A Review on Active Customers Participation in Smart Grids

Abstract

Industrial, commercial, and residential facilities are progressively adopting automation and generation capabilities. By having flexible demand and renewable energy generation, traditional passive customers are becoming active participants in electric power system operations. Through profound coordination among grid operators and active customers, the facilities' capability for demand response (DR) and distributed energy resource (DER) management will be valuable asset for ancillary services (ASs). To comply with the increasing demand and flexible energy, utilities urgently require standards, regulations, and programs to efficiently handle load-side resources without trading off stability and reliability. This study reviews different types of customers' flexibilities for DR, highlighting their capabilities and limitations in performing local ancillary services (LASs), which should benefit the power grid by profiting from it through incentive mechanisms. Different financial incentives and techniques employed around the world are presented and discussed. The potential barriers in technical and regulatory aspects are successfully identified and potential solutions along with future guidance are discussed.

Online Demand Response Characterization Based on Variability in Customer Behavior

“…The minimum daily energy of customer l response (DR) and distributed energy resource management will be valuable for ancillary services [1]. In particular, the implementation of DR targets the control of the power-consuming behavior of customers to meet the following objectives: ① reduction of the peak power consumption; ② reduction of the total required power generation, as the main result of the prior objective; ③ change of the demand to follow the available supply, especially with high penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs); and ④ elimination of overloads in the distribution system [2].…”

“…Formula (1) provides the expected response p ˉlt between a minimum p min lt and maximum p max lt bound for customer l at time point t. Also, p ˉlt can increase or decrease depending on the market price due to the combined use of shifting and shedding loads. Formula (2) forces ramp limits on the decrease and increase of active power in two successive time points.…”

Integrated Planning and Operation Dispatching of Source–Grid–Load–Storage in a New Power System: A Coupled Socio–Cyber–Physical Perspective

“…In the traditional power system framework, individuals function solely as electricity consumers, passively accepting the consumption pattern of one-way flow of energy. However, with the continuous development and deployment of energy storage technology, demand response mechanisms, and electric vehicles [41,42], among other technological advancements, the energy flow between the power source and the load is progressively transitioning from unidirectional transmission to bidirectional interaction. It is anticipated that in the future, prosumers who actively manage their consumption, production, and storage of energy will become commonplace [43,44].…”

An Alternative Regulation of Compensation Mechanisms for Electric Energy Transgressions of Service Quality Limits in Dispersed and Seasonal Areas

“…Price incentives duly included in a demand response program, or price-based demand response (PBDR), can lead consumers to adapt their consumption at predetermined times, complying with events determined by the concessionaire and providing a pattern of demand compatible with the determined planning [3]. Recently, consumer flexibility to demand response programs has been strongly highlighted with respect to capabilities and limitations [4], as well as the technical and regulatory barriers involved in giving demand response approaches the necessary/desired implementation. Considering the case of China, Guo et al [5] describe the impact of a demand response system to increase reliability and integrate renewable sources and peak shaving from inducing consumer behavior in response to price signals and restrictions from the distribution system.…”