Evaluation of business models for the economic exploitation of flexible thermal loads

This paper describes a software tool for simulating the economic exploitation of flexible thermal loads, in particular by providing tertiary frequency control reserves and by intra-day trading. The tool consists of several components, comprising the simulation of the dynamics and the pooling of small load devices, the reserve capacity auctioning and delivery request mechanism of the transmission system operator, and the optimisation-based dispatch of control signals to the individual devices. The results of a time simulation of 5,000 heat-pump water heaters for large buildings (e.g. multi-family residences) are presented. Tertiary control provision leads to a yearly gross benefit of about EUR 100 per water heater, whereas for a combination of tertiary control with intra-day transactions, a yearly gross benefit of more than EUR 1,000 per water heater is expected.