Optimized Operation of Local Energy Community Providing Frequency Restoration Reserve

In order to unlock the maximum flexibility potential of all levels in the power system, distribution-network-located flexible energy resources (FERs) should play an important role in providing system-wide ancillary services. Frequency reserves are an example of system-wide ancillary services. In this regard, this article deals with the optimal operation of a local energy community (LEC) located in the distribution network. The LEC is proposed to participate in providing manual frequency restoration reserves (mFRR) or tertiary reserves. In addition, the community is supposed to have a number of electric vehicles (EVs) and a battery energy storage system (BESS) as FERs. The scheduling of the community, which is fully compliant with the existing balancing market structure, comprises two stages. The first stage is performed in day-ahead, in which the energy community management center (ECMC) estimates the amount of available flexible capacities for mFRR provision. In this stage, control parameters are deployed by the ECMC in order to control the offered flexibility of the BESS. In the second stage, the real-time scheduling of the community is performed for each hour, taking into account the assigned and activated amount of reserve power. The target of the real-time stage is to maximize the community’s profit. Finally, the model is implemented utilizing a case study considering different day-ahead control parameters of the BESS. The results demonstrate that the proposed control parameters adopted in the day-ahead stage considerably affect the real-time profitability of the LEC. Moreover, according to the simulation results, participating in the mFRR market can bring additional profits for the LEC.