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Distributed Energy Resources coordination toward the
supply of ancillary services in real-time

Gaspard Lebel
To cite this version:

Gaspard Lebel. Distributed Energy Resources coordination toward the supply of ancillary services
in real-time. Electric power. Université Grenoble Alpes, 2016. English. <NNT : 2016GREAT048>.
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THÈSE
Pour obtenir le grade de
DOCTEUR DE L’UNIVERSITÉ GRENOBLE ALPES
Spécialité : Génie Electrique
Arrêté ministériel : 7 août 2006
Présentée par
Gaspard LEBEL
Thèse dirigée par Raphaël CAIRE et

codirigée par Nouredine HADJSAID
préparée au sein du G2ELab - laboratoire de Génie Électrique de

Grenoble
dans l'École Doctorale Électronique, Électrotechnique,
Automatique et Traitement du Signal
Coordination de GEDs pour la fourniture de

services systèmes temps réel.
Distributed Energy Resources coordination

toward the supply of ancillary services in
real-time.
Thèse soutenue publiquement le 26 avril 2016,
devant le jury composé de :
M. Geert DECONINCK
Professeur, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Président
M. Didier MAYER
Professeur, Mines PARISTECH Rapporteur
M. Hans EDIN
Maître de conférence, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan Rapporteur
M. Sébastien HENRY
Directeur SI & Télécommunications, RTE Membre
M. Matthieu TERENTI
Délégué Grand Projet Territorial, Enedis Membre
M. Alain GLATIGNY
VP Innovation Smartgrid Utility, Schneider Electric Encadrant
M. Nouredine HADJSAID
Professeur, Université Grenoble Alpes Co-Directeur
M. Raphaël CAIRE
Maître de conférences, Université Grenoble Alpes Directeur
"L’innovation n’est pas seulement technologique",
L’INNOVATION : UN ENJEU MAJEUR POUR LA FRANCE
Beylat and Tambourin [2013]
A Emy, Théo et Junior.
Avant-Propos
La lecture de cent-cinquante pages est somme toute prenante. Un déplacement à Grenoble au mi-
lieu d’épisodes de grèves l’est tout autant pour des personnes aux agendas si chargés. Messieurs
Geconninck, Mayer, Edin, Henry, Terenti, Glatigny, Hadjsaid et Caire, ce fut donc un réel hon-
neur de pouvoir confronter mes travaux à votre expérience tant scientifique qu’industrielle. Je
vous en suis hautement reconnaissant.
Je suis tout autant reconnaissant envers mes quatre encadrants, Messieurs Bediou, Glatigny,
Hadjsaid et Caire pour la confiance et la grande liberté d’entreprendre qu’ils m’ont accordé
durant ces trois années. Stéphane, je n’oublie pas les invitations croisées au Casset et sur le
Vercors pour parler double-diode, stockage, VPP et j’en passe. Raphaël, je te remercie d’avoir
misé sur moi il y a quatre ans, malgré un agenda déjà surchargé. Je garde en souvenir ces réunions
en mouvement entre avion, navette aéroport, vélo sous la pluie vs. tram, qui exprimèrent bien
mieux notre souhait d’aller de l’avant que des rapports d’avancement sans grand devenir. Merci.
Je n’oublierai pas non plus les premiers mots de Monsieur Kaschny à mon égard lors mon arrivée
chez Schneider Electric« Bienvenue parmi nous. Tu es là pour apprendre, profites-en et amuses-
toi ». Fraîchement diplômé, je me suis dit alors « Tout de même, c’est bon le Demand Response,
je commence à connaître . . . ». Trois ans plus tard, mon immersion dans cet environnement
industriel m’a énormément apporté et oui nettement, j’ai beaucoup appris. Merci !
Le quotidien n’a pas toujours été évident. Les Pyrénées se sont avérées compliqués à franchir.
Nous nous sommes également convertis au Riesling avec plus ou moins de facilité. Au final
« ce vin sec, vertical, [. . .] construit autour d’une belle vivacité que l’on apprécie du début
jusqu’à la fin, [. . .] marqué par l’ampleur » décrit parfaitement les clients et avant tout col-
lègues d’Electricité de Strasbourg Réseaux, que je me réjouis d’avoir pu côtoyer au sein du
projet européen Dream. Inévitablement, j’associe Elisabeth à cette pensée, Grenobloise puis
Strasbourgeoise d’adoption, qui s’est arrangée à merveille d’un positionnement au sein du projet
plus que complexe.
Le déploiement des équipements de Dream sur Strasbourg n’aurait pas pu être possible sans le
soutien des collègues de Schneider Electric à commencer par Stéphane, Yves, Alain, Bernard,
Alexandre, Benoit, Emmanuel, Ludovic, Antoine et Fabrice, sans qui je me serai retrouvé les
bras ballants face aux aléas industriels. Je les remercie chaleureusement, sans oublier Alain
et ses points Malots d’une richesse marketing inestimable. Enfin, je pense à Nicole, Catherine,
Sandrine, Thibault, Yves, Thierry, Olivier, Sylvain, Laurent, François, Jean-Christophe, Patrick,
vii
AVANT-PROPOS
Christophe, Philippe, Michel, Jean, Jean-Yves, Benoît, Romain, Gilles, Sandeep, Olivier, Bernard,
Rodolphe, Yann et Benoît.
Mes pensées vont ensuite aux équipes techniques du G2Elab, dont la disponibilité et les com-
pétences feront pâlir tout personnage critique du service public qui osera s’y confronter. Pro-
totypage rapide, Mécanique lourde, câblage industriel, électronique, informatique industrielle,
simulation temps-réel : tout y est, pour permettre de grandes avancées. Cédric, Thierry, Kamel,
Gérard, Florian, Antoine et Jacques, je me fais tout petit devant votre expertise.
Karel. Tom. Sindhu, Christian. Guillaume, Hector. Naila, Dien Hoa. Théo, Maxime, Matthieu.
Timothé, Loann, Luis, Brida, Guillaume, Renaud, Olivier. Samuel, Gauthier. Gabrielle, Paul,
Clément. Nicolas, Lucile. Aurore, Wilhem. Autant de nouveaux projets d’ouvertures étudiants
lancés avec votre aide que de phrases, avec de belles réussites à la clef. Ce fut un plaisir de vous
encadrer.
Mains invisibles des succès du laboratoire, je salue également la grande disponibilité du pôle
administratif. Florence, Elise, Sylvianne, Valérie, Aurélie, Cathy, sans vous, nous ne ferions pas
grand-chose.
Je salue également les équipes d’INPG Entreprise SA pour leur flexibilité aux côtés d’Elise face
aux déplacements de dernières minutes, aux concours improbables et autres particularités dont
je me suis fait champion – ce que n’étonnera guère amis et famille.
Parlant d’équipe, je me tourne maintenant vers la team Dokever, pour m’avoir fait prendre l’air
et permis de jouer au docteur 4 ans avant de le devenir vraiment aujourd’hui. Parier sur un
ingénieur pour diriger des médecins et quelques milliers de trailers ou cyclistes, il n’y avait que
les Clooneys’ brothers pour oser! Je vous en remercie et espère rester le plus longtemps derrière
vous avec le plus de chuchotements possibles en réunion de courses et PC. Claire, Marion,
Marjolaine, France, Florence, Théo, Fred, Antonin, Paul, Gilles, Pierre, Hervé, Damien, Cyril,
Bruno, Patrick chaque instant peu reposant passé à vos côtés est un plaisir.
Dans la continuité des amis, arrive maintenant la sphère grenobloise. Manue pour m’avoir
converti au principe du sinus et pour ton accompagnement sans faille de la chute au renouveau,
de Séville 3am à Athènes 6am en passant par Strasbourg, Milan, Eindhoven, Amsterdam et
Chamrousse alt 1721, 20◦ Ouest. Merci. Te pour tes chemises – et oui maintenant on peut parler
au pluriel – et ta philosophie du livrable. Sellé pour ton patriarcat éclairé et ton sourire contrasté.
Archie pour m’avoir inspiré au quotidien au point d’avoir du mal à te décrire aujourd’hui. Jean-
Louis pour avoir le regard aussi aiguisé qu’un garde-frontière suisse sur sa bicyclette. Raphaël
pour le renouveau politique, ton audace et ta controverse incarnée: tu as raison, il a Archie tort.
Justine pour ta gestion toute personnelle, remplie de qualités et pour m’avoir fait déménager
du 3 rue Félix Poulat au 12 place Grenette. Damien pour ta classe et pour avoir un peu mieux
géré les rails du tram que Te. Florent pour ton expérience, ta curiosité sans faille et ta gestion
des logos. Victor pour ton mariage. Aurélien pour cette co-entreprise RH. Titouan pour ta
viii
AVANT-PROPOS
recette de topinambour qui plaira tant à Jean Louis. Audrey parce que tu ne manges pas que
des graines. Rozenn parce que tu ne manges pas que des graines. Jérôme pour ta simplicité
piquante. Cédric, parce que un jour on réussira à aller à l’Etendard ! Léo parce qu’avec tes
deux mains, tu referais le monde. Arnaud, pour avoir lu les sms que je ne saurais te lire. Tes
racines latines sont si précieuses. Amandine pour ce soutien mutuel précieux, alimentée par
ton adresse légendaire. Clem parce qu’il me reste 12 ordis, 8 téléphones et 3 vélos à réparer –
et je ne compte pas le camion poubelle LEGO Technic que ta sœur a très probablement cassé
par jalousie en cet été 2003 – alors cela vaut bien des remerciements en avance. Fny pour être
l’inspectrice gadget de demain: « Comment optimiser le procédé de guérison de dix tendinites du
genoux droit avec un rouleau à pâtisserie, un four à pain, un bouquin de suédois, une sorbetière
et plaque d’immatriculation coincé dans un virage ? Vous avez toute une vie. Question suivante
». Poline pour être dorénavant l’avenir du service public – à contrat privé, et pour ces folles
soirées électriques place des Tilleuls dont je me souviendrais très longtemps. Clark pour avoir
pris la responsabilité de Poline au quotidien, fort de tes années d’apprentissage empirique du
Coco. Coco parce que ton audace artistique et technologique est grande et inimitable. Anaïs
parce que si je devais parier sur quelqu’un, je n’hésiterai pas longtemps. Mathieu parce que
Grand Prof tu seras. Olive et Cyril parce qu’il est difficile de mettre des mots sur tout ce que
vous m’apportez. Peter pour tes leçons de management autour d’un Maria tout sec à Abisko.
PB parce que tu as bien raison, je suis un vrai merdier! Bastien, pour cette motivation à toute
épreuve. Yo parce que le rouge et le makestorming, c’est la vie. Sandy pour être une valeur
sûre de l’accueil et de la simplicité. Macha, parce que qui sait, ta petite maison solaire sera
peut-être ma mascotte de demain. Emeline pour penser à toi à chaque fois que je vois une pile.
Thib pour ces petits pas de dance en soirée, synonymes de gaîté. Philémon, parce qu’après tes
sondages dans les lacs népalais et dans l’Isère gelée, rien ne t’arrêtera. Ched pour être allergique
à ses lunettes [Lozé et al., 2008] et ta science folle et rigoureuse (P.S. j’ai encore du foin pour
ton prochain lapin). Audrey parce que ça y est, Arnaud est reparti, on a du répit! Romain pour
cette ponctualité faite montre suisse. Teddy pour ces sourires dans l’open space, debout sur tes
béquilles. Laura, classe, rigueur et gaîté sont tes homonymes. Sam pour ton audace en toute
simplicité. Nath, Nico et Isa pour votre entreprise de déstabilisation de votre com’ #YCC. Max
pour ces après-midi en Peugeot 102, pré-Kyoto. Nico pour tes conseils décomplexés et ton agilité
reconnue ! Benoit, les Lumières étaient à la fois philosophes, scientifiques, poètes, artistes. Tu
en prends le chemin. Robin, Fif, Jason, Martin, parce que vous êtes beaucoup trop vous-mêmes
! Johanna pour avoir refusé de me garder en fond d’écran. Johanna, parce que sur le Roc
échelle-1 je n’accepterai qu’un dossard dessiné à la main. Juliette, pour cette future entreprise
de troc unidirectionnel et pour cette logistique du dernier kilomètre qui passe forcément par
Meylan. Aurélie pour être nettement plus efficace que le reste de la troupe ! Basile, pour ton
enthousiasme de Start-upper. Marco, grand frère des années skis. Marie pour cette insouciance
retrouvée. On s’est donné rendez-vous dans dix ans entre château de sables, hippopotames et
crocodiles. . . Johanna, Federica, Laura, Simone and Paolo to have made Erasmus come true.
See you soon in Bucharest?
A mon papa, pour nous avoir permis de faire voler les étendards HAPEX-SAHEL et AMMA
ix
AVANT-PROPOS
sur ces théâtres devenu tristement inaccessibles. Curiosité, ouverture culturelle et scientifique
assurée. Je n’ai jamais été capable de répondre à la question mainte fois posée « Pourquoi
veux-tu faire une thèse ? ». Intrinsèquement, une partie de la réponse se trouve là. Une autre
partie, à La Source et à La Fontaine. A ma maman, pour nous avoir été la clef de voûte de
cette enfance peu commune ; pour lui au fond, traverser les frontières fut un jeu, pour toi ce fut
des choix. Merci. A mes frères et belles-sœurs pour cette organisation kolkhozienne en perte de
vitesse, si souvent sujette aux revirements météos du patriarche.
En tout, vous êtes soixante à avoir contribués à ces sobres travaux de thèses par vos discussions
de café, vos réflexions, vos retours et relectures, vos facilités administratives et vos travaux de
prototypages. Si la mode – dans laquelle je m’inscris – est à l’entreprenariat, il ne faudrait tout
de même pas oublier que seules des équipes constituées ont permis de bâtir de grandes avancées
technologiques depuis la Révolution Industrielle. La recherche est collective.
Dans cette droite ligne, je me positionne certes naïvement mais fermement pour que les rancœurs
au sein des équipes, entre les équipes et entre les institutions n’aient plus leur place dans la
recherche publique soutenue par les contribuables français et européens. Enfin, j’espère à l’avenir
ne plus plier devant la bureaucratie de la recherche européenne. Combien de lignes qui ne seront
jamais relues avons-nous tous écrit ? Combien d’heures perdues à justifier de l’avancée de nos
travaux, au lieu de les faire avancer concrètement? Pourquoi ne pas simplement évaluer cette
avancée sur le nombre de communications scientifiques et industrielles, qui sont par nature
directement évaluées par nos pairs ?
Bonne Lecture,
Gaspard
x
Contents
Avant-Propos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
General Introduction 1
1 From Geopolitics to Smart Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Geopolitics incentives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Bankruptcy of gas-fired assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Migration toward Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) assets . . . . . . 3
2 Structure of the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3 Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4 Axis of research and of inspiration of the present thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5 Main contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6 Glossary of Important Terms and Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
I Opportunity of DER involvement in power markets 17

1 Overall market review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.1 Wholesale electricity markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.2 Ancillary services products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2 Business opportunities of DER flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1 Grid losses savings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2 VoltVAR & congestion management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3 Frequency Containment Reserves (FCR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4 Frequency Restoration Reserve (FRR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5 Restoration Reserves (RR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.6 Peak load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.6.1 Capacity auctions and markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.6.2 Handling of the peak load by the day-ahead spot market . . . . 28
2.7 Intra-day spot markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.8 Day-ahead spot markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.8.1 Day-ahead market data analytics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.8.2 Speculation on the day-ahead spot prices using a Tesla Powerwall
ESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
xi
CONTENTS
2.8.3 Domestic space heating optimisation using day-ahead spot prices 38

2.9 Long-term wholesale markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.10 Market coupling capacities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.11 Bilateral wholesale markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3 Scenario of DER flexibility assets sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4 Conclusion of Chapter I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
II Theory and challenges of frequency stability 51

1 Principle of power system balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
1.1 Power system balance & frequency deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
1.2 System reliability & blackout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
1.2.1 Jeopardize of system reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
1.2.2 Blackout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
1.2.3 System security, stability & reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
1.3 Balancing reserves activation in response to a frequency deviation event . 59
1.4 Frequency Containment Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
1.5 Frequency Restoration Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
1.6 Replacement Reserve Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
1.7 Under Frequency Load Shedding (UFLS / LFDD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
1.8 Contribution of self-regulation of load to power system stability . . . . . . 71
2 Challenges of the frequency containment defence plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.1 Degradation of conventional FCR providing units’ availability . . . . . . . 73
2.1.1 Periodic non-availability of conventional generation . . . . . . . 73
2.1.2 Loss of business interest in FCR supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
2.2 Degradation of the frequency quality inducing larger FCR solicitation . . 77
2.3 Degradation of the system inertia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
2.4 Degradation of UFLS scheme efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3 Conclusion of Chapter II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
III Innovation Concept of Primary Support 89

1 Primary Support: a response to the challenges of system stability . . . . . . . . . 89
2 State of the art of distributed frequency control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3 Concept of Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.1 Multi-layers process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.2 Targeted DERs - layer 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.3 Real-time process - layer 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.4 Coordination of the distributed thresholds and slopes - layer 2 . . . . . . 99
3.4.1 Operational parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3.4.2 Operational flow of data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
3.4.3 Threshold & slope computation algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3.4.4 Definition of the slope of the DERs controlled in ON/OFF mode 113
3.5 Cooperation between two different coordination platforms - layer 3 . . . . 113
3.6 Future improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
xii
CONTENTS
4 Value Proposition of Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

4.1 Robustness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.2 Adaptability to topology-dependent architecture for regulated operation . 118
4.3 DER modulation acceptance by DER owners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5 Conclusion of Chapter III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
IV Field Demonstration and Validation of Primary Support 129

1 Validation of DERs real-time modulation (Layers 0 & 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
1.1 ON/OFF DER’s response on a lab micro-grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
1.1.1 Field Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
1.1.2 Protocol of tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
1.1.3 Illustration of frequency stabilization in steady-state operation . 131
1.1.4 Validation of the agent-based platform time-response . . . . . . 132
1.1.5 Validation of the droop curve conformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
1.2 ON/OFF DER’s response on a interconnected system . . . . . . . . . . . 133
1.2.1 Field Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
1.2.3 Validation of ON/OFF DERs time-response . . . . . . . . . . . 135
1.3 Variable-speed DER’s response on a interconnected system . . . . . . . . 138
1.3.1 Field Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
1.3.3 Validation of the HVAC cubicle time-response . . . . . . . . . . 141
1.3.4 Validation of the droop curve conformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
2 Deployment of pre-industrial coordination platform (Layer 2) . . . . . . . . . . . 145
2.1 Architecture of the coordination platform of demonstration . . . . . . . . 145
2.2 HMI of visualisation of the resultant offer and demand power-frequency
characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
3 Deployment of a scale-1 Primary Support infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
3.1 Schneider Electric - Grenoble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
3.2 G2Elab - Grenoble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
3.3 ICCS - Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
3.4 SEA - Milano Malpensa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
4 Conclusion of Chapter IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
General Conclusion 157
Appendix A Axes of research addressed during the PhD work 165
Appendix B Method of Day-ahead spot market data analytics 171

1 Data Harvesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
2 Data Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
3 Analytics Produced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
4 Data Analytic plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
xiii
Appendix C FCR & UFLS data 191
1 UFLS defence plans currently in application in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
2 Dataset of common FCR prices in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Appendix D Patent Review 195
Appendix E HMI screen-shot of the coordination platform of demonstration 203
Résumé étendu & opinion 211
Bibliography 225
List of Figures
1 Evolution the LNG exporting capacities of Qatar (data: Wikipedia [2015]) . . . . . 2

2 Penetration of Wind (left) and PV (right) in Europe over the 10 past years (in
GW) [EWEA, 2016, GWEC, 2016, IEA, 2016] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Evolution of the raw materials prices since 1984 (data: Index mundi [2015]) . . . . . 4
4 Evolution of the carbon spot price on the European Trading System (ETS) [The
Economist, 2013] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
I.1 Summary over the time of markets and main physical limitations of the power
industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
I.2 Localisation of the 15 Nordics and Baltics Nord Pool Spot bidding areas [Nord
Pool Spot, 2015] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
I.3 Procurement and resale of different power products to get a resultant profile
that complies with a linear evolution of the demand. Gray and white blocks:
long-term ahead bids purchase. Red blocks: close to real-time bids purchase.
Green blocks: close to real-time bids resale. [Kok, 2013] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
I.4 Review of capacity mechanism penetration in Europe (data: UFE [2014]) . . . . . 20
I.5 (a) Estimation of the total losses in MV/LV transformers depending on the
LV load consumed and on the transformer size (data: Schneider Electric [1996]) (b)
Illustration of load-shifting from peak to off-peak time to reduces T&D losses
[Nourai et al., 2008] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
I.6 Estimation of annual procurement and cost of FCR supply in Europe. ( data:
appendix C.5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
I.7 Distribution of the weekly FRR capacity prices in Germany - February 2-8th
2015 (data: Regelleistung [2015]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
xiv
LIST OF FIGURES
I.8 Distribution of the weekly FRR capacity prices in Germany - June 8-14th 2015
(data: Regelleistung [2015] ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
I.9 Decomposition of spread revenue captured during days of peak-load over the
year 2010 in Finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
I.10 Illustration of descent daily spread 3.5hr shape and annual spread revenue (curves
building method presented in App. B, Section 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
I.11 Structure of the Cost Benefit Analysis performed to assess the profitability of
Tesla Powerwall involvement on the day-ahead spot markets . . . . . . . . . . . 36
I.12 Model used to characterize the AC-to-AC efficiency of the load shifting process
using an ESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
I.13 Common periods of charge and discharge among the 24hr-day, for an optimal
involvement on the day-ahead wholesale market (Denmark 2001-2014) . . . . . . 37
I.14 Benchmark of the annual revenue of domestic ESS involvement in the day-ahead
spot markets in the Nordics, Baltics and France. (Conversion efficiency: ηAC/DC =
2 × 95%, ηDC/DC = 95%) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
I.15 Structure of the Cost Benefit Analysis performed to assess the profitability of
Energy Boxes involvement on the day-ahead spot markets . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
I.16 Benchmark of energy boxes hardware in terms of price and compliance with the
business case of domestic space heating optimisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
I.17 Benchmark of the power bill savings induced by the implementation of the cost-
optimized heating process (process B-1 in Figure I.15), compared with Energy
Box investment cost assumptions in the Nordic and Baltic countries (same out-
door reference temperature from Malmö). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
I.18 Difference of power bill savings induced by the implementation of the cost-
optimized heating process (process B-1 in Figure I.15), with three different sets
of outside temperature and French market data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
I.19 Scenarios of DERs flexibility sharing for revenue multiplication . . . . . . . . . . 46
II.1 Simplified representation of a generator connected to a unique load [Andersson,

2012] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
II.2 Splitting of the Continental Europe synchronous area into three areas, asyn-
chronous one another following the German disturbance of November 4, 2006
[ENTSO-E, 2006] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
II.3 Summary of outages occurrences and duration across the world (both limited
outages and blackouts) [Bruch and Hunter, 2012] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
II.4 Load tripping repartition across Europe following the disturbance of November
4, 2006 [ENTSO-E, 2006] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
II.5 Illustration of the activation of balancing reserves following an over-load distur-
bance, depending on the frequency variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
II.6 Presentation of the Synchronous Areas of ENTSO-E (data: ENTSO-E [2013a,e]) . . 61
II.7 Presentation of the ENTSO-E LFC Areas and LFC blocks (data: ENTSO-E [2013a,e]) 61
II.8 Frequency Quality Defining Parameters [ENTSO-E, 2013e] . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
xv
LIST OF FIGURES
II.9 Definition of the FCR power-frequency characteristic (data: Art 44, ENTSO-E
[2013e]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
II.10 Characteristic Time of FCR (data: Art 44,45, ENTSO-E [2013e]) . . . . . . . . . . . 65
II.11 Characteristic Time of FRR (data: Art 46,47, ENTSO-E [2013e]) . . . . . . . . . . . 68
II.12 Implementation range for LFDD plan [ENTSO-E, 2015b] . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
II.13 Evolution of the asynchronous machine’s operation point faced with slight vari-
ations of the power system frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
II.14 Annual occurrence of negative residual load in West Denmark (in % of the time.
10%=876hrs a year) (data: Energinet [2015]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
II.15 Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) - 2015 - 3% to 10% discount rate [IEA, 2015] 75
II.16 Evolution of frequency deviation in the Northern Europe Synchronous Area over
the 15 last years [ENTSO-E, 2013e] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
II.17 Daily occurrence of high frequency deviation in Northern Europe Synchronous
area in 2009-2010 [ENTSO-E, 2013e] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
II.18 Decrease of system inertia with increase in wind penetration replacing conven-
tional generations [Das et al., 2015] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
II.19 Effect of the increase in wind penetration (replacing conventional generators) on
frequency Nadir (red surface), depending on the availability of primary reserves.
Comparison of the frequency Nadir with the first UFLS step at 49Hz (purple
surface) [Das et al., 2015] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
II.20 Evolution of system kinetic energy along the day in islanded network depending
of PV production and inherited unit commitment of conventional generation
units. Case A/B/C: different strategies of grid tariff, likely to modify the unit
commitment strategies of power producers [Cardozo et al., 2015] . . . . . . . . . 81
II.21 Evolution of Power flow in Kuching Island faced with to 30% RES-E penetration
[Lebel et al., 2015c] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
II.22 Effect of UFLS weakening due to by RES-E spreading on Kuching power system
face to the reference incident (loss of the 0.48pu interconnection) [Lebel et al.,
2015c] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
II.23 Vertical grid load flow from Tennet Germany transmission network down to the
distribution grids - July 2015 (data: Tennet [2015]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
III.1 Suitable frequency range of operation of Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

III.2 IEC61850-7-420 compliant architecture of PrimarySupport . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
III.3 Kind of loads compliant with Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
III.4 Characteristic of FWHZ function embedded into IEC61850-7-420-compliant DERs 97
III.5 Targeted step-by-step droop curve involving ON/OFF-driven DERs . . . . . . . 100
III.6 Data model used in Primary Support IEC61850-compliant . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
III.7 Sequences of data exchange between the PrimarySupport coordination agent and
a DER controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
III.8 Thresholds & slopes coordination algorithm used by Primary Support . . . . . . 109
III.9 Probability Pact of activation of FWHZ function for a given DER depending on
its threshold HzStr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
xvi
LIST OF FIGURES
III.10 Principle of operation of the Layer 3 in Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

III.11 Topology-related system-scale architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
III.12 Mean Frequency Deviation Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
III.13 Common daily occurrence of load modulation events, as a function of the fre-
quency threshold applied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
III.14 Combination of FCR-N and FCR-D claimed by Jomaux and De Jaeger [2015] . 123
III.15 Frequency deviation distribution for various penetration of FCR-D [Jomaux and
De Jaeger, 2015] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
III.16 Common duration of load modulation events, as a function of the frequency
threshold applied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
III.17 Simplified operational process of Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
IV.1 Presentation of the agent-based platform and the field test . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
IV.2 Scheme of principle and real energy box developed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
IV.3 Test of the agent-based platform in steady-state operation . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
IV.4 Micro-grid response to a major outage, with and without frequency regulation . 132
IV.5 Characterisation of the obtained droop curve compared to the droop expected . 133
IV.6 Architecture of the Power Hardware In the Loop simulation test bench at PREDIS134
IV.7 Architecture of the ON/OFF demo kit to the deployed within Schneider Electric
show-room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
IV.8 Prototype of ON/OFF demonstration suitcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
IV.9 ON/OFF industrial DER controllers response to a sudden frequency drop . . . 137
IV.10 ON/OFF industrial DER controllers response to a sudden frequency recovery . 137
IV.11 On-site generic architecture of an HVAC system and picture of the equivalent
system built within PREDIS platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
IV.12 Power conversion process from the HVAC-emulator cubicle down to the final
resistive loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
IV.13 Power-response of the HVAC unit to a monthly-event observed in Continental
Europe (March 2015) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
IV.14 Power-response of the HVAC unit to a decade-event (2003 Italian Black-out) . . 142
IV.15 ICT and physical path from Hz modification up to new T otW value observation 143
IV.16 Validation of delivery of the slope Wgra by the HVAC cubicle . . . . . . . . . . 143
IV.17 Architecture of the demonstration coordination platform of Primary Support . . 146
IV.18 Interface of visualisation of the resultant offer and curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
IV.19 Map of the DER controllers of Primary Support deployed among Dream facilities 149
IV.20 Architecture of the airport lighting modulation system to the deployed at Milano
Malpensa for Primary Support purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
IV.21 [Left] Overview of the parking lighting of Milano Malpensa Airport to be involved
in Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
IV.22 [Right] Overview of the parking lighting of Milano Malpensa Airport to be in-
volved in Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
A.1 Research axis on Spot market volatility analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

xvii
LIST OF FIGURES
A.2 Research axis on Real-Time-Price tariff for households . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

A.3 Research axis on Business Use Cases for DER integration . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
A.4 Research axis on LV4MV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
A.5 Research axis on DLVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
A.6 Research axis on Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
A.7 Research axis on Second Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
B.1 Illustration of data analytic strengthening along the steps of data computation . 172
B.2 Example of [D1] data content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
B.3 Example of [D2] data content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
B.4 Example of [D5], [D10] and [D14] data content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
B.5 Example of [D11], [D12], [D15] and [D16] content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
B.6 Illustration of [D10] (grey points), [D13] (green rectangles) and [D14] content
(gradation of green points depending on the period of averaging) . . . . . . . . . 178
B.7 Example of [D17] and [D18] content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
B.8 Observation of the periods of extreme loads among the network load [D1] in the
18 bidding areas. Limits of extreme loads: ]50%; 85%[ of [D8] . Year 2010 or
more recent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
B.9 Annual revenue of the daily spread 3.5hr gathered 365 days a year [D17] or
during peak-days only [D18] in Norway, Denmark and France . . . . . . . . . . 181
B.10 Annual revenue of the daily spread 3.5hr gathered 365 days a year [D17] or
during peak-days only [D18] in Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia 182
B.11 Spot turnover repartition [D13], 1MW-steps price elasticity [D10] and Gliding
price elasticity average [D14] in Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
price elasticity average [D14] in France and Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
price elasticity average [D14] in Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
B.14 Descending daily spread 1hr [D11] and 3.5hr [D12] in Sweden, Denmark and
France. Average 2011-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
B.15 Descending daily spread 1hr [D11] and 3.5hr [D12] in Sweden, Finland, Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia. Average 2011-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
B.16 Descending daily spread 1hr [D15] and 3.5hr [D16] at peak in Norway, Denmark
and France. Average 2011-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
B.17 Descending daily spread 1hr [D15] and 3.5hr [D16] at peak in Sweden, Finland,
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Average 2011-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
C.1 Distribution of the FCR prices in UK compared with the mean FCR price (data:
[National Grid, 2015]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
C.2 Hourly evolution of Up and Down FCR prices in DK West (data: [Energinet, 2015]) 193
C.3 Hourly evolution of Frequency Normal Reserve (FNR) and Frequency Distur-
bance Reserve (FDR) prices in DK East (data: [Energinet, 2015]) . . . . . . . . . 194
xviii
D.1 Patent review - Key words "load shedding frequency" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
D.2 Patent review - Key words "load shedding"+"frequency" and "Virtual Power Plant"197
D.3 Patent review - Key words "Demand Response " 1/5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
E.1 Map of synoptics: path to the different platform’s functions . . . . . . . . . . . 203

