its LMPs. The equilibrium problem with equilibrium constraints (EPEC) approach is applied to find the equilibria of multiple DSOs and the ISO. The EPEC problem is transformed into a single-level mixed-integer convex problem in order to allow for efficient solving. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model and solution method are demonstrated through case studies.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