Authors: Ángel Paredes, José A. Aguado

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) provide a crucial solution for mitigating the challenges posed by renewable energy intermittency, concurrently driving down energy costs within wholesale markets. To harness their potential, innovative business models are required for optimal BESS operation and revenue maximisation. This paper addresses this need by proposing a novel revenue stacking approach for the participation in Day-Ahead and automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR) markets. By considering the uncertainty in the activation of aFRR events, the proposed model provides real-time delivery guarantees for a given reliability level, while maximising the revenues. The model is built over a novel characterisation of the uncertainty and a tight reformulation of the joint chance-constraints that drive energy and capacity guarantees. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a case study based on real data from the Belgian market, yielding a 17.3% increase in profits over the individual chance-constraints approach.

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Authors: Carolina M. Martín, Francisco Arredondo, Santiago Arnaltes, Jaime Alonso-Martínez and José Luis Rodríguez Amenedo

This paper proposes a loop-based optimization framework for reactive power management and re-dispatch driven by the exceeding of technical constraints. The proposed setup calculates and updates the set points of power plant controllers in real time while minimizing power losses and redispatch costs and ensuring a stable operation in steady-state. For this purpose, we introduce RTOLab, Real-Time Optimization Laboratory, a real-time (RT) Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation setup designed to test and validate grid management strategies based on real-time optimization in the loop. RTOLab enables the analysis of the interaction between high-level management strategies, which are based on optimization algorithms, and low-level controls pertaining to each asset of the grid. Drawing on the capabilities of RTOLab, this paper explores the reactive power sharing problem by proposing a centralized strategy. This scheme prioritizes minimizing both active power losses and re-dispatch costs updating the active power set points of an Energy Management System (EMS) or market clearing result. The performance of the proposed framework is analyzed through a one-hour simulation in the isolated grid of Fuerteventura Lanzarote islands in the canary archipelago.

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Authors: João Tomé Saraiva, M. F. Almeida, Filipe J. Soares, F. T. Oliveira

Reducing the gap between renewable energy needs and supply is crucial to achieve sustainable growth. Hydroelectric power production predictions in several Madeira Island catchment regions are shown in this article using Long Short-Term Memory, LSTM, networks. In order to foresee hydro reservoirs inflows, our models take into account the island’s dynamic precipitation and flow rates and simplify the process of water moving from the cloud to the turbine. The model developed for the Socorridos Fajã Rodrigues system demonstrates the proficiency of LSTMs in capturing the unexpected flow behavior through its low RMSE. When it comes to energy planning, the model built for the CTIII Paul Velho system gives useful information despite its lower accuracy when it comes to anticipating problems.

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Authors: D. Ferreira-Martinez; Filipe Tadeu Oliveira; F. J. Soares; C. L. Moreira; Rui Martins

While the share of renewable energy in intercon-nected systems has been increasing steadily, in isolated systems it represents a bigger challenge. This paper presents a dispatch algorithm integrating thermal, wind, solar and hydro generation and storage for an isolated network, which allows maximizing renewable energy integration and reducing the share of thermal energy in the mix. The possibility of using the battery to provide “spinning” reserve is also considered. The algorithm was tested and validated using real data from the island of Madeira, Portugal. Results prove the robustness and flexibility of the algorithm, showing that a significant decrease in the thermal fraction is achievable, and that it is possible to accommodate an increase in renewable generation with minimal or no curtailment at all.

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Authors: Ángel Paredes, José A. Aguado, Pedro Rodríguez

Addressing the imperative for climate action requires adaptable energy solutions. Leveraging distributed technology like Virtual Energy Storage Systems (VESSs), the i-STENTORE project aims to pioneer innovative solutions for the widespread deployment of energy storage systems. This paper explores the potential of VESSs to increase the revenue of different distributed renewable technologies in the Iberian Wholesale and manual Frequency Restoration Reserve (mFRR) markets. Research up to date has focused on several market integration aspect of VESSs, yet considering the intricancies of the Iberian market of these technologies remains unexplored. The research aims to provide real-world insights into the potential of VESSs to increase the revenue of these technologies by stacking different services in the Iberian market. The results will show the potential of this demonstrator to increase profits using the concept of VESS and several storage technologies into the Iberian market.