E.2 Path of declaration of a new DER into the pool of Primary Support . . . . . . . 204
E.3 Path of modification of DER parameters and view of the effective contribution . 205
E.4 Path of modification of demand bids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
E.5 Path of modification of the market clearing and clearing visualisation algorithms 207
IV.6 Evolution des flux de puissances dans un réseau semi-insulaire avec un fort taux
d’énergies renouvelables, altérant l’efficacité de l’UFLS [Lebel et al., 2015c] . . . 213
IV.7 Principe de l’analyse coûts-bénéfices réalisée pour estimer la rentabilité du stock-
age chimique intraday sur les marchés spot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
IV.8 Exemple de GEDs compatibles avec les spécifications de Primary Support . . . 217
IV.9 Procédé opérationnel simplifié de Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
IV.10 Exemple d’architecture de déploiement de Primary Support selon la topologie
du réseau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
IV.11 Illustration des enjeux de standardisation des protocoles de communication des
GEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
List of Tables
I.1 Assessment of Grid losses cost saving opportunities using DER . . . . . . . . . . 23

I.2 FRR regulated remuneration in France and Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
I.3 Assessment of RR using domestic space heating DR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
I.4 Assessment of Capacity Auction opportunities using DER . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
I.5 Mean 2001-2014 ratio of the Annual Spread 3.5hr income of peak-days compared
to off-peak-days. Peak-day limit: 85% of the historic peak load [D8] . . . . . . . 29
I.6 Mean number of peak days per year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
I.7 Spot volumes range (in % of the peak load, wherein the top 10% of the day-ahead
spot turnover is traded) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
I.8 Number of days of the year having a daily spread 3.5hr larger than 20e/MWh.
Average 2011-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
xix
LIST OF TABLES
I.9 Number of days of the year having a daily spread 3.5hr larger than 40e/MWh.
Average 2011-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
I.10 Summary of the sources of revenue of DER flexibility depending on the countries 44
I.11 Assessment of load-shifting costs for either ESS or thermal storage . . . . . . . . 47
II.1 Typical inertia constants Hi of synchronous machines [Kothari and Nagrath, 2008] 54
II.2 FCR providing groups and units’ minimum frequency accuracy and insensitivity
requirement(Art 44(1), ENTSO-E [2013d]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
II.3 References numbers used in Figures II.9, II.10 and II.11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
II.4 Frequency Restoration Range applied by synchrounous area . . . . . . . . . . . 67
II.5 Automatic Low Frequency Demand Disconnection scheme characteristics (Art
14, ENTSO-E [2015a]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
II.6 Estimation of the FCR and wholesale marginal cost and incomes depending on
the technology used for 1MW of installed capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
III.1 From frequency stability challenges to the functional and operational specifica-
tions of Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
III.2 IEC61850-7-420 parameters to be defined for the use of the Frequency-watt mode
FWHZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
III.3 Non native IEC61850-7-420 parameters involved in the threshold coordination
algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
III.4 Columns order of the 20 parameters introduced as inputs of the threshold &
slope coordination algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
III.5 Frequency dispersion occurrence in Continental Europe [Filip, 2011] . . . . . . . 120
IV.1 Semantic of the JSON messages exchanged between the DER controllers and the
coordination platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
B.1 Period of market data acquisition per bidding area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

B.2 Representation of the data-heritage along the analytic levels . . . . . . . . . . . 173
B.3 Mapping of the Figures wherein [D1] to [D18] data are plotted . . . . . . . . . . 174
B.4 Peak Load Value [D8] assumed for each bidding area (in MW) . . . . . . . . . . 176
C.1 Characteristic UFLS schemes in CE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

C.2 Characteristic UFLS scheme in GB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
C.3 Characteristic UFLS scheme in IRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
C.4 Characteristic UFLS scheme in NE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
C.5 Summary of mean FCR prices in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
xx
General introduction
General Introduction
1 From Geopolitics to Smart Grid
1.1 Geopolitics incentives

The business perspectives of Smart Grid solutions presently under discussion among scientists
and European industrial communities came initially from geopolitic incentives which appeared
in the early 2000s. These incentives are split into two categories. The first category of incentives
appears as a response to the need to secure national energy independence. The second category
consist of environmentally-based incentives, which aim to mitigate climate change by limiting
the Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions of the power or transportation industries.
Smart Grid
The Smart Grid can be defined as all new ICT technologies that would make power system
assets communicant, with the final objective to support utilities in their evolution towards
an evolved power system architecture, induced by the energy transition. The challenge of the
utilities will be to rely on a roll-out of Smart Grid functions, to adapt their assets of power
production, transmission, distribution, metering, storage and consumption in addition of
solely investing in grid reinforcement and additional Reserve Capacities. Such modernization
of power system assets is expected to contribute to maintain or even the improvement of
the system resiliency as well as an economical delivery of electricity in a more and more
complex environment. The power system would thus be operated in a more flexible way,
allowing operational constraints such as the intermittence of Renewable Energy Resources
(RES-E) to be handled more efficiently. Meantime, it should allow new uses of electricity
such as the Electric Vehicle (EV). Progressively the real-time balance between production
and consumption balance would move from a paradigm where the production is adapted to
the demand towards a new paradigm where the demand has to be synchronized with the
availability of the production instead. Becoming a real actor of the power system reliability,
the consumer would become a "prosumer" [Smart Grid CRE, 2015].
The energy independence incentives have led to three major decisions. The first decision came
from the utilities who decided to invest in Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGT) over the
past ten years. It aimed to improve the efficiency of their power assets and diversify their
sources of supply, enjoying the emergence of a new route of importation of Liquefied Natural
Gas (LNG) from the Middle-east, through shipping. The capacity of LNG exporting terminals
1
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
90
Annual capacitty of LNG (in mmtpa)

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Years
Figure 1: Evolution the LNG exporting capacities of Qatar (data: Wikipedia [2015])
of Ras Laffan (Qatar) rose by 250% from 2008 to 2011, to reach a level of nearly 80 Million
Metric Tonne Per Annum (mmtpa) (1219 TWh) (Figure 1), while the technological progress of
gas turbines enabled the utilities to reach levels of efficiency of 60% for the latest CCGT units.
It appeared thus as a great opportunity to reduce meantime the dependency of Europe towards
the uncertain Russian gas and the GhG emission of power assets. ENGIE commissioned the
first French CCGT in 2005 in Dunkerque at the benefit of Arcelor Mittal.
The second decision came from the US administration, that bet on the exploitation of shale gas
to increase its national production of fossil fuels, in order to both reduce its energy dependency
towards the OPEC countries and enable the US citizens to enjoy cheaper fossil fuels prices. This
decision led to an excess of coal in the US, that was then exported to Europe at a price which
halved from April 2011 to April 2015 (Figure 3).
The third political decision came from the European regulation entities, who have initiated a pro-
gressive commissioning of feed-in tariffs applied to the Renewable Energy Sources for Electricity
(RES-E) connected to the European grid. This decision has been driven by both energy depen-
dency and environmental issues. Starting from this decision, and in addition to a favourable
technical learning curve of RES-E sources and the simplification of administrative RES-E de-
ployment’s procedures, the penetration of RES-E in Europe have started to rise significantly
(Figure 2).
The field of environmental incentives have been completed by two additional decisions. Firstly,
a compulsory phasing-out of high-pollutant European power units by January 1st, 2016 have
been stated by the European Commission. Secondly, several European countries have decided
to terminate their nuclear program at the mid-term benefit of RES-E due to Fukushima. The
decision of the European Commission would induce the phasing-out of 4 − 5GW of peak-load
capacity among the 130GW of French power assets [RTE, 2012], while nuclear phase-out would
prevent countries such as Germany to benefit from a cheap base-load capacity.
2
1. FROM GEOPOLITICS TO SMART GRID
500
Cumulative Wind power 450 Rest of the World
Europe
capacity (in GW) 400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Years
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Rest of the World 5 7 8 11 13 18 26 37 56 84 113 144 176 201 241 291
Europe 13 17 23 29 34 41 48 57 65 75 85 95 107 117 129 142
Overall 17 24 31 39 48 59 74 94 121 159 198 238 283 318 370 432
Figure 2: Penetration of Wind (left) and PV (right) in Europe over the 10 past years (in GW)
[EWEA, 2016, GWEC, 2016, IEA, 2016]
7
1.2 Bankruptcy of gas-fired assets

The consequence of these non-correlated successive decisions lead to a collapse of competitiveness
of the European gas-fired assets confronted to RES-E and coal. RES-E have started to damage
the profitability of gas-fired assets, by reducing their yearly operation rate due to the priority
dispatch commitment of RES-E units on the market (principle of feed-in tariff). The US decision
to exploit shale gas led then to a drop in coal prices worldwide from January 2011, while the
Russian gas prices which feed European countries doubled from late 2009 to early 2012 (Figure
3). This fall of coal prices has been induced by a discardment of coal by the US industries at
the benefit of shale gas, while the US did not export shale gas for both strategic reasons and
the lack of LNG exporting terminals in the US. That led to a massive export of cheap coal
to Europe, which reversed the competitiveness of coal-fired power plants compared to gas-fired
assets. The coup de grâce came finally from the collapse of the CO2 price on the European
Trading System (ETS) that lightens even more the marginal cost of coal (Figure 4). ENGIE
has clearly identified the annual or seasonal shutting down of three of its four French gas-fired
units in mid 2013, as a consequence of coal competition [Les Echos, 2013]. Since October 2014,
the successive and spectacular drops in crude oil price, the Russian gas price and even the LNG
price in Japan have not been followed by the massive reopening of gas-fired assets in Europe,
probably due to the existence of long-term gas delivery contracts that mitigates the volatility of
the prices. Finally, the drop under 40e/MWh of the power prices on the European wholesale
markets that occurred in 2015 due to an excess of power capacities make the reopening of these
assets even more complicated.
1.3 Migration toward Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) assets

This new paradigm induces the apparition of new kind of unit commitment strategies driven
by non-dispatchable Distributed Generation (DG). Such evolution would lead to several conse-
quences for the power system such as:
the mid-term scarcity of bulk generation, which operates as base-load, would reduce the
availability of conventional frequency-controlled reserves that are vital for the power system
stability;
the phasing-out of dispatchable sources in countries where the power consumption is still
3
Evolution of Crude Oil, Coal and Natural Gas prices (in USD/MWh)
80 time-offset related to
Europe & China
Thermal coal (Australia) disappointing Oil/Gas indexation
70 Crude oil (average Dated Brent, West Texas, Dubai Fateh) growth
Natural Gas in Louisiana
60
Prices (in USD/MWh)
Natural Gas in Russia

Indonesian Liquified Natural Gas in Japan
50
40
30
20
10
0
Feb 1984 Feb 1989 Feb 1994 Feb 1999 Feb 2004 Feb 2009 Feb 2014
Time
Figure 3: Evolution of the raw materials prices since 1984 (data: Index mundi [2015])
Figure 4: Evolution of the carbon spot price on the European Trading System (ETS) [The
Economist, 2013]
increasing, is likely to directly alter the peak-load adequacy of the power system;
the significant connection of DG assets on the distribution grid would induce a risk of con-
gestion on these grids, impeding so far the overall objective of maximization of grid-coupling
of any carbon-free assets;
the solutions proposed for handling the challenges quoted above, sometimes leads to the mod-
ulation of the level of generation of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) assets to facilitate
the operations of power transmission, power distribution or power trading. However a given
modulation can induce contradictory results depending on the issue it solves. Consequently,
a fourth challenge is to coordinate these needs to reach an adequate level of satisfaction at
the scale of the power system;
the last challenge is finally to build business models that are profitable enough to enable the
contribution of DERs in the resolution of the challenges presented above.
4
2. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
2 Structure of the thesis

In response to such an evolving paradigm, a review of the main power market products is
produced in Chapter I, in order to assess the business opportunities that would be handled
by DER flexibility assets. Among these markets, the supply of frequency-controlled reserves
has been identified as economically promising and technically challenging for the power system
stability. Chapter II investigates thus in detail the processes operated by the System Operators
to ensure the system stability. Chapter II identifies as well the obstacles that the deregulation
of the power markets and the wide penetration of RES-E would present for the system stability.
Based on the outcomes of the two first chapters, the PhD work focussed then on the development
of the Primary Support initiative, which is presented in Chapter III. Primary Support is an
innovative process of firm supply of frequency-controlled reserves, that relies on a coordinated
modulation of the level of load of DER assets. Chapter IV presents finally the initiatives of
demonstration of Primary Support that have been performed since 2013 to promote the supply
of frequency-controlled reserves from the control of DERs.
3 Publications
This thesis has led to the following list of publications and communications:
Power Market Analysis

Gaspard Lebel, Raphaël Caire, Nouredine Hadjsaid, Stéphane Bediou and Alain Glatigny.
Cost benefit analysis of households energy boxes deployment in Europe: Impact of the spot
prices. In CIRED 23rd International Conference on Electricity Distribution. [Lebel et al.,
2015a].
DER Operation Coordination
Arnaud Ulian and Maria Sebastian. EvolvDSO Deliverable 2.1 – Business Use Cases Defini-
tion and Requirements v1.0. In http://www.evolvdso.eu/Home/Results [Ulian and Sebastian,
2014]
Gaspard Lebel. From fit&forget to #IoT driven distribution network: the importance of
standardization & decentralization In Increase Summer School 2015 lectures, Gent, Belgium,
July 15, 2015. [Lebel, 2015].
VoltVAR Management
Emmanuelle Vanet, Gaspard Lebel, Raphaël Caire, Nouredine Hadjsaid, Stéphane Bediou
and Alain Glatigny. LV4MV: a concept for optimal power flow management in distribu-
tion grids, using DER flexibility. In CIRED 23rd International Conference on Electricity
Distribution. [Vanet et al., 2015].
Emmanuelle Vanet, Gaspard Lebel, Raphaël Caire, Nouredine Hadjsaid, Mathieu Gabel
and Marc Lazarus. Flexibility activation optimization for constraints management in distri-
bution grids, using DER flexibility through LV4MV. In CIRED Workshop 2016, Helsinki -
in press. [Vanet et al., 2016].
5
Gaspard Lebel. DLVM: les capteurs de tension BT autonomes, geo-localisés et commu-

nicants. In Internet of Things (IoT) Final at concours innovation ErDF 2015 Réseaux
Electriques Intelligents
Power System Security: Assessments and Innovation Proposal
Gaspard Lebel, Karel Kuypers, Raphaël Caire, Nouredine Hadjsaid, Stéphane Bediou and
Alain Glatigny. Distributed and coordinated demand response for the supply of frequency
containment reserve (FCR). In CIRED 23rd International Conference on Electricity Distri-
bution. [Lebel et al., 2015b].
Gaspard Lebel, Karel Kuypers, Raphaël Caire, Nouredine Hadjsaid, Stéphane Bediou and
Alain Glatigny. Domestic Demand Response for Primary Control support. In Student Poster
Session of Cigré International Colloquium Lightning & Power Systems, Lyon 2014 [Lebel
et al., 2014b].
Gaspard Lebel, Da Wang, Raphaël Caire, Nouredine Hadjsaid, Stéphane Bediou and Alain
Glatigny. Distributed and coordinated demand response for frequency-controlled reserve
supply. In PowerTech, 2015 IEEE Eindhoven, pages 1–5. [Lebel et al., 2015c].
Gaspard Lebel, Raphaël Caire, Nouredine Hadjsaid. Procédé de stabilisation d’un réseau
électrique par délestage de charges. In Institut National de la Propriété Intellectuelle (INPI),
FR Patent deposit N ◦ 13/62664, December 16, 2013. [Lebel et al., 2013a].
Gaspard Lebel, Raphaël Caire, Nouredine Hadjsaid. Procédé de stabilisation d’un réseau
électrique par délestage de charges. PCT Extension and additional claims. In European
Patent Office (EPO) , PCT Patent extension deposit PCT/EP2014/077815, December 15,
2014. [Lebel et al., 2014a].
4 Axis of research and of inspiration of the present thesis

The list of publications presented in Section 3 has shown contributions in domains such as
distributed VoltVAR Management and DER operation coordination, that are not mentioned in
the structure of the thesis presented in Section 2. Such differences are justified by the editorial
choices that have been taken to ensure the consistency of the present PhD thesis. Given that
European initiatives linked to this PhD work

This PhD work relies upon the involvement in three different European initiatives: the
Instinct initiative of KIC InnoEnergy CC Sweden and both EvolvDSO and Dream FP7
projects funded by the European Commission (EC grant agreements n◦ 608732 and n◦ 609359).
6
5. MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS
the final opinion expressed in this PhD has been influenced by these parallel contributions, all
of them are consequently summarized from Figure A.1 to Figure A.7 in Appendix A, including
the contributions that will not be developed in the present PhD thesis.
5 Main contributions
Six main contributions of this work are listed below:
1. It identifies the either wholesale or ancillary services power products, whose delivery by
DERs and especially by DR assets would be the most profitable (Section 2 in Ch I).
2. It popularizes the operational principles and reserves architectures, that guarantee the
power system stability (Section 1 in Ch II).
3. It popularizes the sections of the Network Codes on Electricity Balancing and on Load-
Frequency Control and Reserves [ENTSO-E, 2013c,d], that establish the operational rules
in charge of guaranteeing the power system stability (Section 1 in Ch II).
4. It identifies the main challenges that both the power market deregulation and the large
penetration of Distributed Generation (DG) would induce on the system stability and
especially on the frequency containment defence plan (Section 2 in Ch II) .
5. It claims an innovative method of coordination of DER assets, that enables the involvement
of DERs of different natures in the supply of Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR) at
the benefit of the System Operators. Without coordination, most of DERs could not
guarantee of 24/7 delivery of the same level of reserve, that justified the development of
such advanced method (Section 3 in Ch III).
6. It demonstrates the previous concept with three main objectives. The first objective
targets to test different architectures of DER controllers, adapted to different nature of
DERs. Then this PhD work aims to validate the architecture of DER coordination. Finally
it aims to obtain a final solution having a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at least of
five. The obtaining of such TRL aims to enhance the probability of adoption of the solution
by the management of Schneider Electric (Chapter IV).
6 Glossary of Important Terms and Abbreviations
Adequacy: System’s ability to meet consumers’ total power demand and to satisfy their re-
quirements as regards energy at all times, taking account of planned and reasonably expectable
trips of system elements. The concept covers stationary conditions [Energinet, 2007].
aFRR: Frequency Restoration Reserves that can be activated by an automatic control device
[ENTSO-E, 2014b]. ⊲ Frequency Restoration Reserves.
Ancillary services: Joint name for various services to which TSOs require access in the operat-
ing phase in order to maintain the safe and stable operation of the electricity system [Energinet,
7
2007].
Balance Responsible Party (BRP): A party that has a contract proving financial security
and identifying balance responsibility with the Imbalance Settlement Responsible of the Market
Balance Area entitling the party to operate in the market. This is the only role allowing a party
to nominate energy on a wholesale level [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Balancing Area: Areas of the power system where there is continuous regulation in order to
maintain the frequency and a physical balance in relation to adjacent areas. In the Nordic area,
the synchronous system and Western Denmark are separate balance areas [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Balancing: All actions and processes, on all time-lines, through which TSOs ensure, in a
continuous way, to maintain the system frequency within a predefined stability range as set
forth in [Article 19 Frequency Quality Target Parameters] of [ENTSO-E, 2013d], and to comply
with the amount of reserves needed per Frequency Containment Process, Frequency Restoration
Process and Reserve Replacement Process with respect to the required quality, as set forth in
[Chapter 6 Frequency Containment Reserves, Chapter 7 Frequency Restorations Reserves and
Chapter 8 Replacement Reserves] of [ENTSO-E, 2013d]. [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Sharing partners of scientific and industrial knowledges

This PhD work has been largely inspired by beneficial discussions that occurred with col-
leagues and customers of the following companies and institutions.
Balancing Capacity: The contracted ⊲ Reserve Capacity [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Balancing Energy: Energy used by TSOs to perform Balancing [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Balancing Market (BM): Entirety of institutional, commercial and operational arrangements

that establish market-based management of the function of Balancing within the framework of
the European Network Codes [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Balancing Service: Either or both ⊲ Balancing Capacity and ⊲ Balancing Energy

[ENTSO-E, 2014b].
BM: ⊲ Balancing Market.
BRP: ⊲ Balance Responsible Party.
Bulk Generation: Power plant of large capacity connected to the transmission grid.
CCGT: Combined Cycle Gas Turbines. Lastest generation of gas-fired power plant having an
efficiency ≥ 60% while conventional gas-fired power plants have an efficiency of ≤ 37%.
CE: ⊲ Synchronous Area
Connection Point: Interface at which the power generating module, demand facility, distri-
8
6. GLOSSARY OF IMPORTANT TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
bution system or HVDC system is connected to either a transmission system, offshore network,
distribution system, including closed distribution systems, or HVDC system, as identified in the
connection agreement [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Demand Response (DR): Demand offered for the purposes of, but not restricted to, providing
Load-shifting at the benefit of the wholesale markets, Active or Reactive Power management,
Voltage and Frequency regulation and System Reserve, at the benefit of the System Operators.
Demand Side Management (DSM): All the activities addressed to encourage customers
to modify patterns of electricity usage, including the timing and level of electricity demand.
DSM covers the complete range of load shape objectives, including strategic conservation and
load management, as well as strategic load growth. In system studies, the distinction is made
between controllable DSM and uncontrollable DSM. Controllable DSM includes curtailment
of interruptible loads and / or for emergency procedures such as voltage reductions and the
anticipated effects of public appeals [ENTSO-E, 2014b]. To recap, Demand Side Management
covers both Demand Response and Energy Efficiency processes.
Demand Side Response (DSR): Term used by ENTSO-E to designate ⊲ Demand Re-
sponse.
DER: ⊲ Distributed Energy Resource.
DG: ⊲ Distributed Generation.
Distributed Energy Resource (DER): Small-size power source connected to the distribution
grid. DER regroups Demand Response (DR), Distributed Generation (DG) or Energy Storage
System (ESS) and is composed of assets like microCHP, wind-turbines, PV, back-up gensets,
batteries, etc. DERs can be coordinated thanks to platform of operational aggregation called
⊲ Virtual Power Plant (VPP).
Distributed Generation (DG): Generation plants connected to the distribution system [ENTSO-
E, 2014b], at either MV or LV voltage level.
Distribution System Operator (DSO): Natural or legal person responsible for operating,
ensuring the maintenance of and, if necessary, developing the distribution network in a given area
and, where applicable, its interconnections with other networks and for ensuring the long-term
ability of the network to meet reasonable demands for the distribution of electricity [ENTSO-E,
2014b].
DR: ⊲ Demand Response.
DSM: ⊲ Demand Side Management.
DSO: ⊲ Distribution System Operator.
DSR: ⊲ Demand Side Response.
EC: European Commission.
Electrical Renewable Energies Sources (RES-E): Set of green power technologies such as
Wind power, Photovoltaic, etc. Historic large-scale hydro power plants are usually considered
9
as conventional generation and not RES-E
Energinet: TSO of Denmark.
Energy Storage System (ESS): Technologies of storage of power energy.
ENTSO-E: European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity as

established in the Regulation (EC) 714/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of
13 July 2009 on conditions for access to the network for cross-border exchanges in electricity
and repealing Regulation (EC) 1228/2003[1].
ENTSO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity): Association

of European TSOs in charge of coordinating the development and the interconnection of each
of the transmission systems of the European countries.
ESS: ⊲ Energy Storage System.
EV: Electric Vehicle.
FCR: ⊲ Frequency Containment Reserves.
FCR Providing Group: ⊲ Reserve Providing Group.
FCR Providing Unit: ⊲ Reserve Providing Unit.
Feed-in tariff : Policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy tech-
nologies. It commonly guarantees a priority feed-in of RES-E power on the network, at a
guaranteed price at the expense of conventional generation.
FRR Providing Unit: ⊲ Reserve Providing Unit.
FRR Providing Group: ⊲ Reserve Providing Group.
Frequency Containment Reserves (FCR): Operational Reserves activated to contain System

Frequency after the occurrence of an imbalance [ENTSO-E, 2014b]. See Sections 1.3 & 1.4.
Frequency Restoration Reserves (FRR): Active Power Reserves activated to restore System
Frequency to the Nominal Frequency and for Synchronous Area consisting of more than one LFC
Area power balance to the scheduled value [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Frequency Restoration Control Error: Control error for the FRP which is equal to the
ACE of a LFC Area or is equal to the Frequency Deviation where the LFC Area geographically
corresponds to the Synchronous Area [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
FRR: ⊲ Frequency Restoration Reserves.
GB: ⊲ Synchronous Area.
Green Bonus: Variation of the feed-in tariff, where RES-E producers sell their energy on the
wholesale markets at the market price and get a fix complementary remuneration in e/MWh
from the authorities to promote investment in RES-E. Contrary to the feed-in tariff, the Green
Bonus does not always guarantee a firm access to the grid to RES-E.
High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC): Technology of power transmission, for underground
10
connection or really long distance in overhead connections, using the Direct Current (DC) instead
of business-as-usual Alternative Current(AC).
HVAC: Acronym of "Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning". It gathers the technologies
of indoor building environmental comfort.
HVDC: ⊲ High Voltage Direct Current.
IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission. Committees in charge of the definition of

international standards and conformity assessment body for all fields of electrotechnology.
ICT: ⊲ Information and Communication Technologies.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): Gathers the technologies of Infor-

mation Technologies (IT) and of Telecommunication, that are involved in the building of the
Smart Grid.
IRE: ⊲ Synchronous Area.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Set of indicators that evaluates the performance of
operation of System Operators.
KPI: ⊲ Key Performance Indicators.
LFC Area: Part of a Synchronous Area, operated by a TSO. European LFC Areas are displayed
in Figure II.7.
LFC Block: Aggregation of LFC Areas, that constitutes a wider area at the scale of which the
Frequency Restoration Process is operated by one unique TSO to enable a sharing of Frequency
Restoration Reserves. Part of the European LFC Areas stays independent one another and
constitutes so their own LFC Block. European LFC Blocks are displayed in Figure II.7.
LFDD ⊲ Load Frequency Demand Disconnection.
LNG: Liquefied Natural Gas.
Load Frequency Demand Disconnection (LFDD): ⊲ Under Frequency Load Shedding

(UFLS).
LV: Low Voltage.
mFRR: ⊲ Frequency Restoration Reserves.
Modbus: Industrial protocol of data exchange between electronic devices.
MV: Medium Voltage.
NE: ⊲ Synchronous Area.
PV: Photovoltaic.
Raspberry PI: Computer based on Linux operating system that has the size of a credit card
11
and costs nearly 20-30e.
REE (Red Eléctrica de España): TSO of Spain.
Reference Incident: Largest power system incident having a sensible probability of occurrence
among a Synchronous Area, that induces a power imbalance that must be handled by the
Frequency Containment Process. See wider definition box in Section 1.4.
REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais): TSO of Portugal.
Replacement Reserves: Reserves used to restore/support the required level of FRR to be

prepared for additional system imbalances. This category includes operating reserves with acti-
vation time from Time to Restore Frequency up to hours [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
RES-E: ⊲ Electrical Renewable Energies Sources.
Reserve Capacity: Sum of the FCR, FRR or RR that needs to be available to the TS0 to
ensure a resilient operation of the power system [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Reserve Providing Group: Aggregation of Power Generating Modules Demand Unit and/or
Reserve Providing Units connected to more than one Connection Point fulfilling the requirements
for FCR FRR or RR [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Reserve Providing Unit: Single or an aggregation of Power Generating Modules and/or

