Managing electric flexibility is of importance for reliable electricity supply, especially in a situation with increasing penetration of renewable electricity production. One of the capabilities of electricity smart grids is the possibility to incorporate distributed energy resources for provision of electric flexibility to the system. This paper presents an approach to determine the investment and short-term average costs of distributed energy resources to supply flexibility services in a local system, and compares those costs to the average costs in the Dutch markets for balancing and day-ahead flexibility. The approach in this paper is useful for techno-economic analysis of flexibility from distributed energy resources and the economic valuation of flexibility for trading in traditional markets. The analysis shows that local flexibility in many cases is much more expensive than centrally provided flexibility. ... Read more

The European policy focus on smart grids implies their development as an indispensable part of the future power system. However, the definition of a smart grid is broad and vague, and the actual implementation of a smart grid can differ significantly depending on the stakeholders involved. Smart electricity grids can be defined as electricity networks that can intelligently integrate the behaviour and actions of all end users connected to them – generators, consumers and those that are both – in order to efficiently ensure a sustainable, economic and secure electricity supply. This integration of behaviour is achieved through a two-way information and power exchange between suppliers and consumers using information technology. ... Read more

The growing penetration of distributed energy resources is opening up opportunities for local energy management (LEM) – the coordination of decentralized energy supply, storage, transport, conversion and consumption within a given geographical area. Because European electricity market liberalization concentrates competition at the wholesale level, local energy management at the distribution level is likely to impose new roles and responsibilities on existing and/or new actors. This paper provides insights into the appropriateness of organizational models for flexibility management to guarantee retail competition and feasibility for upscaling. By means of a new analytical framework three projects in the Netherlands and one in Germany have been analysed. Both the local aggregator and dynamic pricing projects present potentials for retail competition and feasibility of upscaling in Europe. ... Read more