Variable Generation, Flexible Demand

Variable Generation, Flexible Demand looks at a future in which power system researchers, operators and analysts need to predict variable renewable generation and schedule demand to match it. Contributors survey the significant expansion in the role of flexible demand in balancing supply and demand in conjunction with flexible generation in ‘peaking plants’ and energy storage as the proportion of variable renewable generation rises in many systems across the world. Supported with case studies, the book examines practical ways that demand flexibility can play a constructive role as more systems move towards higher levels of renewable generation in their electricity mix.

Table of Contents:
Part One: Variable renewable generation 1. The evolution of California’s variable renewable generation 2. Variability of generation in ERCOT and the role of flexible demand 3. Rising variability of generation in Italy: The grid operator’s perspective 4. Integrating the rising variable renewable generation: A Spanish perspective Part Two: Flexible demand 5. What is flexible demand; what demand is flexible? 6. Who are the customers with flexible demand, and how to find them? 7. How can flexible demand be aggregated and delivered to scale? 8. Electric vehicles: The ultimate flexible demand 9. Load flexibility: Market potential and opportunities in the US 10. Demand response in the US wholesale markets: Recent trends, new models and forecasts 11. What’s limiting flexible demand from playing a bigger role in the US organized markets? The PJM experience Part Three: Coupling flexible demand to variable generation 12. Valuing consumer flexibility in electricity market design 13. Variable renewables and demand flexibility: Day-ahead versus intra-day valuation 14. The value of flexibility in Australia’s national electricity market 15. Demand flexibility and what it can contribute in Germany 16. Industrial demand flexibility: A German case study Part Four: Implementation, business models, enabling technologies, policies, regulation 17. Market design and regulation to encourage demand aggregation and participation in European wholesale markets 18. Do time-of-use tariffs make residential demand more flexible? Evidence from Victoria, Australia 19. Empowering consumers to deliver flexible demand 20. Markets for flexibility: Product definition, market design and regulation 21. Energy communities and flexible demand 22. Flexible demand: What’s in it for the customer?

About the Author :
Dr. Fereidoon Sioshansi is President of Menlo Energy Economics, a consulting firm based in San Francisco with over 35 years of experience in the electric power sector working in analysis of energy markets, specializing in the policy, regulatory, technical and environmental aspects of the electric power sector in the US and internationally. His research and professional interests are concentrated in demand and price forecasting, electricity market design, competitive pricing & bidding, integrated resource planning, energy conservation and energy efficiency, economics of global climate change, sustainability, energy security, renewable energy technologies, and comparative performance of competitive electricity markets. Dr. Sioshansi advises major utility clients and government policy makers domestically and internationally on electricity market reform, restructuring and privatization of the electric power sector. He has published numerous reports, books, book chapters and papers in peer-reviewed journals on a wide range of subjects. His professional background includes working at Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), NERA, and Global Energy Decisions. He is the editor and publisher of EEnergy Informer, a monthly newsletter with international circulation. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of The Electricity Journal where he is regularly featured in the “Electricity Currents” section. Dr. Sioshansi also serves on the editorial board of Utilities Policy and is a frequent contributor to Energy Policy. Since 2006, He has edited 12 books on related topics with Elsevier.

Review :
"The book showcases paradigm changes away from the traditional way in which demand was forecast and generation resources were dispatched to meet it. It highlights the need for grid operators to predict the amount of fluctuating wind and solar resources and to schedule complimentary demand. It provides lessons and examples of integrating rising levels of carbon neutral resources into the grid. “California is one of the few places in the world where this paradigm change is happening because so much new solar and wind is being added,” Fereidoon Sioshansi, the book’s editor, told Current. He added that the 100-year old utility model of predicting load and then matching it with fossil fuel generation, and some hydropower supplies, is out of sync with a green grid where the bulk of generation is non-dispatchable renewables. “Given the variable nature of renewable generation, particularly solar, a major shift is needed to create a smooth, efficient, and low-cost transition to this new world order,” he said. The book looks at several evolving markets including ones in California, ERCOT, Italy, Spain, and Australia, among others. They all face rising levels of renewable resources. But renewable generation still plays a minor role in many parts of the world where it can be squeezed into the traditional dispatchable generation model. In these places, variable renewables are the small tail on the big dog, Sioshansi said. In contrast, in California and in some European countries, the big renewable tail is increasingly wagging the dog. In Denmark, for example, on some windy days, the wind output exceeds total demand on the network. But because of Denmark’s strong interconnections with Germany and Scandinavia, the excess wind can be absorbed in Germany’s much larger market and/or it can be stored in hydropower reservoirs in Sweden and Norway–acting as big batteries. In contrast, California’s huge market dwarfs those of the neighboring states. Consequently, the state’s excess solar generation cannot easily be exported to the neighboring states–nor can its deficits be covered by imports–resulting in renewable curtailment. Contributors to the book examine the role of expanding flexible demand to balance supply, including with energy storage. “Batteries are more versatile and can respond almost instantaneously, compared to a natural gas fired peaking plant, which takes time to respond to signals from the grid operator,” Sioshansi noted. Other flexible demand can respond to signals in the same way. In addition to the practical ways demand flexibility can play a constructive role as more systems move towards higher levels of renewable generation, the book also explores the role of market design, business models, enabling technologies, policies, and regulation." --California Current "The book explores practical ways that demand flexibility can play a constructive role as more systems move towards higher levels of renewable generation along with complementary market designs, business models, enabling technologies, policies, and regulation." -- EnergyCentral.com. Full review here: https://energycentral.com/c/gr/integrating-variable-resources-and-flexible-demand