Demand Units connected to a common Connection Point fulfilling the requirements for FCR
FRR or RR [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
RR: ⊲ Replacement Reserves. See Section 1.6.
RPI: ⊲ Raspberry PI.
RTE (Réseau de Transport d’Electricité): TSO of France.
SA: ⊲ Synchronous Area.
Smart Grid: All new ICT technologies that would make power system assets communicant,
with the final objective to enable power system actors to overcome the mutation of the conven-
tional power system, that is induced by the energy transition[Smart Grid CRE, 2015]. See wider
definition box in Section 1.1.
Spread: Widest amplitude of market price between a set of price data of one day, one season,
one year, etc.
Standard Frequency Deviation: Absolute value of the Frequency Deviation that limits the
Standard Frequency Range [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Standard Frequency Range: Interval defined symmetrically around the Nominal Frequency
of a Synchronous Area. The System Frequency is supposed to stay contained within this Stan-
dard Frequency Range in normal operation [ENTSO-E, 2014b].
Statnett: TSO of Norway.
Steady State Frequency Deviation: Absolute value of Frequency Deviation that is observed
after the occurrence of an imbalance once the System Frequency has been stabilized [ENTSO-E,
12
2014b]. In other words, this is the System Frequency observed at the end of the Frequency
Containment Process and prior the Frequency Restoration Process.
Svenska Kraftnät: TSO of Sweden.
Synchronous Area: Geographical area, composed of one or several LFC Areas interconnected
one another, wherein the System Frequency is the same all across the area in steady operational
state. Thus all of the LFC Areas of the same Synchronous Areas are connected one another
through at least one AC interconnection. Figure II.6 displays the four Synchronous Areas of
Continental Europe (CE), Great Britain (GB), Ireland (IRE) and Northern Europe (NE), that
composed the European power system.
System Security: Power system’s ability to handle sudden disturbances such as electrical
short circuits or the unexpected outage of system elements. The concept covers dynamic events
[Energinet, 2007]. See Section 1.2.
Tennet: One of the four TSOs of Germany and unique TSO of the Netherland.
Terna: TSO of Italy.
Time of Use (ToU): Tariff system where the energy price billed to the end-user is changing
depending on the hour of the day.
ToU: ⊲ Time Of Use.
Transmission System Operator (TSO): A natural or legal person responsible for operating,
ensuring the maintenance of and, if necessary, developing the transmission system in a given area
and, where applicable, its interconnections with other systems, and for ensuring the long-term
ability of the system to meet reasonable demands for the transmission of electricity [ENTSO-E,
2014b].
TSO: ⊲ Transmission System Operator.
Underlying: characteristic of a power product traded on the power wholesale or ancillary

services markets.
UFLS: ⊲ Under Frequency Load Shedding.
Under Frequency Load Shedding: Emergency mechanism which is automatically operated

by the DSOs face to large frequency deviation, out of the Maximum Instantaneous Frequency
Deviation (See Figure II.8). It leads on a step-by-step blind shedding of the Primary Substation
feeders.
Virtual Power Plant (VPP): System that integrates and coordinates several types of DERs
that can be seen from the power system side as one unique generation unit that behaves as a
bulk generation unit.
VPP: ⊲ Virtual Power Plant.
13
CHAPTER I
Opportunity of DER involvement in

power markets
Chapter I
Opportunity of DER involvement

in power markets
One large concern of the present thesis is to identify the power markets willing to make DER
flexibility and especially Demand Response (DR) profitable. The final objective is to make DERs
take par as much as possible to the energy transition. In this context, Section 1 reviews the
different power markets wherein DERs flexibility would be involved. Section 2 then identifies the
business opportunities to make DER flexibility profitable at mid-term among the set of markets
listed in Section 1. Section 3 summarizes the analysis either gathered or performed on our own
to identify priority markets.
1 Overall market review
The power market is composed of a wide variety of products, whose most common products are
presented in Figure I.1. These products that aim to satisfy different needs of the utilities can
be split into two main categories: the wholesale products first, presented in Section 1.1 and the
ancillary services products, presented in Section 1.2.
1.1 Wholesale electricity markets
It can be distinguished first the power products that formalize the exchange between the energy
buyers and sellers. These exchanges occur among a set of energy markets that can be defined
as the wholesale markets 1 , and consist commonly of exchange from the power producers down
to the power retailers. The wholesale markets address the trading of firm volumes of energy to
be delivered during periods that have a predetermined length: 15 minutes (quarter bids), one
hour (hourly bids) or several hours (block bids). This category of wholesale market can be split
into two sub-categories, that are differentiated from one another depending on the time horizon
1
The present section does not consider however the trading platforms of pooling, that enable the producers to
declare power bids with additional technical constraints like ramp-up, ramp-down or must-run delay. Such pools
are still used in some locations to make the unit commitment of power assets closer to the physical limitation of
the units.
17
CHAPTER I. OPPORTUNITY OF DER INVOLVEMENT IN POWER MARKETS
Wholesale Markets Ancillary Services Products for System Reliability

Bilateral wholesale contracts
or Power System Grid Operation
Security & Stability Relialibity
Long Term market Spot market
Derivatives Over the Day Ahead Intraday Intraday

Energy
Futures / Counter block / hourly hourly quarter RR
Product Forward (OTC) product product product
Peak
FRR
Capacity Auction Load
Capacity VoltVAR Congestion Losses
FCR …
Product Market Coupling capacity mgmt mgmt Saving
Grid’s operations, less

related to time horizon
Time
Horizon Real Time
5 years 36hr 12hr 3-4hr 1hr 15min 30s < 10s
Black-starting time for conventional Answering time of DR processes

thermal power units 15s
Reacting time of hydro power units
Figure I.1: Summary over the time of markets and main physical limitations of the power
industry
when the trade occurs (Figure I.1).
From a period that lasts from five years ahead to two days ahead the delivery, the bids can be
traded on open-access Long Term markets. These Long Term markets are actually risk hedging
markets and do not consider the physical ability of the power system to deliver such power over
the grid.
From the day-ahead down to 30 minutes before the delivery, energy bids can be exchanged over
the open-access trading platform called the spot market. The spot market is split between the
day-ahead spot market whose auction gate closes at mid-day in the day-ahead, the delivery
and the intra-day spot market, where bids can be exchanged down to 30 minutes ahead of the
delivery in real-time [Epex Spot SE, 2015a]. Epex Spot SE [2015a] is the power spot market
operator that covers France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Nord Pool Spot [2015] covers
of the Nordics and Baltics countries. The TSO which is in charge of the system operation in
a given area of delivery can validate or reject the bids that have been exchanged on the spot
market if it would result in situations of non-transmittable power on their grid. In some areas,
the spot market is even split in different sub-markets depending on the area of delivery of the
bid. Such areas are defined as bidding areas. Figure I.2 lists for instance the bidding area of the
Nordics and Baltics. In such markets, the amount of power that is allowed for trading between
different bidding areas are stated in advance by the TSOs. This enables automatic forbidding
of the exchange of bids over a given power limit during the market clearing instead of after the
clearing thanks to a reverse process of cancellation. According to such a principle, the areas of
delivery of two different countries, operated by two different TSOs are usually considered as two
different bidding areas.
Lastly, power system actors are willing to trade bilateral bids in parallel to the open-access
platforms of trading that have been previously presented. In such a case, neither the volumes
18
1. OVERALL MARKET REVIEW
Figure I.2: Localisation of the 15 Nordics and Baltics Nord Pool Spot bidding areas [Nord Pool
Spot, 2015]
nor the prices of each bilateral transaction are published.
The principle of power procurement performed by each power retailer from more than one year
ahead, down to the real time, in order to balance its portfolio of power is explained in detail by
Kok [2013]. Figure I.3 provides the resulting portfolio of power bids purchased and resold by a
given retailer to match with the linear demand of the portfolio of grid users he has to balance.
The wholesale markets aforementioned address the trading of firm amount of energy to be
injected in the power system: these are energy markets. In parallel, capacity market has also
been introduced to guarantee either the power system adequacy or the access to inter-bidding
area interconnections. RTE has for instance introduced such a mechanism of capacity trading
in 2015 and Epex Spot will commission a public platform of Capacity Auction trading during
2016 [Epex Spot SE, 2015b]. The capacity mechanism obligates a retailer to purchase capacity
auctions in proportion to the theoretical peak-load of its portfolio. These capacities can be
purchased from power producers or from DER operators.
The access of inter-bidding area interconnections is then guaranteed by Market Coupling ca-
pacities [Epex Spot SE, 2015c], where one-hour-long auctions are exchanged every day. The
introduction of such capacities can be seen as a way to dissociate the marginal cost of pro-
duction that is traded on the spot market from the cost of using a given interconnection to
export or import power between two bidding areas. The introduction of such products would
perhaps enable the TSOs to finance new inter-bidding areas interconnections to allow power
users to benefit of the lowest power price, regardless where this power is produced within the
synchronous area i.e maximizing the market coupling across Europe.
1.2 Ancillary services products
The ancillary services constitute the second major category of power products that gather energy
or capacity underlying that enables the utilities - and especially the System Operators - to ensure
19
Generation
Peak
12hr Peak Load

Generation
Mid‐Merit
16hr Peak Load

Generation
Base Load
Base Load
Midnight 6am Midday 6pm Midnight
Figure I.3: Procurement and resale of different power products to get a resultant profile that
complies with a linear evolution of the demand. Gray and white blocks: long-term ahead bids
purchase. Red blocks: close to real-time bids purchase. Green blocks: close to real-time bids
resale. [Kok, 2013]
capacity market Strategic reserve
capacity obligation Effektreserven

Strategic reserve
capacity obligation (up to 2020)
capacity payment
Strategic reserve
(from 2008)
capacity payment capacity payment

(from 2011 - / capacity market
ajourned) from 2010
No capacity mechanism capacity payment

(from 2006)
Project of mechanism
Mechanism in operation Source: ACER, 2013
Figure I.4: Review of capacity mechanism penetration in Europe (data: UFE [2014])
the reliability of the power system. The most well known ancillary services are purchased by
TSOs to ensure the system stability with regards to the occurrence of sudden power system
disturbances (see Ch.II Section 1.2). These are in particular the Replacement Reserves (RR),
the Frequency Restoration Reserves (FRR) and the Frequency Containment Reserves (FCR),
which are each responsible for maintaining the system frequency, through adjusting generation
output to the load variation or unbalance (see Ch.II Section 1.3). The underlying of the FCR
(see Ch.II Section 1.4) is the injection or withdrawal of unpredictable amount of power within
15 seconds for brief amount of time at random periods of time (see Ch.II Section 4.3). The
RR (see Ch.II Section 1.6) addresses the injection or withdrawal of a predetermined amount of
power for a given amount of time at an exact time decided by the TSO 15 minutes in advance
- not at a precise gate as for spot market products. Thus the FCR is a capacity product while
the RR is an energy product quite similar to the interday quarter product. In this spirit, the
20
2. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES OF DER FLEXIBILITY
FRR (see Ch.II Section 1.5) is at the mid-way point between the FCR and the RR.
Mid-way between the concerns of markets and system reliability, a variety of products aims
to ensure the system adequacy at the peak load, thanks to either specific peak load energy
bids, RR bids or capacity auctions. The call for each of these products differs depending on
the TSO in charge of the system operation and can be ranked as either energy or capacity
products. As examples, RTE relies up to 2018 only on the RR to deal with potential issues of
peak load adequacy, while the first role of the RR is to contribute to the system balance. RTE
launched hence in the past formalized products within the RR such as the Fast Tertiary Control
(1000MW) and the Additional Tertiary Control (500MW) [CRE, 2015], to secure peak load
capacities despite the absence of a wide-scale capacity mechanism. RTE expects to secure the
procurement of peak load capacity thanks to such large scale Capacity Auction to be used by 2017
only (mechanism launched in 2015). Meantime Svenska Kraftnät operates the Effektreserven to
formalize on its own the procurement of peak load flexibilities and so lighten the role of the RR
in such situation.
Last but not least, the System Operators have access to a variety of products capable of facilitat-
ing the grid operations - other than the previous products that address the system operations -,
such as contributions to VoltVAR management, congestion management or even losses savings.
The VoltVAR management is a function already formalized by TSOs. The other functions and
again VoltVAR are products whose procurement is also foreseen by DSOs as new Smart Grid
tools.
2 Business opportunities of DER flexibility
Following the review of power products that has been presented above, the present section aims
to identify the business opportunity that each of these products would represent for DERs.
Both the industrial and scientific communities strongly believe in the opportunity that DER
flexibility would represent to facilitate both the power grid and power system operations, but
the questions of when? and how far? are still opened. A wide range of wholesale and ancillary
services products would be concerned, at least in the long-term perspective: grid reinforcement
deferral postponing, support to self-healing reconfiguration supporting, VoltVAR management,
peak load management, intermittent RES-E balancing, frequency-controlled reserves supplying,
etc. While most of these DER-based functions will be technically ready to penetrate the market
by 2020, the key factor of the success of these functions will depend on the ability of the utilities
to involve DERs in their business, on a profitable manner.
The analysis is dependent on a literature review and on specific Cost Benefit Analysis models
developed for the needs of the present review. The review starts from the products traded on the
less fluid markets up to the most fluid ones. The products related to grid operation reliability
are addressed first, followed by the power system security & stability products (see definition in
21
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(IILFLHQF\DVVXPHG/HEHO
(a) (b)
Estimation of total losses in MV/LV
Transformers
6
E0Ck 250kVA
E0Ck 400kVA
5
Feeder Peak load
Total Losses (in kW)
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
LV load consumed (in kVA)
Figure I.5: (a) Estimation of the total losses *HWDQ,GHDRIWKHFRPPRQ7 'ORVVHVLQ(XURSH

in MV/LV transformers depending on the LV load
consumed and on the transformer size (data: Schneider Electric [1996]) (b) Illustration of load-shifting
$FFRUGLQJWRZHFDQSDVV
OLQHDU\IURPWRORVVHV
from peak to off-peak time to reduces T&D losses [Nourai et al., 2008] IRU)UDQFH
Section 1.2.3). Capacity and spot markets products are finally analysed.
Preamble: the present review mainly performed in 2013 is not exhaustive. It targets the building
of a personal opinion regarding the opportunity of profitability of DERs on the wholesale and
ancillary services markets at the date of the review.
2.1 Grid losses savings
The shifting of load from peak period to off-peak period has been investigated in the literature as
a source of cost saving for the System Operators, especially in distribution. The present section,
based on the contributions of E-Cube [2013]
5R5Sand Nourai
>@ et al. [2008], assesses the added-value
0HDQ7 'ORVVHVDVVXPHGIRU$(3
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of DER flexibility in such use case.
Nourai et al. [2008] claims for physical savings of 181-336MWh/yr per MW of flexibility, on a
US network of low quality (12% of T&D technical losses against 6% in France [ErDF, 2009,
RTE, 2015c]). The saving relies on the load-shifting from peak to off-peak periods, every day
(Figure I.5 (b)). Nourai et al. [2008] consider only the resistive losses among the wires and not
additional potential savings that would be performed within MV/LV substations depending on
the size and number of transformers compared to the LV loads. Figure I.5 (a) illustrates such
challenge of losses reduction in transformer.
E-Cube [2013] assesses then the complementary revenue that 1000hrs of load shifting per year
would induce on the energy procurement costs of the System Operators. The cost saving is
assessed at 1.2ke/MW/yr only. This amount of cost saving has been assessed by E-Cube
22
Table I.1: Assessment of Grid losses cost saving opportunities using DER
Physical losses 11-19 ke/MW/yr [Nourai et al., 2008]

Energy procurement ——– 1.2 ke/MW/yr [E-Cube, 2013]
Total grid savings 12.2-20.2 ke/MW/yr
[2013], by assuming that the DSO purchases power at a mean price of 57.3e/MWh as assumed
by ErDF in 2013 [CRE, 2012].
A total grid cost saving of 12.2-20.2ke/MWDER /yr can be assessed (Table I.1). Both papers
assess however a load-shifting over several hours from peak to off-peak that cannot be provided
by any type of DR technologies. Thus grid losses savings opportunities are not able to generate
sufficient value on their own to make this business model profitable. Moreover, the regulation
is not favourable yet in several countries to enable the DSOs to perform energy trading for
purposes like load shifting at their own benefit.
2.2 VoltVAR & congestion management
The value of DER flexibility on the distribution markets remains uncertain faced with a lack
of industrial deployment feedback and effective large-scale needs of the DSOs. Such assessment
concern especially the solutions that target VoltVAR or congestion management. Such solutions
aim mainly to contain grid reinforcement costs, and eventually to contain grid operation cost.
Gouin [2015] supports this view, observing a contribution of DER flexibility on suburban distri-
bution grid reinforcement costs. However such deployment can slightly increase the probability
of outage occurrence on the grid, that challenges the reliability KPIs of the DSOs. Battegay
[2015] also identifies a beneficial contribution of DER flexibility on suburban grid reinforcement
costs. The authors moderate however their statement given the difficulties of application of
such DER-related reinforcement policies. Indeed, suburban grid reinforcement works are usu-
ally performed in parallel of other street works such as the building of a new tramway line,
before the occurrence of a distribution constraint. Hence, at such date no clear benchmark
could be performed to compare the cost of grid reinforcement and of DER flexibility, and the
option of grid reinforcement would remain the solution selected. Battegay et al. [2013] observe
finally that DERs’ reactive power flexibility is capable of providing interesting VoltVAR support
especially in rural area to avoid reinforcement when facing DG deployment. In these areas, the
service of constraint management would be provided directly by the DER which had provoked
the constraint, thanks to an adaptation of its pattern of power injection or withdrawal. Indeed,
it would be too complicated to rely on an additional DER asset instead, such as a DR or an
Energy Storage System (ESS) would have been deployed for such dedicated purpose.
E-Cube [2013] publishes a value of 20-70ke/MW/yr - without explaining how they got it -
derived from US distribution utilities publications, which have however the reputation to operate
23
FCR Total Adressable Market - Europe

Mean FCR price -
Denmark FNR 12-22 €/MW/h "! $
East
FDR 6-9.6 €/MW/h "
Denmark Up 34-42€/MW/h
West
Down 4.4-14€/MW/h
Ireland 2.17€/MW/h + spot €/MWh
UK 29 €/MW/h
Netherland 19-23 €/MW/h
Germany 17-28 €/MW/h
France 17€/MW/h
Estimated FCR
Gross Product
NE 160M€/year
IRE 2.4M€/year
, - -
GB 88M€/year , " "! #" .
" "
CE 500M€/year #
Tot Europe 750M€/year !" "
# # $ !" % &' () * + "
!"
Schneider Electric - Energy / Utility Innovation – Lebel & Bediou – February 2015 49
Figure I.6: Estimation of annual procurement and cost of FCR supply in Europe. ( data: appendix
C.5)
weak grids.
Finally DERs would be of interest for daily DSOs’ operation and investment sparing. However,
it seems that they have not been added to the industrial road map of the distribution utilities
yet. Hence there is no business model of VoltVAR and congestion management, relying on DER
flexibility that is profitable at the date of the review.
2.3 Frequency Containment Reserves (FCR)
The present review of DER business opportunities focusses then to the power system security
& stability products, starting from the FCR.
Figure I.6 provides thus the overall addressable market of FCR in Europe. Upward regulation
prices last from 12e/MW/h in Denmark East to up to 42e/MW/h in Denmark West, i.e 100-
350ke/MW/yr for a full time availability. These figures are especially high and can be claimed
as being a clear business opportunities for the supply of FCR by DER flexibility. The question
of effective needs for a contribution of DER in the supply of FCR is further addressed in Ch
II. Section 2, while Chapter III provides a solution able to supply FCR based on a specific
coordination of DERs.
24
2.4 Frequency Restoration Reserve (FRR)
The FRR business opportunities are slightly more complicated to assess given that the remu-
neration of FRR is usually composed of both capacity and energy components. Moreover the
capacity component is a firm remuneration while the energy component is a remuneration pro-
vided by the TSO for the upward volumes of FRR injected into the grid but a charge to pay to
the TSO for the downward volumes withdrawn from the grid.
Figures I.7 and I.8 display the distribution of prices of two weekly tenders for a delivery of
automatic FRR (aFRR) in all of Germany in the first week of February and June 2015 re-
spectively. It shows typical upward capacity prices of 2.5-8e/MW/hr. Per year it represents
a remuneration of 22-70ke/MW/yr that appears to be a convenient remuneration for DERs.
In the meantime, such capacity prices are of 16.96e/MW/hr in France i.e 148ke/MW/yr, but
with complementary energy remuneration that is regulated (Table I.2).
Note: The German aFRR energy prices of Figures I.7 and I.8 appears as excessively expensive
for both upward and downward reserves - prices of 6000e/MWh commonly occur - and have
thus not been considered in the present partial review of FRR values.
Table I.2: FRR regulated remuneration in France and Denmark
France
Capacity remuneration 16.96e/MW/hr [Lebel, 2012]
Energy remuneration 9.76 e/MWh [Lebel, 2012]
Denmark
Capacity remuneration no public data
Energy remuneration max(Elspotprice +13.4e/MWh ; RRprice ) [Energinet, 2012]
2.5 Restoration Reserves (RR)
The RR is a Balancing Reserve that requires few requirements: the activation time is about
15 minutes, and it does not require specific geographic constraints of grid injection [ENTSO-E,
2013d]. For such a reason, the RR has been one of the first ancillary services to be opened to the
competition of DR assets. It led to the early success - especially in France - of some start-ups
such as Voltalis and Energy Pool, specialized in the supply of formalized RR products, partly
remunerated at the capacity as the French Fast Tertiary control (1000MW) and the Additional
Tertiary control (500MW) [CRE, 2015].
Voltalis’ business model relies on the commissioning of both monitoring hardware and steady-
state relays in electric-heated domestic households. The hardware is deployed for free by the
company. It enables the end user to keep its power consumption under surveillance and so
performs energy saving [Voltalis, 2013]. In return, Voltalis is free to perform load shedding of
25
Figure I.7: Distribution of the weekly FRR capacity prices in Germany - February 2-8th 2015
(data: Regelleistung [2015])
the end users’ heaters and boilers, and sell such flexibility on the RR.
Voltalis positions its business on a high rate of solicitation of the DR assets, at a cheap marginal
cost of activation. Lebel [2012] presented the opportunity to export the business model of Voltalis
on the Swedish RR and assessed an opportunity of incomes of 8.9-12.3ke/MW/yr (Table I.3).
The model assumes a null marginal cost of activation and an activation of the asset winter-long.
It leads to the annual shifting of 517-917MWh of load consumption per MW of space heating
capacity i.e. an activation rate of 6-10% per year. The revenue are quite limited compared to
the customer acquisition cost required to set up a DR portfolio of critical size of success. In
France, Voltalis gambled on the commissioning of a green bonus of 16.3e/MWh at the benefit
of the DR assets of less than 36kVA [CRE, 2014b], to increase its profitability. Considering the
activation rate of 6-10% presented in Lebel [2012], the bonus is able to raise the income of DR
on the RR from 8.9-12.3ke/MW/yr to 17.3-27.7ke/MW/yr. Up to now, Voltalis claims a pool
of residential DER close to 100MW [Voltalis, 2012], which can be considered as a success2 .
Table I.3: Assessment of RR using domestic space heating DR
Swedish RR 2005-2011 8.9-12.3 ke/MW/yr [Lebel, 2012]
At the opposite, Energy Pool focusses on the control of electro-intensive DR assets, which
2
Voltalis built however its success on a legal uncertainty that enabled it not to compensate the BRP for the
balancing volumes shifted from the BRP portfolio to the TSO balancing portfolio. Voltalis benefited so of free
primary energy contrary to Energy Pool which paid these volumes back to the DER assets owner engaged toward
its BRP. The non-compensation by Voltalis toward the BRP of DR assets maintain a lawsuit between EDF and
Voltalis since 2009 in France.
26
Figure I.8: Distribution of the weekly FRR capacity prices in Germany - June 8-14th 2015 (data:
Regelleistung [2015] )
commonly suffer a rather high marginal cost of activations but cheaper instrumentation cost.
The company interfaces itself with the processes of its industrial customers through hardware or
even only software gateways – Energy Pool Demand Response Management System (DRMS) is
OpenADR-compliant [Energy Pool, 2014] – but compensates financially the DER owner at each
activation of DERs. Energy Pool is one of the European Demand Response Leaders, having a
portfolio of Industrial DER of 1.2GW [Baud, 2013].
If both models could be considered as successful, their business model differs significantly: differ-
ent instrumentation costs, different activation abilities, different access modes to the wholesale
and ancillary services markets.
2.6 Peak load

The peak load challenges the adequacy of the power system while impacting the wholesale prices.
The challenges of DER flexibility operators have consequently been to position themselves on
both these business opportunities. The DER operators have started to do it quite early and
it is an already well-established business for DER operators. The first reason for its success is
the ease of delivery of the load shifting product: the aggregation of load is not dependent on
the grid topology. Thus the operators can aggregate their flexibility on the scale of the bidding
area, without knowing on each precise feeder the DER is connected - that can be required
for the business model of VoltVAR management. Secondly, the customer acquisition is made
easier thanks to the simplicity of the product. The added-value for the energy transition of the
end-user’s involvement is easy to explain, that facilitates its adhesion to the process, regardless
the revenue the end-user can expect. Thirdly, the peak-shaving products have been one of
the first products that have been opened to DER delivery, on the TSO-operated RR markets.
Voltalis applied exactly these factors of success: the company’s core business is the aggregation
27
of domestic electric heaters and boilers, located all around the country; Voltalis axed its initial
customer acquisition strategy in the environmental benefit that load shifting would procure to
the society, by avoiding the black-start of pollutant fired power production assets at the peak
load [Voltalis, 2013]; and the company got involved in the French RR since 2008 [Voltalis, 2010].
Section 2.6.1 presents the opportunity of DER revenue based on an involvement on capacity
markets or obligation mechanism. Section 2.6.2 assesses the effective value of the load-shifting
process on the day-ahead spot markets in periods of peak loads.
2.6.1 Capacity auctions and markets
The value of the capacity auction depends on the geographic area. It goes from affective prices of
6.9ke/MW/yr observed on the Swedish Effektreserven market [Lebel, 2012] to 60ke/MW/yr on
the French capacity auction [E-Cube, 2013] (Table I.4). The assets of the Swedish Effektreserven
market are composed of emergency margins that benefit from a complementary marginal cost
of activation close to 200e/MWh for a common rate of activation of less than 10hr per year.
The capacity markets look well adapted for DER business and especially for DR assets having
a low instrumentation cost - per MW of flexibility - despite expensive industrial costs. Electro-
intensive flexibilities look particularly adapted. Svenska Kraftnät targets thus call only for DR
contribution on the Effektreserven by 2020. Energy Pool involves such electro-intensive DR
flexibilities on the formalized reserves of the French RR.
Table I.4: Assessment of Capacity Auction opportunities using DER
Swedish Effektreserven 6.9 ke/MW/yr [Lebel, 2012]

French Capacity Auction 60 ke/MW/yr [E-Cube, 2013]
2.6.2 Handling of the peak load by the day-ahead spot market
The occurrence of events of peak load is able to stress the power system. The most extreme events
can even require the mobilization of specific assets of power production or Demand Response,
whose contribution over the year is only dedicated to such purpose. As presented above, these
assets are remunerated in some areas by capacity auctions or firm RR bids. In other locations
however, part or all of these assets are remunerated only on the wholesale markets, while their
marginal cost of activation can be much larger than 100e/MWh. Such a situation is consequently
capable of inducing peak prices on the spot markets whose prices are set by the marginal cost of
activation of the most expensive selected asset. The present section is dedicated to the analysis
of the value that the peak-load is likely to represent on the day-ahead spot markets. It later
assesses how DER flexibility would benefit from the intra-day spread. The assessments is based
on a method of day-ahead spot data analytic, that has been developed for the present purpose.
The entire description of this method including the detailed stages of construction and the
28
signification of the eighteen different types of built data [D1] to [D18] is explained in Appendix
B.
Among the datasets available, the data analytic assesses the annual revenue that can be obtained
by a DER able to perform 3.5hr of load-shifting per day, either 365 days a year [D17] or only
during the days of peak loads [D18]. The daily revenue is generated by the purchase of power
during the 3.5 cheapest hours of the day and the selling back of the same amount of power
during the 3.5 most expensive hours of the day (see App. B Sections 2 and 3). The days of
peak loads are the days where the peak volume of the day reaches a value larger than 85% of
the historic peak load [D8].
Figures B.9 and B.10 - (App. B Section 4) summarize the annual revenues [D17] and [D18]
obtained in each bidding area of the Nordics, Baltics and France. Table I.5 presents then the
ratio of [D17]/[D18] in each bidding area, averaged over the years of available data. Ignoring the
case of Eastern Denmark, it can be noticed that the periods of peak load capture from nearly
10% to 25% of the potential annual spread revenue, while nearly 10% of the annual turnover of
the day-ahead spot market is traded during these peak-days (Table I.7).
Such observation leads to the first conclusion that a DER operator whose business model focusses
on the delivery of load-shifting services on these occasional peak days (Table I.6) would miss
out on 75% to 90% of the overall spread value.
Table I.5: Mean 2001-2014 ratio of the Annual Spread 3.5hr income of peak-days compared to
off-peak-days. Peak-day limit: 85% of the historic peak load [D8]
Denmark Sweden
Finland France
DK West DK East SE1 SE2 SE3 SE4 Sweden
21% 33% 13% 9% 17% 10% 20% 14% 7%
Norway
Kristiansa Trondhei Estonia Latvia Lithuania
Bergen Oslo Tromso Norway
nd m
9% 14% 9% 5% 7% 11% 11% 14% 25%
Table 3-9: Mean 2001-2014 ratio of the Annual Spread 3.5hr income of peak-days compared to off-
Table I.6: Mean number of peak days per year
Denmark Sweden
Finland France
77 95 49 36 28 22 54 33 10
Norway
nd m
9 38 20 28 73 28 37 70 18
Furthermore, a second look at the annual incomes of each bidding area, specifically during the
days of peak-load [D18] compared to the overall incomes [D17], highlights that bidding on the
peak is an opportunity of specific situations for most of the countries studied. Winter 2010 data
29
Table I.7: Spot volumes range (in % of the peak load, wherein the top 10% of the day-ahead
spot turnover is traded)
Denmark Sweden
Finland France
84% 88% 84% 81% 83% 82% 87% 84% 79%
Norway
nd m
68% 84% 85% 83% 87% 82% 82% 85% 87%
Table 3-10: Spot volumes range, wherein the top 10% of the day-ahead spot turnover is traded.
illustrate especially this assessment. Annual spread income of Finland, Sweden and Northern
Norway (Trondheim) would have doubled and the annual spread incomes of Denmark East
would have increased by 50%, compared to previous years. A decomposition of the daily spread
incomes over the year is proposed for Finland in Figure I.9 [b], while the cumulative sum of these
daily incomes is displayed in Figure I.9 [c]. The day-ahead prices and volumes are finally plotted
as well in Figures I.9 [a] & [d]. A annual revenue of 19ke/MW would have been expected this
year 2010. It can be noticed that 7.5ke/MW over the revenue of 19ke/MW would have been
captured during three days of peak-prices. A first morning peak price occurred on January 9th
8am, followed by a second peak on February 22nd, 8am as well. These 7.5ke/MW equal almost
the additional income observed this year compared to the previous years (Figure B.10). Winter
2010, was a cold and dry in Scandinavia. Power demand was high and inelastic, hydro long-term
potential was reduced, and last but not least, Swedish nuclear maintenance works faced delays,
so that the nuclear feed-in power had been reduced by 40% that winter [NordREG, 2010]. It was
enough to generate the three most extreme peak prices that ever occured from 2001 to 2014 in
Finland (the third peak occured in December 17th 2009 at 5pm and its inherited spread incomes
are visible in Figure I.9 [b] in grey).
Finally, if one unique bidding area would have to be selected to deploy a DER-based business
model that is likely to play on the peak spread only, it would be Denmark East. A deployment
in any other area would induce getting in business on unpredictable and non-structural extreme
spreads, whose occurrence should be counted in years and not in days. Investment in such
business model looks too hazardous and should be reserved to industrial processes, having an
especially high activation cost, and a limited loads instrumentation and control cost.
The incomes of the peak-load days in the spot market should be considered by the investors
as a variable part of remuneration i.e. an unpredictable bonus. The wish to target specifically
the peak-load, should lead to an involvement into the capacity market and auction mechanisms,
instead of the spot market. Indeed, the capacity market and auction mechanisms are designed
to secure such investment in unpredictable peaks, in order to ensure the system adequacy.
2.7 Intra-day spot markets

