Grid and Market Services from the Edge: Using Operating Envelopes to Unlock Network-Aware Bottom-Up Flexibility

Abstract

The proliferation of distributed energy resources (DERs) at the edge of the grid, such as residential solar photovoltaics and batteries, has created the opportunity for aggregators to manage multiple customers (hereafter referred to as active customers) and their DERs to participate in energy and ancillary service markets and provide various local and system-level grid services. These aggregators strive to create a large portfolio involving thousands of active customers and thus achieve the flexibility to create a substantial aggregated response at the system level.