FlexPower - perspectives of dynamic power prices

Flexpower – testing a market design
In Denmark, central power plants have traditionally been the primary providers of regulating power, i.e. increases or decreases in electricity production with short notice. Expanding the share of electricity generation from intermittent sources (i.e. wind power) is anticipated to result in an increased demand for regulating power. In addition, as a greater portion of electricity production comes from intermittent sources, less production will come from central plants, thus further increasing the need for regulating power from new sources.
 
The Flexpower project has shown that regulating power consumption via a price signal can meet a portion of this growing demand for regulating power.
 
Utilising small-scale resources
The central idea behind FlexPower is to use 5-minute electricity prices to shift electricity usage from times with high prices, to times with lower prices, and thereby provide regulating power via an aggregated response from numerous units on a volunteer basis.
 
The project objective is to develop and test a real-time market for regulating power that will attract a large number of small-scale resources (demand and distributed energy resources) to the regulating power market.
 
It is fundamental that the market should co-exist with the current market structure, be technologically neutral, and be simple and straightforward for the end-user.
Predictable and reliable demand response
A field-test with electric heating and bottle coolers demonstrated that a price signal based communication system can produce a predictable and reliable demand response.
 
In the test, price signals were sent to SmartBoxes coupled to electricity-consuming devices, such as a refrigerators or heating units, and the boxes adjusted the temperature in accordance with pre-established consumer comfort settings and whether the electricity price was high or low.
 
Via the implementation of improvements related to control strategies, and the inclusion of various price, heat demand, and weather forecasts, it is concluded that a price signal based demand response system could provide a new source of reliable regulating power.