It has to be noticed that the intra-day spot markets have not been assessed in the present PhD
works. Due to time priority, a focus has been dedicated to the day-ahead spot markets which
30
FigureFigure 3-28: Decomposition

I.9: Decomposition of spread
of spread revenue
revenue captures
captured duringover
daystheofyear 2010 inover
peak-load Finland
the year
2010 in Finland
are more fluid and easier to analyse. Indeed, the day-ahead spot markets are settled at the
marginal price of production of the last production unit called. Thus it has been considered
that the review of the day-ahead markets enables to get a better vision of the opportunities for
DERs. No data are consequently provided here for the intra-day spot market.
However, it is strongly believed that the intra-day markets should be analysed. They would
notably play an important role in the future as the needs for RES-E balancing is increasing.
ENR Pool [2015] initiative can be quoted as a proof of concept of stochastic RES-E balancing
using DERs. The start-up Sun’R Smart Energy [2015] developed other concepts of RES-E
portfolio balancing and devotes presently its activities in such a promising field.
2.8 Day-ahead spot markets

The delivery of day-ahead wholesale market bids as a basic DER flexibility product is driven by
two parameters. The first parameter of interest is the large turnover of such markets. The second
parameter is the time delay available between the closure of the markets that occurs generally
at mid-day in day-ahead and the period of real-time operation (Figure I.1). The large turnover
affords volume stability and contained price volatility over the days. The time delay enables
getting sufficient time to sale and prepare the delivery of parallel ancillary services products
close to real time, using the same DER unit. Such a combination enables to build a robust and
long-term baseline business in day-ahead, on the top of which, either more technical or more
31
volatile products, that are definitely smart grid oriented, can be proposed to the system and
grid operators.
The opportunity of DER involvement in the day-ahead market has been assessed thanks to two
different analyses. The first analysis relies on the work of data mining and analytics that is
presented in Appendix B. Its conclusions are presented in Section 2.8.1 and then applied on two
use cases. Section 2.8.2 presents the first use case that performs intra-day load shifting on the
day-ahead spot market using an Energy Storage System (ESS). Section 2.8.3 presents the second
use case that performs load shifting up to three-days in advance using the thermal inertia of
an electric heated household as a source of DR flexibility. In this second use case, the power is
procured on theoretical three-days-ahead market that provides the prices three days in advance.
2.8.1 Day-ahead market data analytics
The second objective of the data analytics that are presented in Appendix B, has been the
analysis of how far an involvement of DER flexibility on the day-ahead spot markets could
generate a baseline revenue to the DER assets. The business model of DER assessed in the
analysis relies on intra-day load-shifting, with a daily load-shifting event of either 1hr or 3.5hr.
The process of load-shifting can be either a DR process such as electric heater shifting or a
process that relies on an ESS. The model does not consider restriction of neither minimum nor
maximum delay between the charge or discharge event. Moreover, the periods of charge and
discharge can be split into several sub-charge and sub-discharge periods per day on the condition
that they respect the maximum cumulated length of 1hr or 3.5hr per day.
Figures B.9 and B.10 (App. B Section 4) presents the annual revenues [D17] that would be
obtained by a daily shift of load consumption from the 3.5hr most expensive hours of the day
to the 3.5hr least expensive hours, on the day-ahead spot markets of each bidding area of the
Nordics, Baltics and France. It results over the five last years to an annual revenue of 30-
45ke/MW/yr in the Baltics and in France, 20-35ke/MW/yr in Denmark, 25ke/MW/yr in
Finland, ≈15ke/MW/yr in Sweden and less than 10ke/MW/yr in Norway. The final profit
would then depend on the operation cost of the technology of load-shifting selected.
As seen in Section 2.6.2, only 10-25% of the load-shifting revenue is generated during the days of
peak load (≥ 85% of the peak load [D8]3 ), which represents nearly 10% of the annual turnover
of the day-ahead spot market, regardless of the bidding area. Meanwhile, Figures B.11, B.12
and B.13 shows that 80% of the annual turnover4 is traded in a range of level of load of [50%;
85%] ±2% of the peak load (sets of green rectangles representing each 10% of the day-ahead
market turnover in the bidding area studied). Finally peak load events are observed in winter
only, while levels of load [50%; 85%] of the peak load occur all year round (Figure B.8). As
such, aggregators should focus on the control of DERs that can be operated all the year-long to
3
values of peak load provided in Table B.4
4
The market turnover considered is the product of the hourly volume times the hourly spot price
32
Table I.8: Number of days of the year having a daily spread 3.5hr larger than 20e/MWh.
Average 2011-2014
Denmark Sweden
Finland France
175 192 49 49 63 87 64 135 314
Norway
nd m
17 39 19 20 31 17 177 294 259
Table 3-11: Counter of days of the year having a daily spread 3.5 is larger than 20€/MWh. Average 2011-2014
Table I.9: Number of days of the year having a daily spread 3.5hr larger than 40e/MWh.
Average 2011-2014
Denmark Sweden
Finland France
28 36 9 9 11 13 11 33 70
Norway
nd m
5 8 5 7 7 5 38 151 106
Table 3-12: Counter of days of the year having a daily spread 3.5 is larger than 40€/MWh. Average
be able to handle a wide part of the annual load-shifting value.
Aggregators could also benchmark their decision of investment by looking at the annual oc-
currence of days having a daily spread 3.5hr larger than thresholds of either 20e/MWh or
40e/MWh. It would enable them to assess their annual rate of solicitation depending on the
marginal cost of activation of the DER assets of their portfolio.
Such rates of solicitation (in days per year) are summarized in Tables I.8 and I.9, whilst the
monotonic daily spreads 3.5hr of the year 2011-2014 are presented in Figures B.14 and B.15.
It can be noticed that the daily spread stays larger than 20e/MWh over one third of the year
and larger than 40e/MWh over one month, except in Sweden and Norway. At the end, a clear
correlation can be observed between the annual income and the annual number of years having a
daily spread of at least 20e/MWh. Figure I.10 illustrates graphically such outcomes, using the
Swedish, Finnish, Danish and French examples: keeping a sufficient daily spread all throughout
the year is necessary to generate interesting revenue at the end of the year.
The roadmap should give investment priority to DERs which have a reduced marginal cost
of activation, and that are likely to be activated all along the year to handle a significant
part of the annual load-shifting potential on the day-ahead spot markets. Selecting a value
of 20e/MWh as a targeted marginal cost of DER load-shifting activation would be a relevant
rough size, that would enable the contribution of DERs at least half of the year in half of the
countries benchmarked. Finally, if a decision of investment would have to be done on short term,
focussing on wholesale market spread business, the bidding areas to address in order of priority
would be France, Eastern Denmark and the Baltics. France would afford a mean revenue of
33
/!\ different Y scale
Figure I.10: Illustration of descent daily spread 3.5hr shape and annual spread revenue (curves
building method presented in App. B, Section 2)
34
45ke/MW/year. The situation of the Baltics is likely to evolve toward a lower ratio of spread.
Indeed, the deployment of the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (BEMIP) [European
Commission, 2015] would increase the market coupling between the Nordics and the Baltics,
hence smoothing the Baltics spread.
2.8.2 Speculation on the day-ahead spot prices using a Tesla Powerwall ESS
The sector of ESS faced large movements in 2015, especially in the domestic storage field.
Several manufacturers announced the commercialisation of small size batteries capable of being
connected to domestic applications. After the 7kWh Powerwall of Tesla [Tesla Motors, 2015]
and the 2.5kWh system of Mercedes-Benz [M’Bida, 2015], Schneider Electric [2015b] announced
in December 2015 the commercialization for the end of 2016 of its Ecoblade, a system of multi-
batteries connected in racks as in server towers.
Thus, a model has been created during this PhD work to assess the profitability for a domestic
end user to get involved in the business of day-ahead spot market load-shifting, after having
invested in such domestic ESS (Figure I.11). The model assumes the investment in a 7kWh/2kW
Powerwall [Tesla Motors, 2015], at ≈2800ewithout DC/AC inverters. The access to the spot
market is enabled by the subscription of each individual ESS owner into a pool of aggregation,
large enough to enable the trading on either EpexSpot or Nord Pool Spot of 0.1MWh per hour
of operation. In respect with the outcomes of Section 2.8.1, each ESS achieves one deep cycle of
charge/discharge per day. The daily charge duration as well as the discharge duration last 3.5hr
per day, in order to use the full capacity of the Powerwall. The cycles of charge and discharge
can be interrupted during the day in order to purchase power during the four cheapest hours
of the day, and sell it back during the four most expensive hours of the day. The charge and
discharge are performed at a power level of 2kW per Powerwall during the three cheapest and
three most expensive hours of the day. The charge and discharge are performed at a power level
of 1kW only per Powerwall during the fourth cheapest and most expensive hours of the day. The
model created, assesses an efficiency of 3×95% for each of the three steps of conversion AC/DC -
DC/DC - DC/AC (Figure I.12). The efficiency of the DC/DC conversion match with the official
communication of Tesla Motors [2015]. The efficiency of the AC/DC and DC/AC conversions
are slightly lower than the maximum efficiency declared on inverters data-sheet (97.5% for the
ConextRL from Schneider Electric [2016]).
The daily income that can be expected for the Powerwall, depending on the mean price of power
purchase Ppurchased and the mean price of power resale Psold is defined by the Equations I.1 and
I.2. The equations consider the loss of revenue that depends on the efficiency of each step of
power conversion. Finally, Equation I.3 provides the daily revenue that can be expected for any
ESS, expressed per MWh of storage capacity.
35
Business model definition Profitability Assessment

70€/yr of revenue
per Powerwall
7 Ends-up in Powerwall profitability, assessing a revenue

of 2kW x 35k€/MW/yr
2800€
Capacity: 7kWh
1 Purchase a Tesla’s Charging &
Powerwall battery
for your home
Discharging
power: 2kW
Cycling efficiency: 95%
Lifetime 2000 cycles
2 Gather friends to get

a capacity of 0.1MW
to trade on the whole & # ' "
market
! # " # $
6 Observe the net annual income depending on the
annual rate of operation
3 Become a day-ahead
spot market
prosumer 5 Bank each day the revenue
induced by the daily Spread France
over 11 bidding areas.
Lulea
4 Adopt a strategy of performing one cycle of Trondheim

charge/discharge per day, width a depth of 7kWh. Finland
Charge the battery at 2kW, Kristiansand

Estonia
during the 3.5 cheapest hours Malmo
of the day Latvia
Discharge the battery at 2kW, DK West DK East Lithuania
during the 3.5 most expensive ( ) #

hours of the day
The charging or discharging
period can be composed of
consecutives hours or not,
depending on the prices
Hours of the day
! " # $ %
Figure I.11: Structure of the Cost Benefit Analysis performed to assess the profitability of Tesla
Powerwall involvement on the day-ahead spot markets
IncomeESS =Esold × Psold − Epurchased × Ppurchased (I.1)

Ecap
IncomeESS =(ηDC/DC × ηDC/AC × Ecap ) × Psold − ( ) × Ppurchased [in e/day] (I.2)
ηAC/DC
1
IncomeESS/M W h = (ηDC/DC ×ηDC/AC )×Psold −( )×Ppurchased [in e/MWh/day] (I.3)
ηAC/DC
36
AC/DC Inverter ESS
AC/DC=95%
Interconnected
Power System
Epurchased Echarged = Ecap
Esold Edischarged
DC/AC=95% DC/DC=95%
Figure I.12: Model used to characterize the AC-to-AC efficiency of the load shifting process
using an ESS
Distribution of battery charging and discharging hours - Denmark - West

Charging Hours
Discharging Hours
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
Hours of the day
Figure I.13: Common periods of charge and discharge among the 24hr-day, for an optimal
involvement on the day-ahead wholesale market (Denmark 2001-2014)
where
Ecap is the storage capacity of the battery (in M W h)

Epurchased is the volume of electricity purchased to load the battery (in M W h)
Esold is the volume of electricity sold at the battery discharge (in M W h)
Ppurchased is the mean price of the power purchased to load the battery (in e/M W h)
Psold is the mean price at which the power discharged is sold (in e/M W h)
ηAC/DC is the efficiency of AC/DC conversion (in %)
ηDC/DC is the efficiency of DC/DC conversion (in %)
ηDC/AC is the efficiency of DC/AC conversion (in %)
IncomeESS is the daily revenue to be generated by an ESS of a Ecap capacity (in e/day)
IncomeESS/M W h is the daily revenue to be generated per MWh of ESS capacity (in e/M W h/day)
37
The business model has been tested on 11 bidding areas of the Nordics, Baltics and France. Only
the least and the most interesting bidding areas have been tested for the countries composed
of more than two bidding areas such as Norway and Sweden. Three scenarios of solicitation,
in terms of percentage of days of activation per year have been tested: 10%, 30% and 100% of
contribution, i.e. 37, 108 and 365 days of activity per year. The maximum income that can be
expected annually is the sum of the days of operation that have a positive gross income - which
is actually not guaranteed due to the power conversion losses. Figure I.13 displays a typical
distribution of the hours of charge or discharge of the ESS, illustrated with the data of Denmark
West. Such a distribution does not differ so much depending on the bidding area. Two main
periods of discharge can be observed either around midday or during the evening peak load,
while most of the charge occurs during the night.
Figure I.14 provides finally the annual income that would have been expected per bidding area
over the period 2001-2014. France appears as the country most able to generate the highest gross
revenue, but requires a daily activation all the year long, to reach such a revenue. However, it can
be noticed that the revenue of France in the period 2010-2014 would have been reduced by ≈40%
compared to the period 2005-2009. The Baltics are the second most interesting bidding areas,
followed by Denmark and Finland. At the opposite, Norway and Sweden appear as countries
devoid of any interest for such a business based on the spread. In an echo of Section 2.6.2, the
37 most profitable days of operation (10% of contribution) generates at most one third of the
maximum revenue that can be reached with daily operation (100% of contribution), regardless
of the bidding area. It confirms the assessment of Section 2.6.2: contributing to the peak-load
resolution thanks to an involvement on the energy wholesale markets does not appear as a key
business.
At the end, it can be concluded that a business model that would participate only on the day-
ahead spread is not capable of generating enough revenue to make ESS profitable. An ESS
would generate at most 35ke/MWh/yr in France, that is equivalent to a revenue of 70e/yr for
one Powerwall, that costs ≈2800e without considering the cost of the DC/AC inverter. Its time
of return is too long to justify such investment for the present purpose of study, regardless of its
lifetime and the financial discount rate considered.
The next Section 2.8.3 investigates an alternative way to benefit from such daily spread using
the inertia of a cottage as a source of thermal storage, wherein load-shifting can be performed.
2.8.3 Domestic space heating optimisation using day-ahead spot prices
Specific simulation study have been performed during this PhD work [Lebel et al., 2015a] to
get additional assessments regarding the involvement of DR in the day-ahead spot market. The
study aimed to assess the profitability of replacing a conventional thermostat in electric heated
households by a Smart Thermostat, also called Energy Boxes. It assumed that such replacement
is a prerequisite for a domestic end user to take the entire advantage of being involved in Real
38
Figure I.14: Benchmark of the annual revenue of domestic ESS involvement in the day-ahead spot
markets in the Nordics, Baltics and France. (Conversion efficiency: ηAC/DC = 2 × 95%, ηDC/DC = 95%)
Time Price (RTP) tariffs.
Figure I.15 presents the deterministic model that has been built to perform such a Cost Ben-
efit Analysis of investment in Energy Box hardware. First, the model considers a theoretical
household located in Malmö (Southern Sweden) having standard thermal characteristic (λ, τ ).
This is the same household as the one modelled in [Lebel et al., 2013b] to perform the Cost
Benefit Analysis of domestic household involvement in the Swedish RR (see Section 2.5). Such
households face the real hourly outside weather of Malmö which is modelled thanks to a dataset
of historic hourly outside weather from Malmö. The dataset has been provided by the Swedish
Meteorological and Hydrological Institute [SMHI, 2015]. Secondly, the heating system controller
embeds functionalities of either energy or cost-optimization. The controller defines the heat load
profiles of the 72 coming hours depending on both weather and tariff forecast. Two tariffs have
been proposed: either a fixed price, that is the mean winter day-ahead spot price, or the hourly
day-ahead spot price. The day-ahead spot prices data have been collected on Nord Pool Spot
[2015] and Epex Spot SE [2015a] open data platforms.
39
1 Define a theoretical electric heated standard

household, located in the Nordics (Malmö). 7 Benchmark the Cost Benefit Analysis
Mean investment cost: [25;50] €/year
Product Qivivo Voltalis Nest Pluzzy Wiser
Results
Hourly Weather Price
without/with 99/179€ 219/339€ 219€/- 322€/- 299€*/-
data of Malmö installation
Adaptation to
use case + + + + + + +
Current Sensor Thermostat Current Sensor *2 switches of 3kW each only
missing missing missing
Hardware lifetime assumption: 6 years
2 Define an either energy Energy saving
A Optimization
efficiency driven or cost driven
6 Assess annual energy box cost
heat load optimization program Bill saving
B Optimization
=10 bidding areas

3 Define an either RTP or Fixed power source tariff x up to14 years
Lulea
1 Day-ahead Hourly 2 Annual Mean Trondheim

Spot Price Spot Price
Finland
Source of saving Power Power
Sourcing Sourcing Grenoble
Kristiansand
Assumed as constant, & Vercors Estonia
regardless tariff and Grid Cost Grid Cost
Malmo
annual energy Latvia
Taxes Taxes
consumption variation DK West DK East Lithuania
Test the model in 11 different day-ahead spot markets of

5
4 Simulate the use of both heat load program in Nordics, Baltics and France, over 14 years (2001-2014).
the household, with either RTP or Fix tariff
Day-ahead
Hourly Annual Mean
Spot Price Spot Price
tariff
Prog. 1 2
Energy saving
Optimization A
Bill saving
B
Optimization
Figure I.15: Structure of the Cost Benefit Analysis performed to assess the profitability of
Energy Boxes involvement on the day-ahead spot markets
40
Product Qivivo Voltalis Nest Pluzzy Wiser
Results
Hourly Weather Price
without/with 99/179€ 219/339€ 219€/- 322€/- 299€*/-
data of Malmö installation
Adaptation to
use case + + + + + + +
Current Sensor Thermostat Current Sensor *2 switches of 3kW each only
missing missing missing
Hardware
Figure I.16: Benchmark of energy boxeslifetime assumption:
hardware in terms 6ofyears
price and compliance with the
business case of domestic space heating optimisation
The comparison of the application of these two tariffs on the annual heating bill of the end
user enable the assessment of the annual cost savings induced by the investment in the Energy
Box. These annual savings have been assessed for 10 different bidding areas of the Nordics and
Baltics countries over 14 years. The same set of outdoor temperatures of Malmö have been used
as input reference temperatures for these 10 bidding areas. The last set of simulations have
finally been performed on the basis of the day-ahead EpexSpot data of the French bidding area.
Three different sets of temperatures have been tested for the French scenario: Malmö, Lans en
Vercors and Grenoble. The weather data of Malmö (Southern Sweden - alt 0m) are the same
data as the one used for the Nordics and Baltics. The data of Lans en Vercors (France - alt
1000m) have been provided by the climate change observatory of LTHE [2015]. The data of
Grenoble (France - alt 200m) have been built by adding 5◦ C to the data of Lans en Vercors5 .
Figures I.17 and I.18 present finally the potential cost savings induced by the new heating
strategy (Optimization program B and power procurement at the day-ahead hourly spot price
- tariff 1 - in Figure I.15) and compared these savings with the mean investment and operation
costs required to replace the hardware. Such mean costs have been assessed by benchmarking the
investment and installation costs of the hardware presently available on the market (Figure I.16).
The ICT and maintenance costs have been neglected. A six-years lifetime has been considered
for the hardware. Hence a mean annual cost of 25-50e/household have been considered. Such
a range of cost is plotted in grey in the background of Figures I.17 and I.18, that enables the
realisation of the Cost Benefit Analysis, directly on the Figures. The results are only valid for
the accommodations already equipped with a central thermostat. For an accommodation that is
not equipped with a central thermostat, the investment would be larger, but additional energy
savings would be expected. Hence the profitability of the Energy Box would be mainly more
induced by the improvement of the energy efficiency of the accommodation than by the present
business case.
The computation made for France with different climate references shows that the colder does
not mean the better in terms of load-shifting potential. Indeed, the maximum heat load of the
5
Not enough direct weather data from Grenoble were available. This is why Grenoble data have been converted
from the set of Lans en Vercors data
41
Figure I.17: Benchmark of the power bill savings induced by the implementation of the cost-
optimized heating process (process B-1 in Figure I.15), compared with Energy Box investment
cost assumptions in the Nordic and Baltic countries (same outdoor reference temperature from
Malmö).
household is too limited during really cold periods to enable the turning-off of the heaters during
the peak prices that occur in cold conditions. As an example, it can be mentioned the historic
French peak-load that occurred in February 2012 due to a week-long high pressure conditions
that induced particular cold weather. The model shows thus better incomes for the theoretical
household simulated as located in Grenoble than for one located in the Vercors.
In summary, this study has shown that the profitability for the end-user of Real Time Price
tariffs adoption is highly dependent of the national power market context. At the end, the
present kind of DR would be profitable in Denmark and the Baltics... even if it has not been
checked if Baltic households are equipped with electric heaters, as it is the case for part of the
Figure I.18: Difference of power bill savings induced by the implementation of the cost-optimized
heating process (process B-1 in Figure I.15), with three different sets of outside temperature and
French market data.
42
3. SCENARIO OF DER FLEXIBILITY ASSETS SHARING
Danish households.
The business margins generated per household are however limited to a magnitude of 25-
75e/yr/household i.e DR incomes of 4.1-12.5ke/MW/yr in the best located areas (the house-
holds modelled have a heating load of 6kW). It would address therefore a niche market, composed
of early-adopters only, given that a wide market penetration would require significant customer
acquisition costs (100-200e/customer [E-Cube, 2011]), that is likely to willing to jeopardize the
profitability of the DR service, challenging thus its penetration.
It would address therefore a niche market, composed of early-adopters only. Indeed a wider
market penetration would require larger customer acquisition costs (100-200e/customer [E-
Cube, 2011]) to convince as well technology-friendly dwellers to get involved. This rising of the
customer acquisition cost is likely to jeopardize the profitability of the DR service, challenging
thus its penetration. On the contrary, a wide market penetration would not induce a reduction
of the gross profit per household (previously assessed at 25-75e/yr/household), given that most
of the load-shiffing revenue is generated out of peak periods as it has been shown in Section
2.8.1.
2.9 Long-term wholesale markets
Long term markets have been assessed as of no interest. Long term markets are risk hedging
products, aiming initially to smooth prices of less flexible conventional assets, without any
consideration of system operation constraints. The involvement of flexible DER capacities on
such markets looks much less adapted than on the short-term spot markets, detailed in the
previous sections.
2.10 Market coupling capacities
Market coupling capacities have been assessed as devoid of interest as well. Indeed, the un-
derlying of market coupling capacities address physical capacities in power lines and cannot be
replaced by DER capacities consisting of on-site production, storage or demand response assets.
2.11 Bilateral wholesale markets
The bilateral contracts stay out of the scope of analysis given that they trade the same underlying
as the long term and spot markets. The main difference is that the prices and the volumes are
not published. The assessments stated on the long term and spot markets in the previous
Sections 2.7, 2.8 & 2.9 remain true for the bilateral products of equivalent underlying.
3 Scenario of DER flexibility assets sharing

Table I.10 summarizes the opportunity that each power product is able to constitute for DER
flexibility operations. One can notice a diversity of remuneration depending on the product.
This is somehow correlated to either the solicitation of the DERs or the complexity of supply
of each product. The last parameter evaluated is the liquidity of each market, i.e. the ease of
43
Table I.10: Summary of the sources of revenue of DER flexibility depending on the countries
Suitable Revenue of DER assets Bilateral wholesale contracts Power System Security
Grid Operation Reliability
(in k€/MW/yr) Spot Market Capacity & Stability
Energy Day Ahead

FRR VoltVAR Congestion
contribution rate product Intraday Peak Capacity Losses
Country RR (capacity FCR mana- mana-
(in % of hrs per (peak + off- product Load* Auction Saving
price only) gement gement
year) peak)
Market liquidity
annual / annual / montly / montly /

Day-ahead Intra-day Day-ahead quarterly capacity agreement + day-
Market gate closure quarterly quarterly weekly weekly
agreement agreement agreement ahead or intra-day call for activation
agreement agreement agreement agreement
30% US 12.2 - 20.2
not documented US 20 - 70
2.5% DK East - FDR 52.5 - 84
10% DK East - FNR 105 - 193
4% France 148
not documented UK 254
8-15% Germany 22 - 70
not documented France 148
6-10% Sweden 8.9 - 12.3
Sweden +
French
6-10% 17.3 - 27.7
distributed DR
bonus
0% activation Sweden
6.9
33% allocation Effektreserven
0% activation
France 60
33% allocation
8% DK East 10
1.4% Lithuania 12
0.8% France 5 - 10
29% France 30 - 45
29% Baltics 30 - 45
29% Denmark 20 - 35
29% Finland 25
29% Sweden 12 - 18
29% Norway 5 - 15
9% France 12 - 20
9% Baltics 12 - 20
9% Denmark 10 - 18
9% Finland 10 - 15
9% Sweden 5 - 10
9% Norway <5
* The revenues of the day-ahead product are already included the specific revenue of the wholesale peak load. Thus, the revenue of the column Peak Load is relevant only is
case of unique delivery of flexibility during Peak Load event.
Legend: Values in blue: calculated thanks to models that have been developped during this PhD work
Values in black: obtained thanks to the literature review. The source of each of these values is presented in each Section 2.1 to 2.8
market entrance for each new actor. Table I.10 has been built based on a given set of assumptions
- that could be challenged. Over the exact figures that are displayed, the added-value of Table
I.10 is to highlight specific points per country. The European market is not uniform depending
on the country; the national markets are not uniform depending on the bidding area. It appears
essential to keep this idea in mind despite it opposes the trend of coupling of the European
power markets.
Table I.10 gathers the values of DER flexibility that have been listed from Section 2.1 to Section
2.8.
For ease of comparison, the revenues are assessed in ke/MW/yr, while the table contains both
energy and capacity products. This is of prime importance to benchmark both the marginal
cost of energy supply per technology of DER and the energy rate of solicitation of each power
product before getting involved in the supply of a given power product based on DER flexibility
operation.
44
3. SCENARIO OF DER FLEXIBILITY ASSETS SHARING
Overall, it can be noticed that the profitability of DER flexibility on the power markets stays
too contained to enable DER flexibility operators to focus on the supply of one unique power
product. In such a context, a way to be explored to reach a profitable model would be to engage
a given DER for the delivery of multiple smart grid functions, either in parallel or one after
the other. Such an approach is motivated by the diversity of DER solicitations that grid and
system operations can require. Period, delay, length, minimum, mean and maximum occurrences
of activation per day can vary significantly depending on the services supplied. Overall, the
idea is that basic power products that are easy to supply such as the RR or day-ahead spot
bids would provide a basic remuneration on the top of which advanced smart grid functions
would be introduced. It appears as a promising way to speed-up the grid penetration of such
advanced functions, by making grid-oriented DER investment more profitable. Such multiplicity
of products supplied from the same pool of DER is facilitated by the different gates closure of
each product, that lead from quarterly firm agreement to intra-day call for activation.
In regards to such a philosophy, Figure I.19 presents a set of scenarios of combined supply of
power products, with the priority of supply sorted from left to right. An informal range of
remuneration is listed below each product and summed for each scenario of products combina-
tion. The range of remuneration provided are voluntary wide for two reasons. Firstly, Table
I.10 has highlighted a significant geographical disparity of remuneration. Secondly, the review
of the business opportunities of DER flexibility have been assessed per main kind of product
taken independently of one another. Thus the global study performed in Section 2, is not strong
enough to accurately assess the missing revenue that would be induced by a combined sup-
ply of several products. Indeed the supply of a main product in priority is likely to reduce
the availability of the DER for the delivery of the complementary products, reducing hence its
revenue. On the other end, the activation in a specific situation of a given DER is likely to
induce synergies of delivery of several products in the meantime, at the same cost but with
multiple remunerations. As an example, the shifting of a given DER for VoltVAR concern is
likely to induce physical losses saving as well, given that voltage constraints commonly occur on
highly-loaded grids. Then if the local peak load is synchronized with the national peak - that is
actually not always true in distribution - , such load-shifting is capable of becoming eligible to
peak load shifting remuneration. In parallel, such a local load-shifting will provide savings on
DSO’s energy procurement cost for grid losses compensation.
Another concern deals with the guarantee of the level of revenue of DER flexibility in the
context of a wide penetration of these sources of flexibility. On the one side, the depth of the
market of ancillary services is limited and would smooth the revenue of each DER flexibility
asset depending on the market penetration. On the other side, the market opportunities remain
large. As an example, the overall turnover of FCR market in Europe has been assessed as close to
750Me/yr (Figure I.6), leaving business opportunities largely open for new actors. In addition
in the wholesale market side, it has been noticed that from 75% to 90% of the value of load-
shifting is driven by the daily operation of shifting, during days of reasonable loads - i.e out of
45
System security & adequacy services

Legend:
Capacity Peak
RR 30-100k€/MW/yr
Auction Load
RR
7-60 10-30 10
Priority product
Wholesale-oriented products
full-time
available Day Ahead Peak Losses
RR 40-80k€/MW/yr
product Load Saving
RR 20-35 5-10 10-30 10
Complementary
Grids reliability oriented services
product
part-time VoltVAR & congestion Losses Day Ahead
RR 50-100k€/MW/yr
available management Saving product
20-70 10-20 10-30 10
System security & stability oriented services

