Investigation of the impact of flexible loads´ participation in electricity markets

Realization of the significant demand flexibility potential in deregulated power systems requires its integration in electricity markets. In previous work, the authors developed a novel market mechanism enabling flexible demand participation in the market setting without requiring flexible loads to submit their operational characteristics to a central entity, in order to avoid the associated communication, computational and privacy limitations. In this paper, case studies in the context of the UK system are carried out in order to quantify, analyze and compare the impact of flexible loads´ market participation on system demand, prices, generation costs, demand payments and wind curtailment. The examined flexible demand technologies include electric vehicles with smart charging capability, electric heat pumps accompanied by heat storage for space heating and wet appliances with deferrable cycle operation, due to their significant penetration and flexibility potential.