Interruptible load: new partnerships for better energy management

Abstract

Today's deregulated power markets provide benefits which could not be reaped in the era of vertically integrated monopoly utilities. Having embarked on the reform path, Singapore was the first Asian country to implement an electricity spot market. Among other benefits, this market has introduced competition, given larger consumers the ability to choose their electricity supplier and made the price-setting mechanism transparent, through unbundling of the components of the total electricity cost paid by contestable consumers. Importantly, it has also promoted product innovation. Giving consumers the opportunity to compete in the reserve market through Interruptible Load (IL) is one such innovation. Prior to the introduction of IL, consumers could not participate actively in any of the wholesale energy markets.The paper's primary focus is to explain the current IL arrangement, its operation, the challenges faced in implementing this scheme and what can be done to help increase its uptake in Singapore.

Robust reserve capacity provision and peak load reduction from buildings in smart grids

“…In IL, the load operator can submit its bid for each 48 half-hourly period of the day. In the case of load bid getting accepted, the load operator must then curtail its offered load [4].…”

“…This can help relieve the grid's need for a higher reserve requirements, due to the integration of highly variable renewable energy supply. With a similar philosophy, various utilities have established demand response (DR) programs, aiming to improve the overall efficiency of the grid [1]- [4].…”

Quantifying the effect on the load shifting potential of buildings due to ancillary service provision

“…Due to the AS provision, the state is kept feasible for both of the curtailed x C k+1 and non-curtailed x N C k+1 trajectories. These two trajectories are implemented to replicate the interruptible load program, already in place in the NEMS [4]. Under this program, load operator can bid a fixed amount of load for each 30 minute time interval i.e.…”

“…Due to limited controllability of renewable energies, DR services have now been considered all over the world for destressing the grid [1]- [4]. Considering the magnitude, buildings are usually considered as one of the major contributors of greenhouse gas emissions and electricity consumption.…”

Analysing the integration of different types of energy and reserve providers in a competitive electricity supply market

“…In the Singapore electric power system, the ILs option allows electricity consumers to compete in the reserve market [99,100]. This has lightened the pressure on power system operators as the market rule previously only allows reserve allocation to Gencos.…”