Day Ahead Losses
FRR 20-150k€/MW/yr
product Saving
20-150 10-30 y% of 10-20
VoltVAR & congestion

management
Day Ahead Losses
FCR x% of 20-70 100-300k€/MW/yr
product Saving
50-250 RR 10-30 y% of 10-20
x% of 10-30
Figure I.19: Scenarios of DERs flexibility sharing for revenue multiplication
the days of peak load. Considering the huge turnover that occurs on the wholesale market, it can
be assessed that DER flexibility would not impact in a significant manner the daily spread out
of these peak days, regardless the importance of DER asset penetration. Thus, the inter-DER
competition in the wholesale market would not be so challenging on DER profitability.
Table I.11 provides elementary investment and marginal activation costs of three technologies of
DER flexibilities, leading either on chemical storage or domestic space heating flexibilities (ther-
mal storage). These costs enable the scenario of DER flexibility operation to be benchmarked.
It can be noticed that a business model of a pure-player of DER flexibility operator does not
look so promising. First, the opportunity of chemical storage looks irrelevant in largely inter-
connected power systems at present6 . Even if some success stories focussing on domestic space
heating flexibilities such as Voltalis exist, their future is not guaranteed either. In parallel,
industrial flexibilities operators such as Energy Pool, Smart Grid Energy or Actility operate
promising assets. However they suffer from significant marginal costs of activation that forbid
them to access to most of the markets. Their business model remains profitable mainly on the
ancillary services that target system stability & adequacy services. And most of these markets
6
This thesis has been mainly written during Autumn 2015. Given that ESS sector has evolved so quickly by
this date, the present statement would probably become depreciated by 2020 in some conditions
46
4. CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER I
Table I.11: Assessment of load-shifting costs for either ESS or thermal storage
Battery Technology Capacity Energy Lifetime cycles

Powerwall Li-ion 2kW 7kWh 2000-10000
Redflow ZBM Zinc-Bromide 3.3kW 10kWh 4000
Energy Box Thermal storage 3.3kW - 1000-2000*
Battery Investment cost Capacity cost Energy cost

Powerwall 2.8ke 1350ke/MW 40-200e/MWh [Tesla Motors, 2015]
Redflow ZBM 9ke 2700ke/MW 225 e/MWh [Redflow, 2015]
Energy Box 280-480e 80-145ke/MW ≈0 e/MWh [Lebel et al., 2015a]
*one load-shifting cycle has been assessed per day, for a heating season of 200 days and
a lifetime of 5-10 years
are almost already saturated in Europe.
Then an involvement in the services targeting the grids reliability looks interesting knowing the
troubles DSOs would face in a close future with respect to large DG penetration. The price DSOs
would be willing to pay for services that enable grid investment postponing would probably rise.
Nonetheless, these markets that have a low liquidity have not really grown as initially expected
and DSOs are still reluctant to push for the industrialisation of these Smart Grid functions.
Finally, the supply of reserves that have a high level of requirements could be an interesting
market for DER flexibility. The FRR and the FCR, that target the real-time power system
stability are examples of such advanced reserves. Unfortunately, the supply of FRR using DER
flexibility constitutes another challenge that has not been addressed in depth in the present PhD
works. It is strongly believed that DER-based solutions for FRR delivery should be looked at
closely by innovators, while FRR stays up to now in the shadow of system stability concerns
and solutions that targets FCR. At the opposite, the opportunity of supply of FCR based on
a coordination of DER flexibility will be the focus of the three last chapters of the present
thesis. Out of the business opportunities, Chapter II will emphasize the technical needs of
supplying such products based on DER flexibility. Chapter III will focus on an innovative way
to supply FCR: the Primary Support initiative. Chapter IV presents finally the initiatives of
demonstration that has been performed to promote the supply of frequency-controlled reserves
from the demand side.
4 Conclusion of Chapter I
A profusion of Smart Grid demonstration projects have highlighted the benefit that the operation
of flexible DERs would procure to the utilities for power system operations. Unfortunately the
profitability of these business models of DER flexibility operation at the benefit of the System
Operators is still pending. As of now, these unknowns are heightened by a contained use of Smart
Grid technologies by the utilities. Innovation teams were set in motion, in response to the fear
expressed by the utilities to see their operations being jeopardized by the wide penetration of
47
Distributed Generation. However, the sale of these new Smart Grid technologies did not rise
yet, the commercial feed-back is missing and the uncertainties of profitability remain.
In such a context, the initial PhD work aimed to review the main wholesale and ancillary services
markets and benchmark the business opportunities that the supply of several services based on
the same DER flexibility asset would constitute (Figure I.19). In contrast to received ideas, the
generation of revenues on the day-ahead spot markets would first require the involvement of
DER assets that have a contained marginal cost of load shifting (≈ 20e/MWh), able thus to
get involved all year long. Then an involvement only during the days of peak loads is not able
to generate significant revenues. Finally, the profitability of DER flexibility on the spot market
is largely dependent on the bidding area of involvement. If a decision of investment would have
to be done on short term, focusing on wholesale market spread business, the bidding areas to
address in order of priority would be France, Eastern Denmark and the Baltics.
On the side of the ancillary services, the supply of DER flexibility to guarantee the power
system adequacy appears as the most reliable business model for DER operators. The call for
effective flexibility activation is exceptional - some hours a year - and the revenue of the service
could constitute an interesting revenue for industrial assets owners. In addition, the frequency
controlled reserves are well remunerated power products, for which part of the allocated capacity
is solicited almost permanently, while the volume left is almost never used. The supply of such
frequency controlled reserves - and foremost of Frequency Containment Reserves (FCR) - appears
thus as promising products to be supplied by distributed flexibility assets. Such opinion is driven
by:
the business opportunity of these products, that has been identified in the present chapter;
the evolving challenges of power system stability expected in the future and that would have
to be solved by evolved FCR supplying assets, as explained in Chapter II;
the technical challenge presented by the delivery of such frequency controlled reserves using
DER assets, and that has been solved in the present PhD works, as presented in Chapters
III and IV.
48
CHAPTER II
Theory and Challenges of Frequency

Stability
Chapter II
Theory and challenges of

frequency stability
Chapter I highlighted the opportunity offered by DER flexibility assets to contribute to the
stability of the power system. In such a context, the present chapter focusses particularly on the
process operated by the System Operators to ensure the stability of the power system (Section
1). The challenges that System Operators would probably face with in the coming years to
guarantee the performance of stability of the power system are then presented (Section 2).
Section 1 details the operational principle of the real-time load-frequency control processes. Sec-
tion 1.1 presents how the system frequency deviates depending on power load imbalance. Section
1.2 details the importance of these processes to avoid blackouts, whose can have significant im-
pacts on the economy of countries - 0.6-1% of the GDP is lost annually due to power outages in
the USA [Bruch and Hunter, 2012]. Section 1.3 presents then the system response chronology to
any disturbance affecting the stability of the system. Sections 1.4 to 1.7 afford an explanation
of the upcoming European Network Code.
Section 2 presents the challenges that System Operators would face in the coming years regarding
frequency stability of the network. Section 2.1 focusses on the availability of conventional FCR
providing units. Section 2.2 addresses the degradation of the system frequency quality, likely to
induce large FCR sollicitation. The issues induced by a degradation of the system inertia are
presented in Section 2.3. Section 2.4 details finally why the conventional emergency process of
UFLS would face troubles of robustness.
1 Principle of power system balancing
1.1 Power system balance & frequency deviation
It is commonly stated in the literature that electrical power can barely be stored. This means
that any power imbalance between power production and consumption induces a disturbance
for the "traditional" power system - the situation would be potentially worse for micro-grids -,
causing naturally a deviation of the power system frequency. As detailed subsequently (Section
51
CHAPTER II. THEORY AND CHALLENGES OF FREQUENCY STABILITY
Pmset
Pm Pe
T G
Generator
Pl o a d
Turbine
Load
Figure II.1: Simplified representation of a generator connected to a unique load [Andersson,

2012]
1.2.2), a too large deviation of the system frequency (±5%) can induce a global breakdown of
the entire power system i.e. a blackout. Such an event is caused by the loss of synchronism of
the power generators that will not be further detailed in this thesis.
The evolution of the frequency deviation can be understood by looking at the electro-mechanical
process of power conversion that occurs in a power plant. Figure II.1 displays a simplified
representation of a power plant. In this model, the primary source of energy Pm set is converted
into a mechanical power Pm thanks to the turbine T . The mechanical power Pm is transmitted
through a shaft to the generator G, that converts this mechanical power into an electrical power
Pe . The electrical power Pe is injected to the power network, and is finally consumed away
from the power plant by a given electrical load, that consumes a power Pload . This simplified
representation neglects the mechanical, the magnetic and the electrical losses. Hence, in steady
state operation it is assumed :
set
Pm = Pm = Pe = Pload (II.1)
The equation of motion of the machine to which the transmission shaft is connected is defined
by equation (II.2):
d2 θ
J = Tm − Te (II.2)
dt2
where
J is the total moment of inertia of the rotating mass (in kg.m2 )

Tm is the mechanical torque associated to the mechanical power Pm (in N.m)
Te is the electrical torque associated to the electrical power Pe (in N.m)
θ is the angular position of the rotor (in rad)
The moment of inertia J represents the mass repartition around the rotation axis. For a rotor
52
1. PRINCIPLE OF POWER SYSTEM BALANCING
or any shaft that has a cylindrical shape, J can be calculated thanks to equation (II.3):
1
J = M r2 (II.3)
2
where
M is the mass of the shaft (in kg)

r is the radius of the shaft (in m)
Considering now that the rotor speed is constant ahead the occurrence of a disturbance, it
can be assumed that the rotor speed ωr remains constant and equals with the power system’s
synchronous speed ωsm [Kothari and Nagrath, 2008]:
dθ
ωsm = ωr = (II.4)
dt
Hence, the equation of motion can be expressed as function of the power values by multiplying
the equation (II.2) by the rotor speed ωr :
d2 θ
Jωr = ωr × (Tm − Te ) (II.5)
dt2
<=>
d2 θ
Jωsm = Pm − Pe (II.6)
dt2
where
Pm is the mechanical power supplied by the turbine (in W )

Pe is the electrical power produced by the generator (in W )
dθ
Given that = ωsm and ωsm = 2πf , the variation of the power system frequency depending
dt
on the mechanical power injected Pm and the level of load Pe can be expressed by the equation
(II.9), starting from equation (II.6):
d(2πf )
J × (2πf ) × = Pm − Pe (II.7)
dt
<=>
df
J × 4π 2 × f × = Pm − Pe (II.8)
dt
<=>
df 1 1
= 2 × × (Pm − Pe ) (II.9)
dt 4π J f
where
f is the system frequency (in Hz)
53
Table II.1: Typical inertia constants Hi of synchronous machines [Kothari and Nagrath, 2008]
Type of machine Inertia Constant Hi

(stored energy in MWs/MVA)
Turbine generator
Condensing 1.800rpm 6-9
3.000rpm 4-7
Non-condensing 3.000rpm 3-4
Water wheel generator
Slow-speed < 200rpm 2-3
High-speed > 200rpm 2-4
Synchronous condenser
Large 1.25
Small 1.00
Synchronous motor with load varying from
1.0 to 5.0 and higher for heavy flywheels 2.00
It becomes finally easy to assess how fast the system frequency f will deviate from its steady-
state value f0 following a sudden imbalance ∆P = (Pm − Pe ). The imbalance can be induced
by either a mechanical incident on the power plant itself impacting Pm or by an non-expected
variation of load consumption Pload (= Pe as stated in equation (II.1)). The equation (II.10)
describes finally the maximum Rate of Change of Frequency (ROCOF) that is likely to be
observed in the system, ahead of the reaction of both the turbines governors and the natural
smoothing phenomena such as the self regulation of load:
df 1
= 2 × ∆P (II.10)
dt 4π Jf0
The use of the moment of inertia J in the network stability computation is however restricting
given that this is an absolute value that depends on the size of the system. Thus, the use of J
compromises the use of per unit data. Consequently the notion of the constant of inertia Hi per
generator i has been introduced in the literature, as defined in equation (II.11):
1 1
Hi = Ji ω02 × (II.11)
2 SBi
where
Hi is the constant of inertia of the generator considered (in M W s/MVA ≈ s)

Ji is the moment of inertia of the rotor of generator considered (in kg.m2 )
ω0 is the nominal angular frequency (ω0 = 2πf0 ) (in rad/s)
SBi is the rated power of generator considered (in MVA)
Table II.1 provides typical constants of inertia Hi depending on the technology of power plant
considered.
54
Using Hi and SBi constants, the scale-up at the power system level becomes easily doable by
introducing a total constant of inertia that represents the entire power system, as defined in the
equation (II.12):
i Hi SBi
q
H= q (II.12)
i SBi
where
H is the total constant of inertia of the power system modeled (in M W s/MVA ≈ s)
The overall constant of inertial H can be expressed as well as function of the nominal frequency,
starting from equation (II.11):
J × (2π)2 × f02 1
H= × (II.13)
2 S
<=>
1 f0
= (II.14)
4π 2 Jf0 2.H.SB
Finally, the injection of the second term of equation (II.14) in equation II.10 enables to express
the power system initial ROCOF as function of the constant of inertia H and the rated power
SB , as proposed in equation (II.15):
df f0
= × ∆P (II.15)
dt 2.H.SB
In some situations, System Operators publish directly either the kinetic energy KE of their
network or of their power plants KEi . This kinetic energy is expressed either in Joules (J) or
in MWs. The kinetic energy KEi of a synchronous machine i operated at its nominal frequency
f0 is obtained by multiplying the constant of inertia of the machine Hi by its rated power SBi
(equation (II.16)):
KEi = Hi × SBi (II.16)

df
The initial ROCOF introduced by the equations (II.10) and (II.15) can then be expressed
dt
using the constant of inertia of the system H or its kinetic energy KE:
df f0
= × ∆P (II.17)
dt 2.KE
55
Illustration of system inertia weight on the power system maximum ROCOF

EirGrid [2011] publishes the kinetic energy KE of the synchronous area of Ireland (IRE:
25GWs). According to equation (II.17), the largest ROCOF that could be observed following
the loss of the largest power unit of the area (450MW) consequently equals to 0.45Hz/s:
df 50Hz
= × 450M W = 0.45Hz/s (II.18)
dt 2 × 25000M W s
Meantime, according to equation (II.15), the loss of the interconnection on the 282M V A
system of Kuching Island in Asia [Aik, 2006, Lebel et al., 2015c] induces an imbalance of
0.48pu on a system having a constant of inertia of 3s (see Section 2.4). It results a ROCOF
of 4.0Hz/s.
df 50Hz
= 282M V A × 0.48pu = 4.0Hz/s (II.19)
dt 2 × 282M V A × 3s
It shows how fast UFLS relays must trip the loads in islanding context to prevent the
disconnection of generators at 47.5Hz.
As a last means of comparison, the 2003 Italian blackout has been initiated by an imbalance
of more than 7GW, induced by the disconnection of Italy from the Continental Europe (CE)
synchronous area, on an Italian system consuming initially 27.4GW [ENTSO-E, 2004a].
Such an imbalance is much larger than the reference incident (see Section 1.4) assumed in
CE, led to a ROCOF of 0.3Hz only, showing how important can be the inertia of a power
system for its stability.
1.2 System reliability & blackout
1.2.1 Jeopardize of system reliability
One core mission of System Operators is to provide reliable electric service to their grid users,
24 hours a day. The system reliability can be damaged by two main kinds of events. The
first kind relates to network components tripping due to components’ fault or natural and
climate events that are likely to interrupt the power supply in parts of the network (exogenous
events). The second kinds relates to power and load imbalances among a given synchronous
area (endogenous events). Such imbalances are capable of inducing frequency deviation down
to the disconnection from the network of both power producers and consumers. Sometimes,
transmission lines tripping can induce the split of a given synchronous area into several smaller
sub-synchronous areas (Figure II.2). Suddenly, each of these sub-synchronous areas become in
situation of imbalance due to the loss of the interconnection. In such situations, the first kind
of event (network components tripping) induces the second one (imbalances), which is precisely
the most critical one for the system stability due to disturbance propagation.
56
Area 1 under-frequency
Area 2 over-frequency
Area 3 under-frequency
Figure 4: Schematic map of UCTE area split into three areas
Figure II.2: Splitting of the Continental Europe synchronous area into three areas, asynchronous
one another following the German disturbance of November 4, 2006 [ENTSO-E, 2006]
1.2.2 Blackout
A blakout can be defined as a wide-scale event which leads to the loss of a significant part of
the transmission network, and deprives the System Operator of vital power units involved in
the maintain of the system stability. Even if such blackout stays fortunately exceptional, it can
have major impacts on the affected economies. The occurrence of blackouts varies widely from
one area to another, depending notably on the network’s characteristic, such as the investments
made by the System Operators in their network.
Western Europe faced one major power outage over the last fifteen years that can be qualified as
blackout. It affected the whole of Italy in 2003 [ENTSO-E, 2004a], representing a load shedding
of 27GW. A second major outage occurred in 2006 and impacted part of western European
countries [ENTSO-E, 2006], from Germany and Hungary in the east up to Portugal in the west.
It represented a load shedding of 18GW (Figure II.4). However, the outage of 2006 did not lead
to the total interruption of the power supply in the areas concerned, hence the blackout has been
avoided. In both cases, the outages were induced by the cascaded tripping of transmission lines
following the tripping of a first transmission line due to either a natural event (tree flash-over on a
Swiss 380 kV line in 2003) or a human mistake (inter-TSO misunderstanding on cross-bordering
line capacity in 2006).
Estimation of blackout cost [Bruch and Hunter, 2012]

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS)
Cost analysis of historic blackout scenarios
provided estimations of blackout occurrences Industry typical financial loss per event
and inherited costs for their US customers Semiconductor production ₠ 3,800,000
[Bruch and Hunter, 2012]. The company Financial trading ₠ 6,000,000 per hour
Computer center ₠ 750,000
states a cost of US$15,000 per 30 minutes Telecommunications ₠ 30,000 per minute
cut and US$94,000 for an 8 hours cut for its Steel works ₠ 350,000
Glass industry ₠ 250,000
medium and large industrial customers. The Source: Copper Development Association
sum of all of the power outages that occur each year in the US, induces an economic loss
57
Outages per year and duration, 2009

Average duration
1400 9 of each outage
in hours
8
1200 Average number
of outages
7 per year
Average duration of each power outage (hours)

1000
6
Average number of power outage per year
800 5
600 4
3
400
2
200 1
0 0
All East Asia Eastern Latin Middle East OECD South Sub-
countries & Pacific Europe & America & & North Asia Saharan
Central Asia Caribbean Africa Africa
Countries grouping Source: World Bank
Figure II.3: Summary of outages occurrences and duration across the world (both limited outages
and blackouts) [Bruch and Hunter, 2012]
for the country between US$104 and US$164 billion, i.e. nearly 0.6-1% of GDP.
The largest blackout that USA faced in August 13, 2003, affected 50 millions of people in
Northwest USA and Canada. It led to an economic loss of US$6 billions, i.e. 0.2% of the
GDP of the affected population. Most of the 62GW tripped were reconnected within two
days [ELCON, 2004].
1.2.3 System security, stability & reliability
The efficiency of the power system reaction to such sudden imbalances first is characterized by its
ability to keep the customer connected in the seconds following the incident: this is the System
Security [Kundur et al., 2004]. This efficiency is then characterized by its ability to regain a state
of operating equilibrium without oscillations in the minutes following the physical disturbance,
so that the entire system remains secure: this is the System Stability [Kundur et al., 2004].
Beyond these notions of Security and Stability, the System Reliability denotes finally the ability
of the system to supply an adequate electric service continuously, with few localized interruptions
over an extended time period. As a result, the System Reliability is commonly assessed as a
function of time-averaged performance, while both Security and Stability are assessed under a
particular set of conditions [Kundur et al., 2004].
The reliable response of the power system to these disturbances is enabled by the operation
of four main processes, under the responsibility of the System Operator. These processes are
described in Section 1.3.
58
NL 3% 2 000 MW (A) 13 % Load shedding

340 MW (A) RWE 16 061 MW (Automatic)
TSO 663 MW (Manual)
BE 14 % 400 MW
8% Pump storage
EON 240 MW shedding
800 MW (A) Netz D
1 566 MW
158 MW (A) 8%
457 MW EnBW Rate of load shedded %
FR 12 % TNS
CH AT (West)
6 460 MW (A) 18 %
7 MW (A)
127 MW (A)
0,1 % 297 MW
SI 8% HR (West)
PT ES 10 % IT 14 %
8% 113 MW (A)
1 101 2 107 MW (A) 199 MW (A)
2 249 MW (A)
MW (A)
572 MW 663 MW (M)
19 %
Figure 7: Map of load and pumps shedding by TSOs

Figure II.4: Load tripping repartition across Europe following the disturbance of November 4,
2006 [ENTSO-E, 2006]
1.3 Balancing reserves activation in response to a frequency deviation event

TSOs have commonly four different processes of load regulation at their disposal. Part of
these processes are dedicated to the maintaining of the power and load balance - the so-called
frequency regulation. Others are involved both in frequency regulation and in other services,
such as power line congestion management, power line disconnection for maintenance purpose,
etc. Considering the focus of this thesis, the following sections present only the usage of these
processes for the system frequency regulation.
As introduced in Section 1.1, the system frequency deviates when facing a system imbalance.
Physically, an inequality between the mechanical power generated and the electrical load con-
sumed causes a change in the grid frequency. In other words, any marginal unit of electrical load
connected to the grid at a given point of time becomes instantaneously supplied by electrical
power converted from the kinetic energy of generators’ rotors. It induces a slowing down of the
rotor of the generators, which result in a fall of the grid frequency. Thus both the rotational
speed of the generators and the grid frequency decrease continuously as long as the system has
not been brought back to a balanced situation by modifying the set point of given production
or consumption assets. The load-frequency control processes implemented by the TSOs are
consequently designed to deal with this physical behaviour of the system frequency.
In a normal situation it relies on three successive processes :
The Frequency Containment Process (FCP) aims first to stop the frequency deviation by
bringing the system back in balance, seconds after an incident. To do so, the TSO activates
the so-called Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR). Given that the frequency continues
to deviate as long as the system has not been brought back to a balanced situation, the
system frequency still differs from its normal value despite the activation of the FCP and
the frequency stabilisation.
The role to bring the frequency back to its normal value i.e. 50Hz in Europe, in minutes
59
105 progressive new
System Load (base index 100)

disturbance unit commitment
100
95 FCR FRR RR
90
Base load
85
System Frequency (in Hz)
50.2
50.0
49.8
49.6
49.4
49.2
49.0
48.8
-10 20 50 80 110 140 170 200
600 230
630 260
1000
Time (in s)
Figure II.5: Illustration of the activation of balancing reserves following an over-load disturbance,
depending on the frequency variation
after an incident belongs to both the automatic and manual Frequency Restoration Reserve
(aFRR and mFRR). This step requires the introduction of an opposite imbalance on the
network to speed back up (or down) the generators.
Finally the TSO can activate the Replacement Reserve (RR) to release the aFRR and mFRR
in the 15 minutes following the incident. At the end, the RR is released when a given Balance
Responsible Party (BRP) has updated its unit commitment plan in the same magnitude as
the initial incident.
Figure II.5 illustrates this process of step-by-step activation and release of balancing reserves.
It can be noticed that the FCR is progressively released along the restoration of the frequency.
This is the key characteristic of the FCR, whose principle of operation is presented in Section
1.4. Figure II.5 presents a situation where FCR has been activated fast enough and with an
appropriate magnitude.
In extreme situations however, it can happen that the injection of FCR does not manage to
stabilize the frequency fast enough. This would induce a frequency drop at values lower than
the frequency limit that is physically acceptable by the generators. This would cause the dis-
connection from the grid of all of these generators i.e. the occurrence of a blackout (see Section
1.2.2). The limit of spontaneous generators disconnection is defined at 47.5Hz by the European
Network Code (Art 8. ENTSO-E [2013b]). In order to prevent such emergency situation, a
fourth process has been introduced by the System Operators:
The Under Frequency Load Shedding (UFLS) process is a mechanism that enables the TSO
to shed large amount of load in the event of a significant frequency drop. It relies on the
automatic shedding of entire primary substation feeders, one after the other at predetermined
frequency thresholds. It has the final objective to restore the system balance before the
system frequency reaches the critical limit of 47.5Hz, leading to a blackout. In Europe, this
60
ENTSO-E Synchronous Areas
Synchronous Areas:
Non-Interconnected areas non-ENTSO-E member
AC Interconnected areas non-ENTSO-E member
Continental Europe (CE)
Great Britain (GB)
Ireland (IRE)
Nordic (NE)
Baltic (B)
depending on their LFC Block

Figure II.6: Presentation of the Synchronous Areas of ENTSO-E (data: ENTSO-E [2013a,e])
Zoom on Germany+DK West

LFC Blocks:
Non-Interconnected areas non-ENTSO-E member LFC Areas:
Interconnected areas non-ENTSO-E member Energinet.dk west
Areas where LFC block = LFC Area + Tennet GER
Great Britain (GB) FinGrid
Ireland (IRE) Stattnet 50Hertz
Amprion
Nordic (NE) SvK + Creos Lux
Energinet.dk Elering AS
Baltic (B)
east AST TransnetBW
Germany+DK West (Amprion)
Litgrid
Spain+Portugal (REE) Tennet NL
SHB (ELES) EirGrid Elia PSE S.A.
SMM (EMS) + SONI
National Grid CEPS
SEPS
+ SHE + SPT APG
+VUEN
MAVIR ZRt
RTE TEL
Terna
EMS
ESO-EAD TEIAS
Swissgrid
EPCG
ELES
REN REE HEP MEPSO
NOS BiH ADMIE
OST
Figure II.7: Presentation of the ENTSO-E LFC Areas and LFC blocks (data: ENTSO-E [2013a,e])
process has been renamed in 2015 as the Load Frequency Demand Disconnection scheme
(LFDD) [ENTSO-E, 2015a].
Last but not least, a passive process of load regulation contributes naturally to the maintaining
of the power and load balance:
The self-regulation of load describes the natural dependence of motors’ consumption to the
system frequency. Thanks to this dependence, the power consumption of the motors that
are connected to the power system load will reduce with the frequency drop, contributing so
to reduce the power and load imbalance.
Sections 1.4 to 1.7 detail the operational processes and associated rules the suppliers of FCR,
FRR, RR and UFLS/LFDD flexibilities must comply with. Section 1.8 details finally the physical
principle of self-regulation of loads.
61
Table II.2: FCR providing groups and units’ minimum frequency accuracy and insensitivity
requirement(Art 44(1), ENTSO-E [2013d])
Minimum accuracy of frequency measurement devices CE, GB, 10 mHz or

used by the FCR providing units IRE and NE the industrial
standard if
better
Maximum combined effect of inherent frequency CE 10 mHz
response insensitivity and possible intentional GB 15 mHz
frequency response dead band of the governor of the IRE 15 mHz
FCR providing units or FCR providing groups. NE 10 mHz
The Network Codes are a set of rules drafted by ENTSO-E under a man-
date of the European Commission (EC). They aim to facilitate the har-
monisation, the integration and the efficiency of the European electricity market. Ten com-
plementary codes are under development since 2011, to address the whole scope. The first
of these ten networks codes, addressing Capacity Allocation and Congestion Management,
has been adopted by EC on July 24, 2015. The concept of Primary Support claimed in this
thesis (see Chapter III) is concerned with the Demand Connection Code, Electricity Bal-
ancing, Emergency and Restoration and especially the Load Frequency Control & Reserves
code [ENTSO-E, 2012, 2013c,d, 2015a]. source: http://networkcodes.entsoe.eu/
1.4 Frequency Containment Process
The Frequency Containment Process refers to the activation of Frequency Containment Reserves
(FCR) at the scale of an entire synchronous area (Figure II.6), in response to a sudden distur-
bance which may occur on the power system. As noticed in Figure II.5, the FCR is the first level
of balancing reserves to be activated in a such situation. It aims to stabilize the frequency after
the disturbance at a steady-state value within a permissible Maximum Steady-State Frequency
Deviation (Figure II.8), thanks to a simultaneous action of all of the FCR sources, regardless
of their location among the entire synchronous area. The bandwidths of the Maximum Steady-
State Frequency Deviation that are admissible in Europe are presented in Figure II.9.
Reference Incident
The Reference Incident refers to the maximum instantaneous power deviation that can
occur between generation and demand in a synchronous area. The value of the Reference
Incident can be different for a positive and a negative imbalance. For instance the positive
Reference Incident of the synchronous area CE shall be the absolute value of the largest
imbalance that may result from an instantaneous change of active power of one or two
Power Generating Modules or one or two HVDC Interconnectors connected to the same
electrical node. The negative Reference Incident shall be the maximum instantaneous loss
of active power consumption due to the tripping of one or two Connections Points (Art
43(4a), ENTSO-E [2013d]).
62
Time To Recover Frequency
Time To Restore Frequency
Nominal Frequency
Nominal (50(50
Frequency Hz)Hz)
Standard Frequency Range
Frequency Restoration Range
Frequency Recovery Range
Maximum Steady-State Frequency Deviation
Maximum Instantaneous Frequency Deviation
Figure 5: Frequency Quality Defining Parameters

Figure II.8: Frequency Quality Defining Parameters [ENTSO-E, 2013e]
ENTSO-E [2013d] states that these FCR sources can be composed without distinction of Power
Generating Modules and/or Demand Units. To perform the frequency regulation, each Power
Generating Module and Demand Unit that is involved in the Frequency Containment Process,
acts autonomously. That means that each of these units is equipped with a governor that
measures the system frequency and adapts in almost real-time its power injection or withdrawal
depending on the frequency measured on site. Table II.2 summarizes the minimum frequency
accuracy and dead-band the governor systems must comply with.
This frequency-dependent power deviation is predefined by a power-frequency characteristic -
commonly called droop curve -, that can be specific for each unit. In Europe, the Network Code
decrees that the overall characteristic of FCR activation in a synchronous area shall reflect a
monotonic variation of the FCR activation as a function of the frequency deviation (Art 33,
Art 44(6), ENTSO-E [2013d]). A schematic representation of a power-frequency characteristic
is presented in Figure II.9. Figure II.9 provides as well the characteristic of the expected FCR
delivery at the scale of each synchronous area.
Figure II.10 describes finally the main characteristic times that any FCR supplying unit has
to respect, depending on the synchronous areas where the unit is connected to the grid. The
63
FCR is characterized by short delays of activation of the reserves, which are of 5s only in the
synchronous areas of Northern Europe (NE) and Ireland (IRE), and 15s in Continental Europe
(CE). The assets that supply the FCR must be able to guarantee the delivery of the entire
contractual reserves during more than 30 minutes.
It can be noticed that the unions of TSOs of each synchronous area - the so-called Regional
Group - have decreed regulations which are usually more restrictive than the ENTSO-E Network
Code. For example, ENTSO-E defines a FCR Full Activation Time of 30s, regardless of the
synchronous area, while most of the TSOs has defined shorter delays.
FCR volume activated