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Authors: Ángel Paredes, José A. Aguado, Philipp Fisch, Patrick Witte, Sebastian Theissen, Pedro Rodríguez

The ever-increasing need for climate action motivates the development of new and flexible energy solutions that adapts to society’s modern energy requirements. The i-STENTORE project aims to pioneer innovative solutions for the widespread deployment of hybrid energy storage systems. This paper investigates the simultaneous provision of flexibility services and hydrogen production within a real-world Luxembourgish hybrid energy system demonstrator, using multi-objective optimisation. While previous research has focused on either flexibility services or hydrogen production individually, this study fills the gap of a comparative analysis of different scenarios that consider trade-offs between these two objectives. The research provides operational insights into strategies for maximising economic viability and sustainability by analysing aspects such as the levelised cost of hydrogen, energy, degradation, and the impact of the battery size. The results show the potential of this demonstrator to provide flexibility to the system without significantly impacting in the hydrogen production.

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Authors: Steffen Kortmann, Johannes Jeup, Constantin Ernst, Florian Schmidtke, Andreas Ulbig

When serving a single application, battery energy storage systems (BESS) are subject to extended idle periods and the flexibility potential remains mostly unused, thus lowering the profitability. This work investigates multi-use operation strategies for BESS, focusing on the applications peak shaving (PS) and the participation in ancillary service markets, here frequency containment reserve (FCR). To conduct this investigation, an optimization model is developed to simulate the behavior of an energy management system (EMS) of a BESS. A scenario analysis was conducted to assess the extent to which multi-use operation can yield additional revenues, considering various load profiles with appropriately sized batteries. The results revealed that this approach was economically advantageous in two scenarios. However, the choice of these applications depends on the residual load profile and clear generation peaks.

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Authors: Steffen Kortmann, Johannes Jeup, Florian Schmidtke, Andreas Ulbig

Nowadays, battery energy storage systems (BESS) are on track to become a central pillar of the energy transition, as they are a cornerstone in balancing the energy paradigm of matching imbalances between load and volatile generation by renewable energy resources. Yet, the economic feasibility remains unstable due to falling but still high initial investment costs without sustainable business models. However, BESS offer operational behavior for stacking applications that can be deployed on the same system. Therefore, decisions on the applications are to be made on operational dispatching. As such, optimization yields an opportunity to address potential challenges from the operational conditions while maximizing revenue potential. This work analyzed the modeling of BESS for the selected applications of energy arbitrage (EA), self-consumption optimization (SCO) and frequency containment reserve (FCR). Apart from the operational constraints, the economic value will be determined and compared for different market conditions. The operational optimization is made degradation-aware to yield a more realistic behavior.

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Authors: Dimitriou, Iason C.; Sarmas, Elissaios; Trachanas, Georgios P.; Marinakis, Vangelis; Doukas, Haris

The growing global demand for further penetration of renewable energy sources has highlighted Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) as a promising solution, particularly in Greece, due to its abundance of wind resources. To address the challenges of optimal OWFs location, this study presents an integrated approach that combines Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods with a Geographic Information System (GIS). The potential offshore sites have been evaluated across various technical, environmental, legislative, and safety criteria, utilizing incomplete information weights derived from the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This approach accommodates inherent impreciseness in both the payoff table values and criteria weights, leading to the adoption of an extension of the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenjee (VIKOR) method. The applied ranking process identified the most preferable sites in Greece, incorporating different decision makers’ perspectives. The methodology ranked 35 distinct sites in the Greek sea, including, but not limited to, areas south of Alexandroupoli, east of Xerokampos Crete, and near the Gulf of Patras. The novelty of this approach could play a pivotal role in the development of offshore wind power production within Greece’s energy transition context. Finally, the proposed framework can be easily generalized, replicated and adapted in any country, thus contributing to the optimal placement of OWFs at a global scale.

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Authors: Georgios P. Trachanas; Apostolos Arsenopoulos; Theodoros Tsalidis; Filippos Serepas; Ourania Markaki; Dimitrios Askounis

The increasing integration of renewable energy sources necessitates the deployment of efficient energy storage systems to ensure grid resilience, stability, and efficient operation. Selecting the optimal energy storage technology involves the evaluation across multiple criteria, reflecting technical, economic, and environmental dimensions, among others. This paper presents a decision support tool, based on an ensemble of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methods, to rank energy storage technologies. These methods are renowned for their ability to handle conflicting criteria and provide clear, actionable insights for decision-makers. A detailed case study concerning battery systems is also included, evaluating the alternatives against seven technology and economic type criteria. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the employed tool in identifying the most suitable energy storage technologies, providing valuable guidance for stakeholders in the selection and development of energy storage solutions.

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