Digital Tools for Enhancing Flexibility and Market Participation of Distributed Energy Resources

A Ph.D. thesis is presented herein, detailing the development of digital tools aimed at enhancing the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) into the energy market, and enabling flexibility among prosumers. The transition to sustainability not only facilitates emissions reduction but also necessitates a transformation of the power system. This transformation involves integrating distributed variable Renewable Energy Sources (vRESs), electric vehicle charging infrastructure within distribution grids, and the electrification of end- use consumption. These integrations introduce significant uncertainty on both the supply and demand sides, increasing the need for flexibility in the power system. There is widespread agreement that digital tools play a critical role in integrating DERs into energy markets and unlocking prosumers’ flexibility through demand response programs. These tools can aggregate and coordinate multiple DERs to- ward a common goal, utilizing the existing internet infrastructure for real-time communication. Despite this consensus, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) currently face high de- ployment costs, attributed to software realization and maintenance costs, as well as the hardware required to monitor and control assets in the field. This thesis discusses the development of a VPP solution tailored for decarbonizing geographical islands within the VPP4ISLANDS project. The solution comprises three layers: the VPP4IPlatform, a digital twin of the island characterized by a shared knowledge base (i.e., a collaborative database); the VPP4INode, an aggregation digital tool capable of coordinating multiple DERs for energy mar- ket participation or maximizing self-consumption within an energy community; and the VPP4IBox, a smart meter enhanced with a single-board computer capable of implementing flexibility services through the Virtual Energy Storage System (VESS) concept (i.e., a control that coordinates flexible load with existing storage system resulting in a high capacity storage with low capital cost), and executing Peer-to-peer energy transactions using blockchain. The thesis presents technical specifications and scenarios guiding the development of these layers, business rules used to design the VPP4INode software architecture, the overall software architecture of VPP4IPlatform, principles of data sharing used in the Shared Knowledge Base (SKB) and the two software engines enabling the assembly of these layers: the Field Data Acquisition Module and the Data Access Page. The first engine facilitates communication between field devices and software solutions, while the second allows data acquisition from third-party sources and data sharing within the SKB and aggregation tools. Utilizing a single engine for communication from field to software, data sharing throughout the SKB, and developing the VPP4IBox through a single-board computer have resulted in cost reduction for the VPP4ISLANDS solution compared to traditional approaches. The second contribution of the thesis describes the realization of a digital platform for managing Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) within the Italian le- gal framework. The platform uses the InterConnect Interoperability Framework (IIF), a semantic interoperability framework to deliver services to REC members. Developed in the ECSITE project, a side project of the InterConnect project, this solution takes advantage of interoperability to suggest to REC members when to run appliances such as washing machines to maximize self-consumption of energy produced by the community’s PV plant. Members receive economic incentives for these actions, aligning with Italian incentives for self-consumption. This interop- erability can be extended to other smart appliances, unlocking the potential for implicit demand response in the REC context.