Total FCR Capacity of
the Synchronous area
FCR slope, constant at the scale

of the synchronous area
50Hz (Normal Frequency)
Activation deviation for FCR
FCR Full Activation Frequency Deviation

= Maximum Steady-State Frequency Deviation (5.2, [2])
FCR Capacity required FCR Full Acti- Activation FCR

per synchronous area vation Frequency deviation Slope (in
Deviation for FCR MW/mHz)
CE 3000MW 7.1,[2] 200mHz Art19,[1] 20mHz 16.7
A-D2.1,[6]
600MW+* / 350MW- 25mHz (assu- 1.25
GB 500mHz Art19,[1]
[4] med from [6])
*1050MW+ instead from 2.19
2019
IRE 300MW [9] 500mHz Art19,[1] 0.34
FCR N 600MW [3] 100mHz [3] 20mHz (assu- 7.5
NE
FCR D 1000MW [3] 400mHz [3] med from [6]) 2.5
A description of references [1] to [8] is provided in Table II.3
Figure II.9: Definition of the FCR power-frequency characteristic (data: Art 44, ENTSO-E [2013e])
64
Table II.3: References numbers used in Figures II.9, II.10 and II.11
[1] ENTSO-E [2013d]

[2] ENTSO-E [2013e]
[3] ENTSO-E [2007], Appendix 2
[4] National Grid [2011]
[5] EirGrid [2013]
[6] ENTSO-E [2009]
[7] http://www2.nationalgrid.com/uk/services/balancing-services/frequency-response
[8] RTE [2011]
[9] EirGrid et al. [2014]
Maximum FCR Full Activation Period
disturbance
FCR Full Activation Time Maximum FCR recovery Period

Activation Delay of FCR
Activation Delay FCR Full Activa- Maximum FCR Maximum FCR

of FCR tion Time Full Activation recovery Period
Period
CE 50% 6 15s [6] 15s if ∆P 6 1.5GW > 30min full time 6 120min Art
(∆P/1000)s else equivalent Art 45(6),[1]
App F,[2], [6] 45(6),[1]
FCR N n/a 120-180s [3] > 30min full time 6 120min
NE
FCR D 50% 6 5s [3] 100% 6 30s[3] equivalent Art Art 45(6),[1]
45(6),[1]
GB n/a FCDM :6 2s. [7] FCDM :> 30min. n/a
other: 6 10s [7] other: n/a
Art44,[1] Art44,[1]
IRE 6 5s [5] 6 15s [5] > 90s [5] n/a
a description of references [1] to [8] is provided in Table II.3
Figure II.10: Characteristic Time of FCR (data: Art 44,45, ENTSO-E [2013e])
65
Exchange & sharing of FCR

TSOs can purchase FCR produced in others ad-
jacents LFC Areas, LFC Blocks and even syn-
chronous areas. ENTSO-E [2013d] specifies even
in details the rules applied to the area CE: An
LFC Block can export to its adjacent LFC Blocks
a volume of FCR limited to at most 30% of
its Initial FCR Capacity, in a limit of 100MW.
Meanwhile, an LFC Block can import at most
70% of its Initial FCR Capacity from its adja-
cent LFC Blocks. An operational security limit
of its adjacent LFC blocks can however limit its exchanges. According to this rule, the block
Germany + DK West could for instance outsource almost 70% of its supply of FCR, if all
of its adjacent LFC Blocks agree to import as much capacity as they legally can.
Exchange of FCR among different LFC Areas of the same LFC Block is possible as well but
should avoid the occurrence of internal congestions and guaranty a sufficient delivery of FCR
in case of network splitting (Art 50). The exchange of FCR between different synchronous
areas can be performed as well if it is agreed by all of the TSOs of the synchronous areas
concerned. Finally, ENTSO-E [2013d] allows even the sharing of FCR between the two
different synchronous areas of GB and IRE (Art 60(1)).
The propagation of frequency deviation over HVDC links

The exchange or the sharing of FCR across synchronous areas borders are complex processes,
given that the FCR is activated by the FCR sources, based on the frequency deviation
measured on-site. Thus the activation of FCR by a given FCR source, at the benefit of a
TSO located in another synchronous area can only be done by propagating the frequency
deviation across the synchronous areas boundary, which can be risky for the system. This
propagation is done by assigning a bi-directional droop curve to one or several HVDC
interconnectors. This droop curve is the resultant droop curve of all of the oriented FCR
Exchange and Sharing bids contracted between two synchronous areas. The FRR activation
will then be impacted as well by the presence of FCR Exchange and Sharing contracts.
1.5 Frequency Restoration Process

The Frequency Restoration Process refers to the activation of Frequency Restoration Reserve
(FRR) by a TSO to regulate toward zero a given frequency deviation that has been induced by
an incident which occurred on the network it is in charge of - i.e. its LFC area of operation.
As hinted above, the FRR activation is not shared at the scale of the whole synchronous area
like the FCR, but stays under the responsability of a given TSO. The area of operation of a
66
TSO is named an LFC Area. For cost saving, the TSOs of a given synchronous area are allowed
to regroup themselves within an entity named an LFC Block, at the scale of which the need
for FRR is sized. Figure II.7 presents the architecture of LFC Blocks and LFC Areas across
Europe. For operational ease, the TSOs of the same LFC Block can even delegate the activation
of FRR to one of them: REE could then drive the FRR sources connected to REN’s network
(Figure II.7).
In term of operation process, the TSO has to bring back the frequency within a predetermined
bandwith - the Frequency Restoration Range (Figure II.8 and Table II.4 ) - within the Time to
Restore Frequency (Figure II.11).
Table II.4: Frequency Restoration Range applied by synchrounous area
Frequency Restoration CE GB IRE NE

Range not used ±200 mHz ±200 mHz ±100 mHz
In Continental Europe (CE), the notion of Frequency Restoration Range is not used. Instead,
the TSO has to compensate toward zero the imbalance that occurred in the LFC block it is in
charge of, within the Time to Restore Frequency.
Figure II.5 illustrates the impact of FRR activation on the power system balance and frequency,
following an over-load imbalance. While the FCR activation enabled the system balancing,
the activation of FRR introduces an expected imbalance in the opposite direction of the initial
disturbance’s trajectory, in order to speed the generators up and make the system frequency rise
in the meantime. Given that the FCR is released with the system frequency rise, the TSO has
to increase progressively the volume of FRR activated in parallel of the FCR release to maintain
the expected imbalance. As soon as the system frequency has reached back the nominal system
frequency, the FCR is totally released and the volume of FRR that has been activated equals
the volume of FCR which was activated at the beginning of the Frequency Restoration Process.
ENTSO-E [2013d] (Art 34(1a)) decrees that the FCR has to be fully released within the Time
to Restore Frequency (values available in Figure II.11).
The FRR can be split in two sub-reserves. The first one is automatic: the aFRR. The second
one is manually activated: the mFRR. The ratio of aFRR and mFRR available per LFC Block
is left to the discretion of the TSO in charge of the Frequency Restoration Process (Art 46(2c),
ENTSO-E [2013d]). Moreover the TSO can rely only on aFRR or only mFRR.
The physical activation of FRR on the site of each FRR sources is performed by an automatic
controller or an operator, according to a set-point that is calculated by the TSO at the scale of
the LFC Area (Figure II.7). This set-point is the same for all of the FRR supplying units of
the area. It varies from -1 to +1, representing respectively a full activation of the negative or
positive FRR capacities of the unit.
Figure II.11 defines the characteristic times that any FRR bids have to comply with. The
67
Maximum FRR Full Activation Period
New Setpoint
FRR Full Activation Time Maximum FRR recovery Period

Time to Restore Frequency (Art46(2c))
Activation Delay of FRR
Activation Specific FRR Full Time to Maximum FRR Maximum
Delay of FRR Activation Time Restore Full Activation FRR re-
Fre- Period covery
quency Period
CE aFRR France: 15min n/a
6133s or 800s [8]
aFRR:
GB n/a 10min n/a n/a
630s
aFFR: 690s aFFR: >5min
IRE Art 47(1d)[1] 20min
mFFR: 65min [5] mFFR: >20min [5]
NE n/a 15min n/a
a description of references [1] to [8] is provided in Table II.3
Figure II.11: Characteristic Time of FRR (data: Art 46,47, ENTSO-E [2013e])
activation delay of aFRR is at most of 30s for the four ENTSO-E’s synchronous area (Art 47(1d),
ENTSO-E [2013d]). The aFRR Full Activation Time should be at most equal to the Time to
Restore frequency (Art 46(2c), ENTSO-E [2013d]), i.e comprised of 10 to 20 minutes, depending
on the synchronous area. Some TSO has defined more restrictive conditions depending on the
imbalance magnitude. For instance RTE has defined a Full Activation Time of 800s, that can
be reduced to 133s if the imbalance observed in its LFC block is larger than 1800MW [RTE,
2011].
In the synchronous areas of GB and IRE, the capacities used for the FCR are actually mostly
used as well as FRR base-load, due to the relatively small size of these synchronous areas. The
reserves change name while the system frequency rises with the activation of FRR over-load
(8.3.2, ENTSO-E [2013e]).
1.6 Replacement Reserve Process
The Replacement Reserve Process refers to the activation of Replacement Reserve (RR) by a
TSO, to replace and/or support the activated FRR, according to the chronology presented in
Section 1.3 (Figure II.5). The Reserve Replacement Process is operated by manual modification
of the level of load of the RR assets. The set-points of each asset are defined independently of
each other by the TSO at the scale of the LFC Area. In GB and IRE, the RR replaces meantime
the FCR and the FRR. The RR is traded on a power market platform usually operated by the
68
TSOs themselves and called a Balancing Market.
No more details on these quite well-known reserves, having furthermore long delays of activation
(≈15min) will be provided in this thesis. If needed, Lebel [2012] and ENTSO-E [2013a,d,e]
provide further details on the RR.
1.7 Under Frequency Load Shedding (UFLS / LFDD)
As introduced in Section 1.3, the Under Frequency Load Shedding scheme (UFLS) is a mecha-
nism that enables the TSO to shed a large amount of load when faced with a significant frequency
drop event. It relies on the automatic shedding of entire primary substation feeders, one after
the other when the system frequency goes below predetermined frequency thresholds. It has the
final objective to restore the system balance before the system frequency reaches the common
generators disconnection threshold of 47.5Hz1 (Art 8, ENTSO-E [2013b]).
In Europe, this process has been renamed in 2015 as the Load Frequency Demand Disconnection
scheme (LFDD) [ENTSO-E, 2015a]. ENTSO-E [2015a] has harmonized the future rules to be
applied in Europe, while there were kinds of disparity between the LFC Areas up to now.
Table II.5 illustrates the values that each European TSO would have to respect depending on
the synchronous area it belongs to. The defence plan for Continental Europe (CE) claims for
instance a shedding of 50% of the power load measured in real-time, thanks to at least 6 steps
of at most 10% of shedding each, spread in the interval [48Hz ; 49Hz]. The LFDD must bring
the frequency back in a ±200mHz bandwidth around 50Hz.
Up to the effective application of the Network Code (ENTSO-E [2015a]) in the coming years,
the volume of load to be shed was expressed as a share of a reference load - such as the load at
7pm the third Thursday of January. As hinted above, the new rules refer to the load observed
in real-time, that is much more challenging given that most of the feeders tripping relays are not
remotely programmable relays. Hence, ENTSO-E [2015a] introduced a notion of implementation
range (sixth row of Table II.5) as a deviation tolerance. Figure II.12 details this principle of the
implementation range.
Former UFLS / LFDD defence plans are presented in Appendix C. Tables C.1, C.2, C.3 and
C.4 summarize some UFLS schemes applied by different European TSOs.
Given that primary substations are usually operated by the DSOs, the implementation of this
UFLS scheme is outsourced by the TSO to the DSOs or to any demand facilities that are
directly connected to the transmission grid (Art 20.1a, ENTSO-E [2012]). The characteristics
of the demand disconnection plan are defined by the TSO in coordination with the other TSOs
of the synchronous area.
The UFLS / LFDD remains an emergency process, that induces load customer interruption due
to the blind shedding of a wide number of customers connected below a given Medium Voltage
1
In GB Generators must even remain connected 20s at 47Hz
69
Table II.5: Automatic Low Frequency Demand Disconnection scheme characteristics (Art 14,
ENTSO-E [2015a])
respect the following characteristics:
Parameter Values SA Values Values Values Measuring Unit

Continental SA SA Great SA
Europe Nordic Britain Ireland
Demand disconnection 49 48.7 – 48.8 48.85 Hz

starting mandatory level : 48.8
Frequency
Demand disconnection 5 5 5 6 % of the Total Load at

starting mandatory level: national level
Demand to be
disconnected
Demand disconnection 48 48 48 48.5 Hz

final mandatory level:
Frequency
Demand disconnection 45 30 50 60 % of the Total Load at

final mandatory level: national level
Cumulative Demand to be
disconnected
Implementation range ±7 ±10 ±10 ±7 % of the Total Load at

national level, for a given
Frequency
Minimum number of steps 6 2 4 6 Number of steps

to reach the final
mandatory level
Maximum Demand 10 15 10 12 % of the Total Load at

disconnection for each national level, for a given
step step
Table 1: Automatic Low Frequency Demand Disconnection scheme characteristics
Figure 6: The implementation range for LFDD plan

Figure II.12: Implementation range for LFDD plan [ENTSO-E, 2015b]
70
slight variations of the power system frequency
Evolution of asynchronous
machine characteristic faced with
Torque T (in N.m)
slight evolutions ± of the power
system frequency around its
nominal frequency 0 :
0-
0
0 +
Characteristic of the
mechanical load
Machine’s operation points
Speed rotor (in rad.s-1)
Figure II.13: Evolution of the asynchronous machine’s operation point faced with slight varia-
tions of the power system frequency
(MV) feeder. Moreover, a common fear of System Operators is the penetration of Distributed
Generation (DG) down these MV feeders. Such DGs are likely to engender an effect on system
stability that is the opposite of the theoretical expectations. The challenge of UFLS evolution
in the future is addressed in Section 2.4.
1.8 Contribution of self-regulation of load to power system stability

The loads that are connected to the power system can be split in two main categories of loads.
As a first category, the resistive loads gather all of the loads that have a resistive behaviour,
such as boilers, electric heaters, ovens, dryers. The power consumption of such kind of loads is
expressed by the equation (II.20), inherited from the famous Ohm’s law :
U2
P = (II.20)
R
where
P is the power consumption of the load (in W)

R is the resistance of the load (in Ω)
U is the power system voltage (in V)
Hence, the variation of the power consumption depends mainly on the power system voltage.
On the contrary there is no direct relation between the power consumption and the system
frequency. In addition, despite the voltage can vary when the power system faces imbalances,
the presence of On-Load Tap Changer (OLTC) in primary substations partly dissociates the
effect of wide-scale voltage variations on end-users load located on the distribution grids.
As a second category, the rotating loads gather all of the loads that are composed of a motor i.e.
a rotating machine. In the industry and tertiary sectors, a wide part of the rotating machines
71
are asynchronous machines, whose Torque-Rotational speed characteristics suffer of a speed

offset when the system frequency deviate from its nominal frequency, as illustrated in Figure
II.13. Considering a linear resistive characteristic of the mechanical shaft that is connected to
the machine, it results a shifting of motor’s operation towards both a lower rotational speed
and torque (Figure II.13). Given the power consumption of the machine equals the product
between the torque and the rotational speed (losses neglected), the reduction of the system
frequency induces a direct reduction of the power consumption of the machine. Conversely, the
power consumption increases when the system frequency rises. Such direct relation between the
system frequency and the power consumption is named the self-regulation of load.
ENTSO-E [2004b] assesses a variation of the overall load consumption of 1%/Hz at the scale
of the synchronous area of Continental Europe (CE) thanks to such self-regulation of load.
Considering a base-load of 150GW in CE, the self-regulation of load counts for a contribution
of 150GW × 0.01 × 180mHz = 270M W in the frequency range of contribution of the FCR. At
a peak-load of 300GW, it count for 300GW × 0.01 × 180mHz = 540M W .
270M W
Hence, the self-regulation of load represents a additional contribution from = 9% to
3000M W
540M W
= 18% of the FCR. As a result, this passive process of load regulation provides a
3000M W
significant contribution to the power system stability.
Difference between self-regulation supply and FCR supply

It has been seen that the effective contribution of the self-regulation of load is on the whole
proportional to the real-time level of load of the synchronous area. Hence, its effective
contribution is not guaranteed 24/7. As a preamble of Chapter III, Section 2 in Ch III
will show that quite a lot of solutions have been proposed in the literature to enlarge
the portfolio of loads able to contribute to the self-regulation of load by modifying their
default behaviour faced with frequency variation. Without coordination, the persistence
of a dependence between the level of consumption of the load and its contribution to the
system self-regulation brakes the contribution of all of these solutions to the supply of FCR,
that must respect the supply of a linear power-frequency characteristic 24/7. Faced with
such issue, the Primary Support concept claimed in Section 3 in Ch III is a distinguishing
solution.
2 Challenges of the frequency containment defence plan
The undergoing deregulation of the power markets associated with the large development of
Distributed Generation (DG) is likely to induce notable challenges with respect to the processes
of load-frequency regulation. The whole chain of processes could be affected such as the pro-
curement of FCR, the rising solicitation of FCR, the lowering of the system inertia and the
degradation of the efficiency of the UFLS emergency scheme. The following Sections 2.1 to 2.4
provide highlights on the detailed causes and potential consequences on system stability.
72
2. CHALLENGES OF THE FREQUENCY CONTAINMENT DEFENCE PLAN
2.1 Degradation of conventional FCR providing units’ availability
2.1.1 Periodic non-availability of conventional generation
The Frequency Containment Processes (FCP) currently in operation in Europe, continue to

rely only on the contribution of large-scale conventional generation. The involvement of either
bulk or distributed load modulation is still largely anecdotal, despite the recommendations of
ENTSO-E to go in this direction. Such position would be formalized soon with the approval by
the EC of the Network Code on Load-frequency control and reserves [ENTSO-E, 2013a]. The
acceptance of load modulation assets among the pool of FCR supplying units, would probably
not constitute a significant enough decision to renew the historic pool of FCR assets. Without
specific incentives, the FCP would continue to rely mainly on the contribution of conventional
generation flexibility.
Sunny Sunday in Germany

Each new record of RES-E peak production is
related in several press articles, as a piece of blue
sky among the set of articles saddened by the
failure of worldwide climate change mitigation
policies. For the power system actors however,
such articles highlight something else: How the
supply of FCR or FRR could remain guaranteed
at midday, while the production of ramp up and source: http://cleantechnica.com
down bulk generation units have already been divided by two and operate at their minimum
rating power? If the situation is still under control at the moment, it could change in the
future and force the TSO to find new sources of FCR and FRR within their border to
maintain the network robustness.
Meantime, conventional bulk generation is facing the competition of RES-E, connected to both
the transmission and distribution grids. In the tiniest areas, it now occurs during periods of
the day where the residual load, i.e. the difference between the net load minus the stochastic
RES-E generation is negative. Figure II.14 highlights the evolution over the last years of the
phenomenon in both bidding areas of Denmark. DK West faced this issue 10% of the time in
2013, while DK East is not concerned yet.
This means that during these periods a given network would be self-sufficient while turning off
temporarily its conventional generation units. Furthermore, it means that in the context of no
power exportation ability due to interconnection congestion or in a situation of micro-grid for
example, either conventional generation would have been turned-off or RES-E curtailed, in the
absence of DR or ESS.
However turning-off conventional generation would obstruct the delivery of FCR, jeopardizing
the system stability. Consequently, System Operators would have as unique choice to curtail
RES-E and keep bulk generation running, while the stochastic RES-E such as photovoltaic and
73
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Figure II.14: Annual occurrence of negative residual load in West Denmark (in % of the time.
10%=876hrs a year) (data: Energinet [2015])
wind power would have a much cheaper marginal cost. Despite being based on already old data,
Figure II.15 enables the marginal cost of each technology to be quickly assessed by summing up
the fuel and carbon costs of each of these technologies. Such over-cost of generation should then
be billed as a system security cost.
2.1.2 Loss of business interest in FCR supply
Inspired from the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) presented in Figure II.15, a second
concern adresses the profitability that bulk generation units can expect from the supply of FCR
services instead of being involved on the wholesale markets.
A small case study has been launched during this PhD work to assess such a risk. It aimed first
to assess the cost of providing 1MWh bid on the wholesale market or 1MW 1hr-long bid on the
FCR markets. The idea has then been to compare these costs with the income that could be
expected from each market. The case study assumes that:
The wholesale income range corresponds to the mean pondered day-ahead wholesale spot
prices observed by Lebel et al. [2015a] from 2010 to 2014 in the Nordics and Baltics.
The FCR income range is assessed from Figure I.6.
The wholesale generation costs correspond to the LCOE of each technology (Figure II.15)
The cost of FCR supply assumes 97.5% of fuel and carbon costs saving subtracted from the
LCOE of each technology (Figure II.15), given that it can be roughly estimated from Figure
II.16 that the FCR is fully activated at most 2.5% of the time.
Last but not least, it is assumed that a power unit of 1MW has to sell 0.5MWh on the
wholesale market to then be able to trade 0.5MW/hr of FCR. This reason comes from the
obligation for the FCR supplier to provide both up and down service of ±0.5M W per MW of
capacity, that requires an operation of the power unit at 0.5MW of load per MW of capacity
in normal frequency situation.
74
160 Median
140
120
LCOE (USD/MWh)
100
80
60
40
20
0
CCGT Coal Nuclear CCGT Coal Nuclear CCGT Coal Nuclear
3% 7% 10%
400
Median
350
300
LCOE (USD/MWh)
250
200
150
100
50
0
Onshore wind
Offshore wind
Onshore wind
Offshore wind
Onshore wind
Offshore wind
Residential PV
Commercial PV
Large, ground-mounted PV
Residential PV
Commercial PV
Residential PV
Commercial PV
3% 7% 10%
Figure II.15: Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) - 2015 - 3% to 10% discount rate [IEA, 2015]
The results displayed in Table II.6 show that only nuclear would be competitive for the supply
of FCR out of peak spot prices period. But on the other hand, it would have been much more
profitable for nuclear operators to sell all of their capacity on the wholesale market. Meanwhile,
the supply of FCR would become profitable for gas-fired units - especially gas turbines - during
these peak prices given that it induces significant fuel cost savings in units that have a low
investment costs (wholesale prices ≥ 70e/MWh for CCGT and ≥ 100e/MWh for gas turbines,
assuming an FCR price of 30e/MW/h). Despite the lack of data regarding hydro, it can
be assessed that hydro power is an interesting supplier of FCR, thanks to the water saving
75
Table II.6: Estimation of the FCR and wholesale marginal cost and incomes depending on the
technology used for 1MW of installed capacity
Cost
Income
Nuclear Gas CCGT Gas Turbine
Wholesale 30-60e/MWh 42e/MWh 82e/MWh 120 e/MWh
FCR 7.5-15e/MW/h
41e/MW/h 51e/MW/h 66 e/MW/h
+ 50% Wholesale + 15-30e/MWh
obtained by being involved in such service, that is closer to a capacity than an energy service.
The behaviour of the French producer EDF confirms such a feeling: it maximizes the solicitation
of hydro power for FCR supply. It enables first EDF to maximize its involvement of its nuclear
units on the wholesale markets. It enables then EDF to spare water, and use hydro power on
the wholesale market during high prices periods only.
Such conclusion highlights that a disinterest is possible amongst the historical producers for
FCR in any area where the FCR market is open to competition such as in Germany and in the
Nordics. In France, bulk generation operators would be welcome to outsource their supply of
FCR - rules pending for January 2016 - if they found cheaper suppliers. Moreover, the supply
of FCR induces an additional mechanical solicitation of the turbines and rotating machines that
are not welcome by the producers (see SEA Energia’s witness in Section 3.4).
76
Process in 2013.
Figure 9: Evolution of Frequency Deviations in NE

Figure II.16: Evolution of frequency deviation in the Northern Europe Synchronous Area over
the 15 last years [ENTSO-E, 2013e]
Nordics experience larger FCR prices during night

The opened data provided by Energinet [2015] DK East FNR & FDR prices on Jan 7-8th , 2015
30
FNR
enable the access to the hourly evolution of FCR
FCR bid prices (in €/MW/h)
25 FDR
prices in both the bidding areas of DK West - 20
connected to synchronous area CE - and DK East 15
- connected to synchronous area NE. It can be

10
5
observed that FCR prices in DK East are up to 0
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 1
three times more expensive during night (0 to Time of the day (in hr)
7am) than during the day. This seems to be in-

source: Appendix C.3
duced by the specific unit commitment scheme the delivery of FCR imposes to power pro-
ducers, as assessed as well by Farrokhseresht et al. [2015]. On the contrary, the periods of
negative residual load (Figure II.14), that occurs during nights of high wind production did
not impact up to now the FCR prices, compared to the nights of low wind production.
2.2 Degradation of the frequency quality inducing larger FCR solicitation
Over fifteen years, the occurrence of frequency deviation disturbances larger than 100mHz has
been multiplied by ten in the Northern Europe synchronous area (NE). It reaches a trend of
frequency excursion out of this bandwidth 2.5% of the time in 2011 (Figure II.16). Figure II.17
provides one part of the explanation of this trend: most frequency excursions occur around
full clock, that matches for each producer with the switch from one unit commitment plan to
the next one. The deviations are even larger at 7:00, and 20:00 and 21:00 where the HVDC
flows change significantly between the Northern Europe (NE) and Continental Europe (CE)
synchronous areas [ENTSO-E, 2013e]. It corresponds to a discontinuity of the production plan
that is induced by the trading of one-hour long power bids on the market, while most of the load
consumption follows a continuous path. A second explanation could come from the penetration
of intermittent RES-E that complicates the balance forecast.
77
Figure 11: Daily occurrence of high average System Frequency Deviations in NE in 2009-2010
Figure II.17: Daily occurrence of high frequency deviation in Northern Europe Synchronous
area in 2009-2010 [ENTSO-E, 2013e]
2.3 Degradation of the system inertia
One of the oldest contributions assessing the impact of large RES-E interconnected to the power
system came from Holttinen [2004] and Holttinen et al. [2009] with a focus on wind generation.
At that time, power electronics were not commonly used in wind turbines architectures and
the main concern of Holttinen [2004] was dedicated to the impact of sudden variations of wind
power production on the system security. The author’s fear was to observe in the future sudden
imbalance events at the scale of a synchronous area that would be larger than the reference
incident for which the FCR is sized. Holttinen [2004] concluded that the spatial variation of
wind from turbine to turbine and from wind plant to wind plant lightens the effect of wind
variation on the power output variation. As a result, wide wind power penetration would not
require a modification of size of the FCR. The same effect would be expected for photovoltaic
(PV) cloud effects at a regional scale, since the clouds’ formation and movement is driven by the
wind speed and is a slow phenomenon compared to time challenges of power system security.
As suggested above, Holttinen et al. [2009] did not fully assess however the impact that power
electronics penetration among RES-E technologies would induce. There is currently a rising
feeling of certainty among the power system actors regarding how the system security will
evolve with the penetration of these technologies. The concerns address first PV installations
connected to the grid through DC/AC inverters. It concerns then new wind turbines that
embed a AC/DC/AC architecture instead of a conventional switch gear to maximize their power
production. Having these architectures, these RES-E technologies are not seen any more by the
grid as rotating machines. Consequently they do not contribute to the system inertia. As a
result, experts foresee that the phasing out of bulk generation units and their replacement by
such power electronic based RES-E will induce a reduction of the system inertia.
Das et al. [2015] investigated such concerns by performing simulations on one part of PEGASE
system model [Villella et al., 2012], which represents the power system of western Denmark
(DK West). In their model DK West is devoid of interconnection with the rest of Europe. It
78
Figure II.18: Decrease of system inertia with increase in wind penetration replacing conventional
generations [Das et al., 2015]
Figure II.19: Effect of the increase in wind penetration (replacing conventional generators) on
frequency Nadir (red surface), depending on the availability of primary reserves. Comparison of
the frequency Nadir with the first UFLS step at 49Hz (purple surface) [Das et al., 2015]
results a 5140 MW grid, initially composed of 970MW of CCGT, 10MW of hydro and 4160MW
of steam generator. In the simulations, the steam is progressively replaced by DC-connected
wind turbines for a wind penetration rising from 0% to 80%. The simulation highlights finally
a halving of the system inertia with a wind penetration of 40% (Figure II.18).
Das et al. [2015] analysed then the impact that wind penetration has on system frequency drop
following the disconnection of 400MW of generation, assumed as a reference incident. The
authors took the amount of primary reserve - i.e. FCR - available, as a second input parameter.
In the literature the lowest system frequency value reached following an incident is named
the frequency Nadir. The impact of both the wind penetration and the availability of FCR
resources on the frequency Nadir is presented in Figure II.19. The authors added on Figure
II.19 the frequency threshold of disconnection of the first step of UFLS (purple surface) applied
in the area of study i.e 49Hz (see Table II.5 for Europe). This threshold is represented by a flat
purple area set at the value of 49Hz. Each time the frequency Nadir goes under 49Hz, grid users
interruption are induced. That challenges both the system reliability and the Key Performance
79
Indicators (KPIs) of the System Operators. Figures II.18 and II.19 highlight that the higher
the wind penetration, the lower the system inertia and the lower the frequency Nadir. And the
lower the frequency Nadir, the poorer the System Operator’s KPIs.
Moreover Figure II.19 shows that from a given limit of inertia, the Rate of Change of Frequency
(ROCOF) becomes too large to enable a reliable operation of the FCR. This underlines that
conventional FCR is not fast enough to prevent UFLS relays tripping (see contractual delays
of activation of ≈ 5-15s in Figure II.10). Therefore, it appears a need to speed up the FCR
activation. Das et al. [2015] investigated a first palliative that relies on the supply of faster
FCR provided from wind turbines. This on-site supply aims to increase the admissible wind
penetration rate. The authors claim a significant improvement, enabling earnings of 13 to 28
points on the admissible wind penetration rate. However these improvements are not free of
cost: respectively 20% and 40% of the wind production would have to be pre-curtailed to ensure
a stable power system. This counters the objective of full grid coupling of carbon-free power
production assets.
Cardozo et al. [2015] highlighted finally another challenge of system inertia degradation due
to RES-E. The authors studied the case of PV on the islanded networks of EDF SEI. Their
conclusions show that PV penetration is capable of strongly modifying the unit commitment of
coal and fuel-fired assets. Hence it modifies the amount of the kinetic energy that is available
on the network along the day (Figure II.20). As a direct consequence, it modifies the power
system inertia. The authors showed that a lack of inertia increases the risk of UFLS activation
from 0 to 70%, when passing from a PV penetration rate of 30% to 70% [passing from 6hr to
19-27hr of UFLS activation per year]. However, the conclusion is not so simple. In some peri-
ods, the number of partly-loaded units committed enable the maintain of the system reliability
despite large RES-E injection. Indeed, such partly-loaded units are capable of supplying FCR,
while supplying kinetic energy to the system. In some other hours, the kinetic energy of the
system collapses (Figure II.20), and UFLS activation occurs. Cardozo et al. [2015] claims finally
that allowing PV curtailment in some precise situations would enable a limitation of the risk
of instability. Additionally, it would limit the number of costly start-ups and shut-downs of
conventional units, while the curtailment would induce less than 1% of loss of PV production
per year. It appears as a both cost and system efficient logic.
2.4 Degradation of UFLS scheme efficiency
Section 1.7 presented the principle of operation of UFLS: the blind and automatic shedding of
entire primary substation feeders, one after the other at predetermined frequency thresholds,
starting from 49Hz, to prevent the system collapse in case of exceptional events.
Members of the power system community have recently expressed some doubts regarding the
guarantee of efficiency of such a process, faced with a wide connection of Distributed Generation
(DG) within the distribution network. Their fear relies on the observation that these DG would
be connected at MV feeders that are controlled by UFLS relays within the primary substations.
80
1600
1400
Kinetic Energy (MWs)

