Quantifying the Potential Impacts of Flexibility Reserve on Power System Operations

Power system operators schedule additional capacity above or below the amount required to meet the expected demand at any time interval to ensure reliable operation. This excess capacity is known as operating reserve. This reserve helps protect against the inherent variability and uncertainty found in the system. As more variable generation resources are connected to the system, the amount of variability and uncertainty is expected to increase. To hedge against this, new operating strategies are being explored. These strategies include developing additional ancillary services and modifying scheduling strategies. This paper presents the results of simulating an additional operating reserve product, referred to as "flexibility reserve," on the IEEE 118-bus test system, and it presents the operational implications on costs, reliability, and pricing that this additional operating reserve may produce.