From Firm to Flexible
A Sector-Comparative Assessment of TDTR Participation for Large Electricity Consumers in the Netherlands
P.B. ten Hoor (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
K. Bruninx – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
M.E. Warnier – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Electricity grid congestion increasingly limits the ability of large electricity consumers to expand, electrify, or connect new assets. While grid reinforcement remains necessary, it is often too slow to resolve local capacity constraints in the short term. This thesis evaluates the time-duration-based transport right (TDTR) as a complementary instrument for using existing grid capacity more efficiently. TDTR provides firm capacity for part of a customer’s demand and conditional capacity for the remaining share, which may be restricted during predefined congestion-related call-hours.
A customer-level techno-economic optimisation model is developed and applied to three flexibility archetypes: logistics with an electric-vehicle fleet, cold storage, and dairy processing with an industrial heat pump. For each case, the model determines the cost-optimal firm-to-TDTR ratio and evaluates both customer-side savings and grid-side effects. Grid impact is assessed through peak reduction, weighted grid-pressure reduction, and changes in consumption during local call-hours. The cases are tested across four substation call-hour profiles to examine when customer incentives and local grid needs align or diverge.
The results show that TDTR can create a positive business case for all three archetypes, but that the magnitude of savings depends primarily on the share of load that can be shifted in time. Logistics achieves the largest savings, followed by cold storage and dairy processing. However, a positive customer business case does not automatically imply local grid relief. TDTR delivers the strongest grid value when congestion call-hours coincide with hours in which the customer already has an economic incentive to reduce demand. When call-hours coincide with low electricity prices, customer cost minimisation may work against the DSO’s congestion objective.
The main conclusion is that TDTR can align customer value and grid value, but only under specific conditions. For DSOs, this implies that TDTR should be targeted, monitored, and adjusted based on customer flexibility, local call-hour profiles, and realised load reduction rather than contracted TDTR share alone.