1200
1000
800
600
Case A
400 Case B
Case C
200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324
Time step (hour)
Figure II.20: Evolution of system kinetic energy along the day in islanded network depending of
PV production and inherited unit commitment of conventional generation units. Case A/B/C:
different strategies of grid tariff, likely to modify the unit commitment strategies of power
producers [Cardozo et al., 2015]
As a result, the effectiveness of the disconnection of these feeders would be reduced compared
to the situation without DG. Three different situations would occur:
Legend:
PDG : production of the DG located at a given MV feeder subjected to UFLS.
Pload : local load located along such MV feeder.
PDG < Pload

The MV feeder still imports power from the transmission network. Its shedding stays bene-
ficial for the system balance, but its efficiency can be lower than expected, especially if the
UFLS sizing method used the historic sizing rule that relies on fixed reference load, such as
the third Thursday of January, used in France (Section 1.7).
PDG = Pload
The MV feeder approaches a state of self power-load balance. Its shedding is absolutely
useless for the system balance while it damage the System Operator’s KPI due to the inter-
ruption induced.
PDG > Pload

The MV feeder has a negative vertical load i.e. it is exporting power to the transmission
network. Hence, it contributes in a positive way to the restoration of the system balance,
following a disturbance. Its shedding would be dangerous for the system security.
Finally, the lower the system size, the worse the impact. Moreover this issue of DG tripping
has to be considered seriously in small power systems such as islanded systems. In addition,
DG penetration is growing much faster in such small systems thanks to a much more favourable
81
Unique Interconnection Top-down Top-down

subjected to tripping power flow & down-
only flows
UFLS 0.48 pu 0.48 pu
ciency 0.52 pu 0.38 pu
~ ~
Reduction of UFLS load
disconnection capacity
UFLS relays UFLS relays
Kuching Kuching
Island Island
ES-E 1pu =
30% RES-E 1pu =
etration 282MVA penetration 0.14 pu 282MVA
Figure II.21: Evolution of Power flow in Kuching Island faced with to 30% RES-E penetration
[Lebel et al., 2015c]
Figure II.22: Effect of UFLS weakening due to by RES-E spreading on Kuching power system
face to the reference incident (loss of the 0.48pu interconnection) [Lebel et al., 2015c]
grid parity cost of these assets compared to the assets deployed in large interconnected systems.
To illustrate such concerns, simulations have been performed during this PhD work on a semi-
islanded network, representing the 218MVA system of the Asian island of Kuching [Lebel et al.,
2015c]. Kuching has the particularity of being connected to the mainland through one unique
interconnection that affords a cheaper power than the local generation using fossil fuel (Figure
II.21). Aik [2006] proposed an optimization of the UFLS scheme that enables the maximisation
of the use of the interconnection while keeping the local network safe from blackout in case of
the tripping of such interconnection following a fault. The model used reproduced accurately
the results of Aik [2006] by applying his model. The model outcomes conclude that such an
UFLS scheme does not remain resilient if the DG penetration is larger than 20%, reducing the
effectiveness of the UFLS scheme of the same magniture. Figure II.22 presents the simulation
results with scenarios of 0%, 10% or 30% penetration of RES-E.
82
Vertical grid load Tennet Germany- July 2015

14
Vertical grid load (in GW)

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
Day of the month
Figure II.23: Vertical grid load flow from Tennet Germany transmission network down to the
distribution grids - July 2015 (data: Tennet [2015])
The present issue has been assessed as well by De Boeck and Van Hertem [2015], who proposed
three methodologies that are likely to handle this issue of UFLS weakening. The authors pro-
posed first to introduce a simple tripping conditioned to the current direction. The second option
is to modify the tripping priority of the feeders depending on a combination of the hour of the
day and of the installed PV capacity of the feeder. The last option is finally to pre-coordinate
the tripping to handle as best as possible the PV power injected close to real-time, thanks to a
ranking of feeder tripping efficiency. This "Smart" approach requires however a replacement of
the actual UFLS relays by new ones embedding ICT to enable the coordination.
The risk of UFLS degradation is less challenging on the large interconnected system. However,
the situation could evolve in the future. Tennet [2015] publishes for instance the net vertical
grid load2 that flows from its transmission network down to the distribution grids in Germany.
Figure II.23 shows that such a vertical grid load can become negative in summer time periods.
During these periods, it means that most of the power is injected by DG on MV feeders down
primary substations and not by historic bulk generation assets. Irremediably, it means that part
of the UFLS-equipped MV feeders have a negative vertical load - i.e. PDG > Pload . Therefore
the degradation of UFLS efficiency would concern both islanded and interconnected systems at
mid term.
2
"The vertical grid load is the corrected sum of all transfers from the transmission network in the TSO’s
control area via directly connected transformers and lines to distribution networks and end consumers." source:
https://www.tennettso.de
83
Experimentation of industrial load involvement in FCR supply in France

The French regulator (CRE) introduced in June 2014 an experiment for the involvement of
industrial load for the supply of up to 40MW of FCR [CRE, 2014a]. Since 2015, RTE has
been allowed to raise this amount up to 200MW without modification of the regulator state-
ments. Even if only loads that are connected to the transmission system are eligible during
the initial period of experiment, an extension to any load connected to the distribution grid
is foreseen. Such extension follows the spirit of the Network Code and Load-Frequency Con-
trol and Reserves [ENTSO-E, 2013a]. CRE requests from RTE a feedback of the experiment
by January 2016.
These new FCR bids are not purchased directly by RTE but by any producer engaged
towards RTE for the supply of FCR. Thus, these engaged producers are allowed to outsource
the procurement of FCR they have to supply to the TSO. As of July 1st, 2014, RTE
commited eight actors for the procurement and trading of FCR. Two of them are only
power aggregators (Energypool, Actility) while the six other ows production assets (EDF,
CNR, Engie, POWEO, ALPIQ AG and E.ON).
3 Conclusion of Chapter II
The System Operators commonly rely on four reserve means to guarantee the reliability of their
power systems. ENTSO-E renamed in the last years theses reserves as the FCR, the FRR, the
RR and finally the LFDD, in replacement of the former Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and UFLS
reserves. Among them, the FCR and the LFDD are the unique autonomous and real-time
reserves, that ensure the stability of the power systems. The FCR is the conventional mean
of regulation of the system frequency. Historically, the FCR is supplied by bulk generation
units. These assets must initiate the modulation of their level of load within the 15 seconds
after a disturbance occurred. The magnitude of such an injection of FCR is proportional to
the frequency deviation observed. Such an injection is predefined according to linear power-
frequency characteristic. Conversely, the LFDD is an emergency reserve that leads to step-by-
step blind shedding of primary substation feeders, as soon as the system frequency drops by more
than 1Hz. Any activation of LFDD relays induces an interruption in the supply of end-users,
that deteriorates the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the System Operators concerned.
The challenge of the System Operators is thus to have a sufficient and a fast-enough amount of
FCR at their disposal to keep the frequency Nadir higher than the first frequency threshold of
tripping of the LFDD.
Hence, the present chapter has presented the four main challenges the System Operators will
face to ensure the procurement of a sufficient amount of fast-enough FCR, faced with evolving
power system paradigms. First of all, a lack of availability of conventional FCR resources
would occur. Firstly, such a lack would be induced by a lack of competitiveness of the FCR
markets for these assets compared to the revenue they could earn on the wholesale markets.
Secondly, such lack would be induced by the periodic non-availability of bulk generation assets
84
3. CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER II
in periods of negative residual loads. The second concern addresses the degradation of frequency
quality. Such degradation is provoked by the discontinuity of the unit commitment plan around
the clock limit from one bidding hour to the other, while the demand is continuous. Such a
degradation becomes a risk for the system stability while it constitutes an additional obstacle
to the involvement of suppliers of FCR, that fears a larger solicitation and an over-ageing of
their assets. The third concern addresses the degradation of system inertia. Such a degradation
is engendered by both the penetration of power electronics interfaces in the newest RES-E
technologies and the phasing-out of bulk generation assets. Last but not least, the spreading of
DG down the primary substations is capable of dampening the effective impact of the activation
of LFDD’s relays on the power system balance. Therefore it would degrade the efficiency of the
LFDD at the power system scale.
In light of these statements and in regards to the opportunity of spreading of DER flexibilities,
this PhD work endeavours to develop an architecture that enables the supply of FCR, thanks
to a coordinated modulation of DERs. In addition the architecture targets activation delays
shorter than the delays presented allowed by ENTSO-E. This concept entitled Primary Support
is presented in Chapter III.
85
CHAPTER III
Innovation Concept of Primary

Support
Chapter III
Innovation Concept of Primary

Support
The present chapter presents Primary Support, a concept of coordinated modulation of the level
of loads of DERs, capable of supplying both FCR and UFLS/LFDD reserves. Primary Support
has been thought of as an answer to the coming challenges of frequency stability summarized in
the previous Chapter II (Section 2).
Section 1 details how Primary Support addresses these challenges. Section 2 benchmarks the
innovative nature of Primary Support within the existing literature, reviewing both scientific
publications and patents. The concept and operational processes of Primary Support are then
presented in Section 3. Section 4 summarizes finally the value proposition of Primary Support.
1 Primary Support: a response to the challenges of system sta-

bility
Chapter 2 highlighted four main types of challenges to be addressed in the future by System
Operators in order to guarantee the system stability with regards to frequency deviation events.
Primary Support concept has been developed and validated precisely to answer to these pre-
determined challenges. The genesis of the operational specifications of Primary Support is
detailed in Table III.1. It relies on the identification of functional specifications that address
these challenges. These functional specifications have then been converted into the operational
specifications that are at the core of Primary Support.
Fulfilling the operational specifications results in the definition of an architecture of coordinated

modulation of DERs. The detailed concept is presented in Section 3. It aims to supply FCR
based on DER assets in order to replace or supplement the historic contribution of bulk gen-
eration units. Depending on the load processes controlled by Primary Support, shorter FCR
activation delay would be expected compared to the current FCR providing units, that would
provide a first answer to the reduction of system inertia. In addition, Primary Support relies on
DER assets which are connected at LV feeders. Hence, Primary Support could be used as an
89
CHAPTER III. INNOVATION CONCEPT OF PRIMARY SUPPORT
Table III.1: From frequency stability challenges to the functional and operational specifications
of Primary Support
Challenges
Lack of availability Degradation of Degradation of Degradation of UFLS
of conventional FCR frequency quality system inertia efficiency
resources
Functional specifications
- Need for the - Need for FCR - Need for FCR - Need for FCR
contribution of new resources willing to be resources having a resources adapted to
kind of reserves activated more often to shorter activation islanded context, more
deal with the rising delay to handle high distributed among the
- Make the FCR
number of frequency ROCOF networks
market economically
deviation events
as interesting as the
other power markets
Operational specifications
- Involve Distributed -Rely on DERs - Rely on DERs whose - Rely on DERs
Energy Ressources involved in load modulation is connected to the LV
(DER) in the interruptible processes doable up and down network
Frequency without delay neither
Containment Process recovery period, i.e. is
reversible
- Focus especially on - Develop a process - Rely on DERs
Demand Response where load modulation activable on a wide
(DR) contribution due activation is not frequency range down
to business concerns impacted by ICT to the limit of UFLS
delays activation
adaptive emergency load-shedding scheme, that would remain robust despite the penetration of
DG at MV and LV feeders and compensate the lack of efficiency of the UFLS. Primary Support
would therefore provide frequency-controlled reserves that are compliant with the FCR rules,
while providing as well reserves which are operational between the frequency range of activation
of the UFLS and FCR, as pre-UFLS reserve (Figure III.1).
The review of the existing literature, completed by a review of patents confirmed the innovative
nature of the concept which has continuously evolved since 2013. The closest patents and the
publications that go in the direction of Primary Support are presented in Section 2.
90
2. STATE OF THE ART OF DISTRIBUTED FREQUENCY CONTROL
SUITABLE RANGE OF OPERATION
UFLS FCR 50Hz
48Hz 49Hz 49.8Hz 49.98Hz

EMERGENCY CONVENTIONAL
Figure III.1: Suitable frequency range of operation of Primary Support
2 State of the art of distributed frequency control

The principle of the distribution of frequency regulation means is a service not so new. The first
applications focussed on fully autonomous systems, devoid of any communication channel. The
application relied on down-the-meters tripping relays. Somehow, it aimed at doing within the
LV network what System Operators already do on the MV network with the UFLS tripping re-
lays (Section 1.7). Besore and Bcycrle [2013] and Fleck [2014] proposed a controller, interposed
between a utility’s network and a load, acting autonomously based on predefined threshold.
Based on a similar principle, Koritarov [2013] wished to modulate EV charging cycles, depend-
ing on the network frequency, Cannon et al. [2007] embedded the process into a thermostat
and Hammerstrom et al. [2007] introduced the shedding of dryer and water heaters faced with
emergency situations. Ockert et al. [2008] brought an innovation in the process introducing a
delay before the load-shedding, likely to play the role of a hysteresis. Qhihat [2012] proposed a
load shedding system to face frequency deviation, as a way of protecting the electrical devices,
without specific concerns regarding system stability. Most of the patents quoted above imple-
ment a reversible process with automatic load re-connection when the load rise back above the
frequency threshold. Such a reversibility differs significantly from the UFLS relays that require
a manual reactivation of the loads.
Some applications rely on wide numbers of frequency-controlled relays responding at the same
frequency threshold to emulate the behaviour of one unique UFLS step. On the contrary some
other applications rely on the random assignment of thresholds among the portfolio of relays
commissioned. Using such a scheme, Molina-Garcia et al. [2011] target to obtain a linear droop.
To obtain it, the authors assess that the random assignment of threshold would induce a linear
distribution of the frequency thresholds, at the condition that a portfolio of aggregation is large
enough. Actually these applications are more emergency systems close to the UFLS than FCR-
compliant applications.
Nonetheless, apart from their strict contribution to a UFLS scheme, the introduction of a lin-
ear droop as proposed by Molina-Garcia et al. [2011] enables the creation of an effect of self-
regulation of loads. Such an application can be interesting for the control of resistive loads whose
power consumption remains independent of the network frequency unlike the rotating machines.
As stated in Section 1.8 in Ch II, ENTSO-E [2004b, 2009] assume already as input the natural
self-regulation of loads that occurs on the transmission network of Continental Europe (CE) to
establish a resilient defence plan in case of sudden imbalance. Hence the application proposed
by Molina-Garcia et al. [2011] would enable to increase this ratio of self-regulation of loads and
91
therefore improve the system security.
However such autonomous systems are static. Hence their contribution to the system stability
is not constant through time, given that the power consumption of the portfolio of the loads
controlled varies along the day and the season. Therefore Zhao et al. [2013] introduced an in-
genious neighbourhood communication between the load controllers of a given area. Each load
controller calculates its load reduction target, broadcasts its target to the other load controllers,
and adapts its effective contribution depending on the feed-back it received. Such a process en-
ables the guarantee of a constant contribution at the scale of portfolio of coordination. However
Zhao et al. [2013] rely only on distributed peer-to-peer communication, that do not enable the
System Operator to send specific feed-back. Despite a first guarantee of reserve availability, the
System Operator does not have any control yet to modify the amount of reserves called.
However introducing a way of monitoring the availability of reserve would not be an innovation
by itself for the final application targeted. For example, Black et al. [2012] already introduced
the notion of estimation of the available flexibilities among a portfolio of loads, based on data
exchange between loads controllers and a coordination agent. In a centralized way, some applica-
tions introduced the ability of remotely updating the threshold embedded in the load controller
thanks to a communication channel connected to a Network Operations Center (NOC) [Hodge
and Sutton, 2001]. It remains mainly a hardware-based application, that neither focusses on
frequency control nor provides specific logic of threshold programming to reach predetermined
objectives.
Additional contributions targeted then the introduction of a coordination of DERs for the sup-
ply of ancillary services products that are closer to the FCR. Yuen et al. [2011] introduced a
decentralized control system setup, wherein each DG unit - possibly compensated by ESS -
applies a power-frequency droop equivalent to the droop currently applied by bulk generation
assets. Such power-frequency droop would approach the standard FWHZ function claimed by
IEC 61850-7-420 [2015] (Figure III.4). An aggregating agent is then introduced by the authors
to scale-up each marginal contribution to a significant-enough size. In the absence of ESS units,
it would however force a pre-curtailment of wind power and PV injection to enable the supply
of upward FCR regulation. Based on the notion of aggregation, mainly driven by commercial
purposes, their approach is finally not so different from the supply of FCR by large-scale wind
turbines as already proposed by several contributions such as Erlich and Wilch [2010] or Das
et al. [2015].
Finally, if a notable patent addressing economic optimization would have to be quoted, it would
be the one of Tyagi et al. [2014], who introduced a decision process where the marginal cost of
each bid is weighted by its effectiveness on the system. Such an approach would become valuable
for load frequency control processes if it enables the consideration in the optimization process
of the position of each FCR providing unit within the LV network in regards with the position
of the UFLS relays at the primary substation.
At the end, the review of the documents quoted above, in parallel of the review of 86 patents
92
2. STATE OF THE ART OF DISTRIBUTED FREQUENCY CONTROL
that are detailed in Appendix D (page 195) leads to the identification of three main kinds of
contributions: smart-less tripping relays adapted for static frequency stability defence plan ;
aggregation platforms that assess the potential of flexibility through a monitoring of loads and
; aggregation platforms designed for system scale-up of local droop. However, none1 of the
solutions propose the delivery of an accurate power-frequency characteristic, controlled over the
time, adaptable depending on both the power system needs and flexibility resources availability,
and involving DERs that are not able to provide by themselves a droop that acts continuously
on a wide-enough frequency range. As mentioned in Section 1, this is precisely the target of the
Primary Support concept. The detailed concept of Primary Support is presented in Section 3.
Supply of FCR by distributed ESS

A lithium-ion battery of 2MW/1.3MWh has been connected to a 20kV feeder operated by
Enedis (ex-ErDF), for the need of the Venteea [2015] demonstration project. The system
which is coordinated by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) produced by Schneider
Electric [2015a] (Modicon M340), targets the supply of a dozen of services to the utilities
[Colin et al., 2015], including the supply of FCR. In their demonstration model, Amamra
et al. [2015] target to perform full time FCR supply while providing parallel services when
the State of Charge (SoC) of the battery is contained in a [20;80%] range to guarantee the
continuity of supply of FCR.
In parallel, National Grid - the British TSO - has published in September 2015 a call for
tender for the procurement of 200MW of ESS capacity. The assets must have a FCR full
activation time of at most 1s and a Maximum FCR full activation period of 1hr (see Figure
II.10 in page 65). It is reminded that the present FCR need for FCR in the synchronous
area of Great Britain (GB) is of 600MW (FigureII.9 in Figure 64). Deign [2015] announced
the tender "resulted in 68 project submissions totalling 1.3GW . Of all the submissions, 888
MW were for battery projects and the remainder included alternative technologies, such as
flywheels and diesel-battery hybrid plants". The motivation of National Grid is "to offset
losses in spinning reserve as all of the UK’s coal-fired plants are due to be closed over the
next 10 years", expressing thus the same fears as it has been developed in Section 2.1 in Ch
II.
The unknowns - activation time, battery ageing, remuneration, etc. - that used to remain
around the involvement of batteries in the supply of FCR seem to have been resolved.
The distributed involvement of large battery assets (≥ 1M W ) could be THE revolution of
system stability by 2020 and become a significant part of the State of the art of distributed
frequency control.
1
an initiative close to Primary Support and involving Schneider Electric USA seems to be in pipes (information
from March 2015). This one cannot be referenced here due to Intellectual Properties issues.
93
3 Concept of Primary Support

Primary Support is a solution that introduces a coordination for the modulation of the level
of injection/withdrawal of a pool of flexible DERs. The frequency range of operation targeted
by the solution would encroach upon either the FCR or the UFLS range (Figure III.1). By
doing so, the solution enables first the supply of FCR (see challenges in Table III.1). It could
then pre-empt partly the blind tripping of UFLS relays in case of major frequency excursions.
Thus it could avoid the affecting of vital loads and avoid the disconnection of the Distributed
Generators (DG) whose availability is essential at any time for the system stability. It involves
sites that are potentially composed of one unique load controlled in ON/OFF (All-or-Nothing
mode). Each of these loads could not comply independently with the operational rules of the
ancillary services targeted, which justifies such aggregation of ON/OFF behaviours.
3.1 Multi-layers process
The robustness of the solution relies on a multi-layer process where the DERs (layer 0) are
controlled and coordinated by two successive upper layers. While doing so, the action of load
modulation itself (layer 1), which is performed in real-time, is split from the action of coordi-
nation of the modulation events (layer 2) of the loads which is performed ahead of real-time.
Close to real-time (≤ 15min), this action of coordination enables the determination of how each
DER must behave in order to reproduce the supply at the system scale of the expected ancillary
service such as the FCR. A last layer (layer 3) can eventually be introduced to allow a resilient
scale-up of the solution for the supply of several MW. Figure III.2 presents such a multi-layers
structure, from the DERs themselves (layer 0) up to the potential market interface (layer 3).
Sections 3.2 to 3.4 describe the expectations of Primary Support from layers 0 to 2. The early
developments of layer 3, which has not been fully deployed are presented in Section 3.5.
3.2 Targeted DERs - layer 0
Primary Support targets by priority the supply of upward frequency-controlled reserves involved
in the prevention of under-frequency events. The architecture of the solution remains however
fully compliant with the supply of downward reserves that are required to handle over-frequency
events. This priority is driven by three main reasons. First of all, under-frequency events are
usually more critical for the system stability than over-frequency ones. Secondly, the supply
of upward reserves is more challenging for bulk generation units than the supply of downward
reserves. The supply of upward reserves imposes actually the producers to limit their sales on the
wholesale markets, contrary to the downward reserves. Lastly, the price that System Operators
are willing to pay for upward reserves is larger than the price paid for downward reserves (see
Section 2.1.2), notably due to the two previous reasons.
For such an objective of upward reserves supply, the most adapted DERs are the distributed
loads, so-called Demand Response (DR) units. Primary Support focusses therefore mainly on the
coordination of DR. For the same reason as for bulk generation, the involvement of Distributed
94
3. CONCEPT OF PRIMARY SUPPORT
Layer 3
Traders
Inter-coordination
servers FCR bids
peer-to-peer Brokers Suppliers
exchange
Layer 2
Aggregator
PrimarySupport
Coordination
Servers
Flexible Resources
Operation / IU
Flexible Resources id server:
Operation / IU
’’controller-flexderps’’
Layer 1
DERs Controller
platename: platename:
’’G2Elab_A’’ ’MilanSEA’’
Layer 0
DERs
id load: ’’G2Elab_A_1’’ ’’MilanSEA_1’’ … … ’’MilanSEA_4’’
Figure III.2: IEC61850-7-420 compliant architecture of PrimarySupport
Generation (DG) for the supply of upward reserves is not so adapted, despite several initiatives
that go in this direction have been claimed. It requires actually a pre-curtailment of the DG
production to be able to later increase the power production following a frequency drop. The
contribution of carbon-free DG for such an upward reserve supply would even go so far in
opposition with the final objective of the maximization of both the grid and market coupling of
such assets.
On the contrary, the involvement of carbon-free DG for the supply of downward reserve would
be an interesting idea to explore. Indeed, it would not require any pre-curtailment. Therefore,
it would not impact so much both the grid and market coupling of such units, thanks to the
scarcity of frequency deviation events (see statistics in Section 4.3). Last but not least, it has
to be noticed that the supply of downward reserve can be done anyway using DR units which
are energized only in periods of over-frequency, and left off otherwise. Such reasons justify why
Primary Support has been thought of as well for the supply of downward reserves obtained from
any kind of DERs. However it has to be noticed that the present thesis does not treat in-depth
this downward side of delivery.
Given these operational constraints of FCR supply, Primary Support targets then the involve-
ment of distributed assets that can be re-energized as fast as they have been shed. The expected
shedding time is at most 10s, knowing that the shorter the delay, the better for both the system
95
Figure III.3: Kind of loads compliant with Primary Support
stability and the inherited business perspectives of Primary Support.
Primary Support is capable of controlling either domestic loads, tertiary loads or even some
industrial loads of contained size. Figure III.3 represents the kinds of loads considered as com-
pliant. In the domestic sector, a focus is dedicated on the thermal loads such as domestic heaters
and boilers. In the tertiary sector, the control of HVAC systems looks like a great opportunity,
taking the control of variable speed motors of compressors during periods of contained length.
The control of Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) during even shorter period appears as a third
great opportunity. The modulation of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging depending on the system
frequency is a great challenge for the future. However, such a challenge is conditioned to a suf-
ficient market penetration of EVs. Finally, a last challenging application is the control of public
lighting through voltage modulation. Lighting control for frequency regulation purpose is an
exciting application, given that lighting has been assumed from the emergence of the Demand
Response as a vital and uninterruptible load. Actually the objective of both UPS and public
lighting involvement in FCR supply has been targeted following the monitoring of the system
frequency each second over six weeks, whose results are reported in Section 4.3. In addition to
publishing this dataset, the Section 4.3 details why the involvement of such unusual loads for
Smart Grid purposes is consistent.
In the present applications, UPS and EVs are considered as DR and not as ESS assets: no power
re-injection on the grid is assessed. Moreover, ESS technologies themselves have been considered
as relatively out of the scope of Primary Support from the beginning of this PhD work. Such a
decision is mainly based on cost - there were no "Giga- Factories" built in 2013, as claimed by
Tesla. In addition, the involvement ESS dedicated to the supply of FCR, has not been assessed
as a deep research challenge, considering the significant flexibility of operation of ESS.
3.3 Real-time process - layer 1
The real-time process is the first operational layer of Primary Support. It relies on a DER
controller that acts autonomously and which decides on its own to modulate up or down the
DER it controls depending on the evolution of the system frequency. The modulation of the
level of load depending on the frequency follows a predetermined characteristic displayed in
96
(a) Without hysteresis: HysEna=false (b) With hysteresis: HysEna=true
Non accessible area Non accessible area

