Systematic design of market-based balancing arrangements for deregulated power systems: An asynchronous solution

In the deregulated electrical energy market, network operators have to provide market participants with appropriate incentives to guarantee stable operation of the power grid. We demonstrate that the current synchronous energy-based market and incentive system do not necessarily induce power exchange profiles that contribute to grid stability and security of supply. State-of-the-art solutions for tackling the inconsistency between energy-based market mechanisms and power-related balancing objectives can decrease freedom of trade or increase market complexity. This paper provides an alternative scheduling concept as a means to overcome this issue, which relies on asynchronous settlement of energy transactions. We show that in this way, grid operation can become more robust and the strain on balancing reserves can be reduced considerably.