Flexibility-based Incentive Program and Aggregator Operation Strategy for Distributed Resources in Energy Community Infrastructure

As increasing number of renewable energy is integrated into the grid, the problem of uncertainty and insufficient flexibility of the power system becomes more and more prominent and significant. At the distribution network side, flexible distributed resources are believed to have considerable potential for grid-interaction if aggregated in a smart way. This paper proposes a three-level framework of energy community management among distribution system operators (DSOs), aggregators, and home energy management system (HEMS) with the flexibility-based incentive program. The aggregator acts as a facilitator between the HEMS and the DSO. The integration of an aggregator in the model allows for the efficient collection and management of full flexibility from users, enabling the rescheduling of household appliances to leverage both upward and downward flexibility. Through typical numerical results with simulation experiments, this work demonstrates and showcases a considerable enhancement in both economic benefits and load profile shaping for the users using the proposed method.