The value of flexibility in energy markets

Abstract

The work presented in this master’s thesis mainly focus on characteristics of flexible power plants. The power plants used are combined-cycle gas turbines. A review of the electrical system which focuses on the trading of electricity is presented. It gives order of magnitude on several data. This master’s thesis designs a part of the electrical system focused on flexible power plants. First, a bidding strategy is modelled for a pool of power plants. The day-ahead market and the reserve market are considered taking into account all the constraints linked to these markets. A price-based unit commitment is used to model this bidding strategy. It is coded in Python with Pyomo. All the tests are made with Belgian January 2016 data. This mixed-integer programming model uses deterministic historical prices to determine if the power plants will run or not. This modelling is used to highlight the usefulness of such power plants in our electrical system. A small review of bidding strategy for renewable energy is also made. An estimation of their expected profits is calculated. The power generated in the price-based unit commitment is converted into different bids to make a market clearing with them. A validation of this bidding strategy is performed by modelling all the markets participants to make a market clearing. To validate the previous model the acceptance of the bids created by the PBUC are checked. This master’s thesis gives an overview of the electricity market jungle.