MaxWout MaxWout
FWHZ Full Activation Deviation FWHZ Full Activation Deviation
HzStr Fnadir event 1 HzStop HzStr Fnadir event 1
TotW frequency TotW frequency
Wgra ((% MaxWout)/Hz) Wgra ((% MaxWout)/Hz)
Full power
release related to time
evolution and not to
frequency evolution HzStopWgra ((% MaxWout)/min)
MinWout MinWout
Non accessible area Non accessible area
Power Power
Figure III.4: Characteristic of FWHZ function embedded into IEC61850-7-420-compliant DERs
Figure III.4. In both Figures III.4 (a) and (b), the green paths represent the maximum response
that the DER is able to provide face to severe frequency deviation. The blue paths represent
an intermediate response the DER has to provide following a frequency deviation up to the
frequency value Fnadir. In its basic version devoid of hysteresis (Figure III.4 (a)), the modulation
of the power consumption begins from a predetermined frequency threshold HzStr and follows
a power-frequency slope W gra. The process is perfectly reversible between the periods where
the DER is shed and re-energized. However, in the version with hysteresis (Figure III.4 (b)),
the process of re-energization of the DER is not reversible any more in term of power-frequency
pattern (dotted lines). Indeed, the slope of re-energization is expressed in term of power recovery
per unit of time and not per unit of frequency. Hence, the pattern of the power recovery on
the power-frequency chart differs from one event to the next one depending on the frequency
evolution during each period of recovery.
Figures III.4 (a) and (b) present a FWHZ power-frequency characteristic adapted for DG mod-
ulation, with a frequency Nadir larger than the nominal frequency (i.e. 50Hz in Europe). This
characteristic drives a reduction of the level of generation of DG faced with over-frequency event.
A similar characteristic, that relies on inverse direction is used as well in Primary Support for
the modulation of DR assets.
For the purpose of Primary Support, the frequency is measured on-site by the DER controller
thanks to a power meter having precise frequency measurement capability (0.01Hz - Table II.2).
This local frequency measurement enables the speed-up of the load modulation decision. Indeed
the action is not slowed down by remote communication delays.
The power-frequency characteristic followed by the DERs involved in Primary Support relies
on a data model defined by the Frequency-Watt mode logical node (FWHZ) of IEC 61850-7-420
[2015]. IEC 61850-7-420 [2015] is the international standard that structures the basic functional
behaviours of DERs. At mid-term, the deployment of a concept natively compliant with the
IEC61850 processes would make it easier to replicate and scale-up. This native compliance will
require to make the communication services of Primary Support compliant with the future IEC
97
61850-8-2 [2016].
The use of the FWHZ function enables the involvement of DER assets that can be modulated
either linearly or on-threshold depending on the frequency deviation. The involvement of loads
that can be controlled only with ON/OFF positions thanks to steady-state relays, solely requires
the definition of a W gra slope large enough to induce the shedding of the whole load within the
range of accuracy of the frequency measurement device. The method of calculation of Wgra for
such loads controlled on-threshold is detailed in Section 3.4.4. The reader is however reminded
that the initial spirit of Primary Support is to enable the contribution of DERs controlled in
ON/OFF to ancillary services that require a linear regulation at the system-scale thanks to a
coordination of DERs’ modulation thresholds. The FCR is an example of such ancillary service.
However the use of FWHZ increases the portfolio of addressable DERs likely to get aggregated
by the coordination platforms of Primary Support (layer 2 - see Section 3.4). Such increase of
the portfolio of addressable DERs is of importance to reach a critical size of aggregation in an
easier manner.
As identified in the state of the art (Section 2), the basic shedding of distributed loads at pre-
determined thresholds remains close to what has been done for decades to indirectly enhance
the behaviour of self-regulation of loads of the power system faced with a deep frequency drop.
The real innovation of Primary Support comes from the logic of updating both the threshold
HzStr and the slope W gra of each DER. Such a logic enables the supply of a FCR-compliant
product thanks to an aggregation of the behaviour of each of the DERs of a given portfolio. The
operational process of real-time coordination of the threshold HzStr and slope W gra of each
DER is presented in Section 3.4.2. Such a process is actually coordinated by an upper layer,
detailed in Section 3.4.
98
IEC 61850
IEC 61850 is a standard for the design of power utility automation. The initial works on IEC
61850 were initiated by EPRI and IEEE in 1988 before they merged their efforts with the
Technical Committee 57 (TC57) of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in
1997.
IEC 61850 has been developed to enable a wide interoperability between the control systems
employed to monitor and control the electric power components, regardless of the equip-
ment manufacturers. IEC 61850 features two major blocks of information: the definition of
operational functions (data modelling) and the mapping of communication processes (data
transfer).
The data modelling enables the standardization of the internal behaviour of each category
of network components, thanks to the definition of their operational functions defined as
Logical Nodes. The standards of data transfer aim to provide a fast and reliable mechanism
of transferring event data over the entire substation networks, using multicast, broadcast
services, etc. The current mappings in the standard are composed of MMS (Manufacturing
Message Specification), GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event), SMV (Sam-
pled Measured Values) and soon, Web Services. These protocols can run over TCP/IP
networks or substation LANs, using high speed switched Ethernet to obtain a response time
below four milliseconds, that is necessary for protective relaying.
While IEC61850 focussed initially on electrical substations, there are related standards
that emerged to characterize the DERs. IEC 61850-7-420 [2015] states a variety of logical
nodes associated to DERs’ behaviours, while IEC 61850-8-2 [2016] maps new communication
services, specifically designed for devices like DERs.
IEC 61850-8-2 [2016] introduces the use of XMPP, mapped on a MMS service - as for IEC
61850-8-1 [2011] - and encoded on a XML scheme.
3.4 Coordination of the distributed thresholds and slopes - layer 2
Each coordination server of Primary Support hosts a platform which operates the process of
coordination of the behaviours of each DER. Such coordination platforms belong to the layer 2
of Primary Support (Figure III.2). The coordination platforms are independent of one another.
Each of these are in charge of coordinating their own portfolio of DERs, in order to satisfy a set
of demands.
The first role of a coordination platform is to gather both the operation and business data
that are required to calculate the real-time parameters (HzStr, W gra, etc.) of each DER
of the portfolio of aggregation. The second role of the platform is to determine in advance
the parameters that each DER controller has to apply in real-time. The computation of these
parameters occurs minutes ahead of the operational time. An update of these parameters during
99
Slope of the targeted

POFF (f)
power-frequency
HzStrj
Pcumoff characteristic
Load- …
DER i
HzStr3
shedding HzStr2
order k=1…K … HzStr1
DER 3
DER 2
DER 1
f
Fa Fb
Figure III.5: Targeted step-by-step droop curve involving ON/OFF-driven DERs
the time of operation is available as well, when faced with a major change of the level of flexibility
of a given DER.
As previously claimed, the objective of such step of coordination is to provide at the power system
scale, any kind of resultant power-frequency characteristic. Such power-frequency characteris-
tic can be either linear (FCR pattern), composed of stairs (UFLS pattern) or a mix of both.
Moreover the DERs involved can be driven either through power steps (ON/OFF command) or
through a modulation of power that varies linearly depending on the system frequency.
Figure III.5 illustrates the basic principle of assignment of thresholds HzStrd , applied to a
set of DERs d, driven exclusively by ON/OFF commands and that lead to the supply of a
linear power-frequency characteristic which complies with the requirement of FCR. The key
idea behind the building of such a resultant curve looking like a stair, is to extend each piled
block of dispatchable power in parallel of the frequency axis up to cross the power-frequency
characteristic to be supplied (blue-dash line).
Section 3.4.1 presents first the input and output data of the algorithm of threshold coordination.
Section 3.4.2 presents then the flow of data among the different layers that enables a resilient
coordination of thresholds in operation while Section 3.4.3 presents the algorithm of threshold
coordination that has been developed. Section 3.4.4 explains finally how the conditions of
contribution of each DER controlled in ON/OFF mode have to be pre-configured in the DER
owners interface of Primary Support.
3.4.1 Operational parameters
The deployment of Primary Support requires the definition of 26 parameters per DER. 20
parameters among these 26 are directly used to compute the threshold coordination algorithm.
These 26 parameters are split into four categories which enable the characterization of either
the global behaviour of the DER, the real-time behaviour of the DER or the willingness of DER
owners to get their DER involved in the frequency regulation process. The fourth category
100
concerns parameters used only internally for a correct computation of the algorithm.
The parameters that characterize both the global and the real-time behaviour of each DER
correspond to standard parameters defined in different logical nodes - i.e. sections - of the
IEC61850. These are the logical nodes FWHZ, MMXU, DRAT and LLN0. In standardization
terminology, the parameters used are named data object. The use of standard parameters enables
both the DER operators and ancillary service providers to operate their process with all the
adaptability that can be required. The opportunity is especially to enable the DER operators to
operate several smart grid functions from the same DER, one after the other or even in parallel.
Parameters of global DER behavior (IEC81650-7-420)

Four first parameters that belong to the Frequency-Watt mode (F W HZ) logical node, charac-
terize the global behaviour of the DER are presented below:
W CtlHzEna enables the FWHZ mode to be activated, tested only or inhibited ;

ActDlT mms introduces a delay between the crossing of the threshold HzStr and the start
of the load modulation;
ClcN xtT mms defines the length of each calculation interval. Hence, it determines how often
the power data exchange occurs between the DER controller and the coordination platform;
HysEna enables the operation of the FWHZ mode with or without hysteresis.
These four parameters remain commonly fixed throughout time. These are four of the six
parameters that are not used as inputs of the threshold coordination algorithm. They are sent
to the DER at their initialization only and not continuously in real-time (Flow 0 in Figure III.7).
Real-time input - output DER parameters (IEC81650-7-420)

As presented in Section 3.4.2 and illustrated by Figure III.7, the real-time operational process
relies on the sending of four input parameters to each addressable DER, in response to the
sending of five output data received from a given DER.
The three first output parameters enable the monitoring of the effective flexibility of each DER
(Figure III.4):
M inW out and M axW out describe DER generator ratings (logical node DRAT ). They
respectively inform of the lower and upper limit of power consumption (for DR) or production
(for DG) beyond which the DER cannot operate. For ease of operation, M axW out can be
pre-defined as the nominal power of the DER;
T otW informs of the real-time participation level the DER (logical node M M XU ). The
effective upward flexibility of a given DR unit is then calculated by subtracting M inW out
from T otW . In the same way, the downward flexibility can be obtained by subtracting
T otW from M axW out. The opposite operations would be performed to assess the upward
and downward flexibility of a DG unit.
The two last output parameters are system and state monitoring-only parameters. These are
the two last of the six parameters that are not used as inputs of the threshold coordination
algorithm:
101
Hz provides the real-time system frequency value, measured on-site (logical node M M XU ).
Such a value is theoretically useless for the process of load coordination. However, the
monitoring of this value remains interesting for purposes of vulgarization in demonstration
periods;
Health describes the coordination platform of the state of operation of the DER (normal,
critical, etc.) (logical node LLN 0).
Two DER input parameters enable the remote definition from the coordination platform of how
each DER must behave in regards to a frequency deviation (logical node F W HZ) (Figure III.4):
HzStr defines the frequency threshold below which the DER starts to be modulated (upward
regulation context);
W gra defines the power-frequency slope at which the power modulation occurs (in p.u. /
Hz).
These two DER input parameters are then completed by two additional parameters if and only
if the DER is operated using hysteresis (HysEna = 1):
HzStop defines the frequency above which the process of power recovery initiates following
a power modulation event;
HzStopW gra defines finally the speed at which the power recovery occurs (in p.u. / minute).
The exact data model of these thirteen IEC61850 parameters used for the operation of Primary
Support is illustrated in Figure III.6. Table III.2 provides the definition of these parameters,
that enables the perfect characterization of the real-time behaviour of each DER in operation.
The thirteen parameters left are either used to define the willingness of each DER owner to get
its DER involved in the frequency control process or is used for internal computation issues.
They are summarized in Table III.3.
Market-related DER parameters

One added-value of Primary Support is to enable each DER owner to define its willingness
to contribute to the frequency control process. Such willingness is defined by six parameters
associated to a given DER, that are taken as inputs of the threshold coordination algorithm:
W graM in and W graM ax enable the slope W gra of power modulation to be limited. The
definition of such values have to be chosen by the DER owner depending on the physical
ability of the DER to deeply modulate its power consumption;
F min and F max limit the frequency range of operation within which the DER owner accepts
the modulation of its DER. F min and F max are chosen by the DER owner depending on
both the number of load modulation events and the cumulative length of modulation per
hour he considers as acceptable. Statistics of modulation are provided in Section 4.3;
EnergyP rice and CapacityP rice represent respectively the energy and capacity prices the
DER owner would like to be compensated for the activation of its DER for frequency control
purposes.
102
Flexible Resources
Operation / IU
Figure III.6: Data model used in Primary Support IEC61850-compliant
Internal parameters used by the threshold coordination algorithm
The threshold coordination algorithm takes as input a unique two-dimensional matrix composed
of 20 columns and as many lines as the sum of both the DER offers and the demands bids to
be satisfied. Two first parameters aim to identify clearly each bid:
T ype is used to determine if each bid filled is a DER offer or a demand bid;
idCEM S aims then to associate a unique index to each offer or demand bid. Such uniqueness
of the index is of great importance for the correct computation of the algorithm. Two given
offer and demand bids can however have the same index idCEM S given that they have a
different T ype value.
Two parameters are then introduced to take into account the ICT channel that connects each
DER to the coordination platform. Each DER controller is indeed connected to the coordination
103
Table III.2: IEC61850-7-420 parameters to be defined for the use of the Frequency-watt mode
FWHZ
Func- Com-
Data Type's
Data Object tional Type's mand Key Example to address a given
Unit Data description Attribut Type Attribut
name Con- Attribute type Data value involved in FWTH function:
e e name
straints Class
Address & communication parameters: PrimarySupport Coordination Server <> Load controller Client [read]
Function string FWHZ
Platename string milanSEA
Id primary
support string primarysupport_Lyon
master
Logical node
string milanSEA_1 ; milanSEA_2 ; etc.
of each load
Pre-operational setting of the Load Controller: PrimarySupport Coordination Server >> Load controller Client [write]
1:normal operation state, 2:blocked state, 3: normal
SPC operation state, with results indicated as test result, 4:test ctlNum: INT8U
WCtlHzEna with no impact on the process, 5: function is off. ST ctlNum INT8U 0…254 SPC FWHZ1$ST$WCtlHzEna$ctlNum
0: without hysteresis. 1: with hysteresis. true: with
hysteresis ;
SPG
false: without
HysEna SP setVal BOOLEAN hysteresis SPG FWHZ1$SP$HysEna$setVal
ActDlTmms ING Time delay before FWHZ activation, in ms. SP setVal INT8U SPG FWHZ1$SP$ActDlTmms$setVal
Remaining time up to the end of the current calculation
ING
ClcNxtTmms interval. SP setVal INT8U SPG FWHZ1$SP$ClcNxtTmms$setVal
Real-time state & monitoring of the Load Controller : Load controller Client >> PrimarySupport Coordination Server [read]
0:normal operation, 1…x: most critical value of the health
ENS
attribute of all the domain logical nodes contained in the ENS
Health (Health-
logical device state (inherited from DomainLN). stVal: 0: .. ; 1: (Health-
Kind)
ST stVal Enumerated .. ; x: .. Kind) LLN0$ST$Health$stVal
Hz Real-time network frequency. MX mag AnalogueValue f FLOAT32 MV MMXU$MX$Hz$mag.f
Enum validity of the measure (good | invalid | reserved |
questionable). CODED Enum
: good | invalid
Hz
| reserved |
MX q Quality questionable MV MMXU$MX$Hz$q
Timestamp of the measure (nb of seconds in GMT from
s
1/01/1970). MX t TimeStamp INT32 MV MMXU$MX$Hz$t
Real-time Total active power consumed by the load
W
controlled. MX mag AnalogueValue i INT32 MV MMXU$MX$TotW$mag.i
Enum validity of the measure (good | invalid | reserved |
questionable). CODED Enum
TotW : good | invalid
| reserved |
MX q Quality questionable MV MMXU$MX$TotW$q
Timestamp of the measure (nb of seconds in GMT from
s
1/01/1970). MX t TimeStamp INT32 MV MMXU$MX$TotW$t
Maximum total power that the load controlled is able to
MaxWout W
consume. SP setMag AnalogueValue i INT32 ASG FWHZ1$SP$MaxWout$setMag.i
Minimum total power that the load controlled is able to
MinWout W
consume. SP setMag AnalogueValue i INT32 ASG FWHZ1$SP$MinWout$setMag.i
Real-time operational setting of the Load Controller: PrimarySupport Coordination Server >> Load controller Client [write]
Starting limit of the frequency regulation (threshold or
HzStr Hz
beginning of slope). SP setMag AnalogueValue f FLOAT32 ASG FWHZ1$SP$HzStr$setMag.f
HzStop Hz Starting limit of power recovery following a frequency

regulation event in hysteresis mode (= HzStr if HysEna=0). SP setMag AnalogueValue f FLOAT32 ASG FWHZ1$SP$HzStop$setMag.f
(%
Wgra Wmax) Power-frequency Slope.
/Hz SP setMag AnalogueValue f FLOAT32 ASG FWHZ1$SP$Wgra$setMag.f
(%
Time slope of power recovery following a frequency
HzStopWgra Wmax)
regulation event in hysteresis mode.
/min SP setMag AnalogueValue f FLOAT32 ASG FWHZ1$SP$HzStopWgra$setMag.f
*SPC: Statistical Process Control
*SPG: Single point setting CDC
*ENS: Enumerated status CDC
platform through either an XMPP server or an HTTPS webservice. The challenge for the
threshold coordination is that the coordination platform cannot initiate the communication with
any DER controller connected through an HTTPS webservice. On the contrary, the initiation of
the communication with the XMPP-connected DERs is possible from the coordination platform.
Hence the threshold coordination algorithm has to compute only the XMPP-connected DERs
and the HTTPS-connected DERs whose communication link has been initiated from the DER
controller side. Otherwise the DERs connected through a presently closed HTTPS link could
not get informed of any expected modification of behaviour. As a result:
IsXM P P enables the differentiation of either the XMPP or HTTPS channel used by a given
DER;
IsRequester enables the declaration of the present opening of the HTTPS channel.
104
Table III.3: Non native IEC61850-7-420 parameters involved in the threshold coordination al-
gorithm
Func- Type's Com-
Data Key Example to address a
Data Object tional Attri- Type's mand
Unit Data description Attri- Type given value involved in FWTH
name Con- bute Attribute type Data
bute function:
straints name Class
DER owner willingness parameters: DER Owner >> PrimarySupport Coordination Server
Minimum Power-frequency slope physically compliant with the
(%
WgraMin DER. AnalogueValue f FLOAT32
Wmax)/Hz
WgraMin=10000 for DERs controlled in ON/OFF.
Maximum Power-frequency slope physically compliant with
(%
WgraMax the DER. AnalogueValue f FLOAT32
Wmax)/Hz
WgraMax=10000 for DERs controlled in ON/OFF.
Fmin Hz Lower admissible limit of load modulation. AnalogueValue f FLOAT32
Fmax Hz Higher admissible limit of load modulation. AnalogueValue f FLOAT32
EnergyPrice €/MWh Marginal Energy Price of the either DER offer or FCR/UFLS AnalogueValue f FLOAT32
Marginal Capacity Price of the either DER offer or FCR/UFLS
CapacityPrice €/MW/h AnalogueValue f FLOAT32
demand.
Intern parameters used by the algortihm of Thresholds Coordination

Type ENS 0: DER offer. 1: FCR/UFLS demand. BOOLEAN
idCEMS ING 1,2,3,…,11,12,…,21,22,…101,102,etc. INT32
IsXMPP SPG 0: HTTPS-connected DER, 1: XMPP-connected DER. BOOLEAN
0: HTTPS-link closed, 1: HTTPS-link open (= accepted for
IsRequester SPG BOOLEAN
threshold update during the coming algorithm computation).
BidPrice €/MW/h Effective bid price. AnalogueValue f FLOAT32
Displaying Parameters: Thresholds coordination algorithm >> Displaying tool of PrimarySupport Coordination Server
Lower limit of power contribution on the resultant power-
PminCum W frequency caracteristic at the scale of coordination server's AnalogueValue i INT32
portfolio.
Upper limit of power contribution on the resultant power-
PmaxCum W frequency caracteristic at the scale of coordination server's AnalogueValue i INT32
portfolio.
*SPC: Statistical Process Control
*SPG: Single point setting CDC
*ENS: Enumerated status CDC
N.B. As explained in Section 3.4.3, the threshold coordination algorithm is computed each
time a DER controller sends an updated dataset to the coordination platform. The dataset is
composed of the real-time parameters {M inW out, M axW out, T otW }. The communication is
always initiated by the DER controller (see Section 3.4.2).
A fifth parameter is then required to enable the selection of the portfolio of defined bids at the
merit order:
BidP rice corresponds to the resultant bid price of a given DER, having a threshold HzStr.
BidP rice is calculated thanks to the equation III.2 (page 111).
Two last parameters enable the identification of the contribution of a given DER in the resultant
power-frequency characteristic built by the threshold coordination algorithm (see illustration in
Figure IV.18 on page 148). These are more visualisation and monitoring-oriented parameters
than parameters that are vital for the operation:
P minCum defines the lower power bound of contribution on the resultant power-frequency
characteristic;
P maxCum defines the upper power bound.
105
3.4.2 Operational flow of data
The process of operation is composed of two sub-processes: a one-shot initialization process

followed by a continuous process operated in loop.
The initialization process enables the definition of the four parameters of global behaviour of each
DER (W CtlHzEna, ActDlT mms, ClcN xtT mms and HysEna). Such a step can be performed
either remotely on the DER controllers which are IEC61850-native or manually on-site for the
non-native IEC61850 DER controllers. Thus, it is assumed that the DER controllers connected
to a coordination platform of Primary Support using an HTTPS link cannot be configured
remotely. Indeed, the communication needs to be initiated from the DER side to perform these
updates, that compromises the modification of these parameters whenever the operator of the
coordination platform wants. This step of initialization is represented by the arrow of label "0
- Initial WRITE" in Figure III.7.
The continuous process operated in loop aims then to keep up-to-date the operational behaviour
of each DER. In other words, it aims at updating periodically the threshold HzStr and slope
W gra of each DER in order to keep a behaviour that guarantees the delivery at the system scale
of a resultant power-frequency characteristic that complies with a predetermined demand.
Such a continuous process first relies on a permanent monitoring of the coordination server to
messages sent from DER controllers. The messages are handled by the coordination platform if
and only if they contain at least the dataset {M inW out, M axW out, T otW } and have been sent
by a DER controller which belongs to the portfolio of aggregation of the coordination platform.
These messages are represented by the arrow of label "1 - Periodic REPORT" in Figure III.7.
Each reception of a compliant message induces then the immediate computation of the algorithm
in charge of the coordination of the thresholds and slopes of the DERs of the portfolio. In power
market terminology, such task is named the market clearing. The sub-task is presented by the
large blue arrow labelled 2 - Algorithm computation in Figure III.7.
The clearing is immediately followed by the returning of the clearing outcomes to all of the
DER controllers which are reachable. Such a returning of the updated FWHZ parameters is
represented by the arrow labelled 3 - WRITE in Figure III.7 and constitutes the last sub-task
of the loop. The DERs which are considered as reachable are all of the DERs driven by a
DER controller which is connected to the coordination platform through an XMPP link. Last
but not least, if the algorithm computation has been induced by the reception of a message
sent by an HTTPS-connected DER controller, all of the DERs that are controlled by this DER
controller are considered as reachable as well. Indeed in such a case, it can be stated that
the HTTPS link that has just been initiated will remain open until the end of the algorithm
computation i.e. the computation time remains quicker than the time-out of the HTTPS link
previously-opened.
According to the previous notion of reachable DERs, it must be clarified that
the algorithm of threshold coordination updates only the threshold and slope of the reachable
106
Table III.4: Columns order of the 20 parameters introduced as inputs of the threshold & slope
coordination algorithm
Column Number: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Data name: MinWout MaxWout TotW Fmin Fmax WgraMin WgraMax EnergyPrice CapacityPrice IsXMPP
Column Number: 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Data name: BidPrice HzStr HzStop Wgra HzStopWgra PminCum PmaxCum idCEMS Type IsRequester
DERs while it considers the threshold and slope of the non-reachable DERs as a predefined
frequency controlled contribution. Thus, it is not possible to update a DER behaviour that
cannot be physically implemented due to the inability to inform the DER of the new behaviour
it should respect (see Section 3.4.3).
At the DER side, each message containing the {M inW out, M axW out, T otW } dataset is sent
with a periodicity of ClcN xtT mms (in milliseconds). A spontaneous message can be sent by
some of the DERs as well, each time its effective power consumption T otW varies by more than
a predetermined share. However such a share is not a standard parameter and is implemented
directly in the operational script of the DER controller (layer 1). However, such a sending of
spontaneous message has not been described in the IEC61850. This is characteristic that has
been specifically designed for the operational purposes of Primary Support.
As a result the periodicity of the clearing can lead from a dozen of seconds to a quarter of
an hour, depending on the stability of the power output of each DER and of the periodicity
ClcN xtT mms chosen for each DER.
3.4.3 Threshold & slope computation algorithm
Figure III.8 details the algorithm which enables the periodic coordination of the thresholds
HzStr and slopes W gra of all of the reachable DERs of a given portfolio of aggregation. This
algorithm introduced in previous Section 3.4.2 is represented by the large blue arrow in Figure
III.7.
The algorithm takes as an input one unique 2D matrix. The matrix is composed of 20 columns
and as many lines as the sum of both the number of DER offer bids and the number of demand
bids filled in the coordination platform. Table III.4 displays the order in which the 20 parameters
presented in Section 3.4.1 must be filled in the input matrix. For ease of operation, the output
matrix has exactly the same size and specification as the input matrix. The column ranking
presented in Table III.4 remains valid as well for the output matrix.
The algorithm is split into two main parts, firstly aiming at conditioning the offer and demand
bids, before proceeding to the bids clearing itself i.e. the assignment of a new {HzStr; W gra}
pair to each of the reachable DERs. These two main parts are identified by the two grey dark
frames in Figure III.8.
107
% & ' & & ( )

2
(
# $ ' (
'
) () ) #
() ) ( )
,)
Flexible Resources
,)
Operation / IU
* # ))
/ ))
"
0 !
1 ((
* # ))
( / ))
!
2
# $ $ $ $
+, ".- +, " -
2 "
# $ $ )
Figure III.7: Sequences of data exchange between the PrimarySupport coordination agent and
a DER controller
108
Figure III.8: Thresholds & slopes coordination algorithm used by Primary Support
109
Offer & Demand bids conditioning

The process of bids conditioning aims at identifying the offer bids of the reachable DERs, the
offer bids of the non-reachable DERs and finally the demand bids.
The identification of these three kinds of bids, enables the building on the one side of the
resultant demand (pthDemand(f )) to be supplied ∀ f ∈ [47.5Hz; 50hz] and on the other side
the initial resultant offer (of f erAssigned(f )). pthDemand is built by summing all of the power-
frequency characteristics associated to each demand bid, regardless of their prices. The initial
of f erAssigned is built by summing the power-frequency characteristics of the non-reachable
DERs that are already in operation.
These resultant curves express the derivative of power dP per sub-frequency interval df either
required (demand) or provided (offer) at the scale of the aggregation portfolio. The algorithm
assumes a sub-frequency interval of df = 10mHz, in accordance with the accuracy of frequency
measurement devices required by ENTSO-E [2013d] (Table II.2). These curves are consequently
expressed in W/0.01Hz.
Update of HzStr; W gra pairs of each reachable DERs

The clearing of the pool of reachable DER bids is performed through a set of sub-clearings
whose aim is to match the offer and the demand within each sub-frequency range. Each sub-
frequency range has a width of df = 10mHz. Each sub-clearing is performed starting from the
sub-frequency range that is the closest to the normal frequency of 50Hz i.e. [49.99; 50.00Hz]
down to the limit of generators disconnection at 47.5Hz i.e. [47.50; 47.51Hz].
Each sub-clearing is preceeded by the extraction from the pool of available DER offer bids, of the
bids that are defined on the entire sub-frequency interval of clearing. Then, the DERs selection
is performed during the sub-clearing only among this list of defined bids. Such a condition of
definition is expressed by the equation III.1:
F mind ≤ [f − 0.005; f + 0.005] ≤ F maxd (III.1)
where
f is the center of the frequency interval wherein the subclearing occurs (in Hz)
[F mind ; F maxd ] is the suitable frequency range of contribution of a given DER d (in Hz)
Then, the selection of a given bid among the set of defined offer bids that have been previously
extracted, is performed in merit order. The offer bids are selected one after the other starting
from the bid that has the cheapest BidP rice(f ) at the frequency of clearing f . The BidP rice
of each defined DER depending on its frequency threshold HzStr is calculated based on the
equation III.2, which uses the function of probability of activation Pact displayed in Figure III.9.
110
Probability of activation of DER depending on the

0.4
threshold HzStr in CE synchronous area
0.38
0.35
Probability 0.3
0.25 0.22
0.2
0.15
0.1 0.08
0.05 0.03 0.01
0.00 0.00
0
Frequency threshold HzStr (in Hz)
Figure III.9: Probability Pact of activation of FWHZ function for a given DER depending on its
threshold HzStr
The offer bids selected are paid-as-bid at the BidP rice. The period of delivery of each bid is
commonly one hour. Thus, the BidP rice is characterized for such one-hour duration, even if a
given DER can be called for a shorter duration depending on the evolution of the portfolio of
available DER during the time of operation.
BidP rice = CapacityP rice + EnergyP rice × Pact (HzStr) (III.2)
where
Pact (HzStr) is the probability of load modulation at the threshold HzStr (in p.u)
Each selected DER bid d is removed from the list of available DER, before being awarded by a
pair {HzStrd ; W grad } in respect with the equation III.3. The logic behind the equation III.3 is
to activate the entire flexibility (T otWd − M inW outd ) of a given DER d on its widest frequency
range of definition i.e. [F mind ; HzStrd ] ∩ [47.5Hz; HzStrd ], while respecting the limit slope
[W graM ind ; W graM axd ] defined by the DER owner:



HzStrd = f + 0.005
T otWd − M inW outd


W grad = (III.3)



HzStrd − max(47.5Hz; F mind )


W graM ind ≤ W grad ≤ W graM axd
where
f is the center of the frequency interval wherein the subclearing occurs (in Hz),
while the others parameters are real-time and market related parameters of
the DER d, presented in Section 3.4.1.
111
Each sub-clearing of mean frequency f selects then as many DER offer bids as required until
satisfying the resultant demand. Such logic of bids selection matches with the equation III.4:
Ø
W grad ≥ pthDemand(f ) − of f erAssigned(f ) (III.4)
d ∈ {DER selected}
where
f is the center of the frequency interval wherein the subclearing occurs (in Hz)
{DER selected} is the list of DER offers selected during the subclearing centered at f
W grad is the slope of the DER of index d listed in {DER selected} (in W/0.01Hz)
pthDemand is the ideal resultant demand to be satisfied at the subclearing at f (in W/0.01Hz)
of f erAssigned is the resultant offer already assigned ahead the subclearing at f (in W/0.01Hz)
The last step of each sub-clearing aims finally to update of f erAssigned, by adding to it all of
the DER offers that have been assigned following the present sub-clearing centered in f . Such
a step enables the keeping up-to-date of the resultant offer already assigned. Such up-to-date
resultant offer is later reused as base-load contribution at the following sub-clearings to assign
additional DER offers if required by equation III.4. Such update of of f erAssigned relies first
on the calculation of the effective interval of modulation [HzInfd ; HzStrd ] of each DER d.
HzInfd can differ from max(47.5Hz; F mind ) if the ideal slope calculated thanks to the fraction
in equation III.3 has been curtailed by the admissible slope range [W graM ind ; W graM axd ]. A
validation of the value HzInfd thanks to equation III.5 is consequently necessary:
T otWd − M inW outd

HzInfd = HzStrd − ∀d ∈ {DER selected} (III.5)
W grad
The effective slope W grad is then summed to the variable of f erAssigned, within its effective
interval of modulation [HzInfd ; HzStrd ] (equation III.6):
∀f ∈ [HzInfd ; HzStrd ]
of f erAssigned(f )+ = W grad (III.6)
∀d ∈ {DER selected}
Finally, it can be noticed that this algorithm of coordination enables the call for the contribution
of DERs in the limit of the needs of the demand. At the end, in case of an excess of offer compared
to the demand, the most expensive DER bids are not called for contribution and are kept in
reserve to prevent a potential lack of DER flexibility along the time of operations. Hence, the
resultant offer is lower than the maximal potential of the pool of DERs. Such a gathering of
back-up flexibilities guarantees the delivery of a droop that complies with the specific demand.
The thresholds HzStrd of all of the DERs d kept in back-up, equal the lower limit of generators
disconnection i.e. 47.5Hz.
112
3.4.4 Definition of the slope of the DERs controlled in ON/OFF mode
The drive of loads in ON/OFF mode remains easy to do using the FWHZ data objects. It only
requires the definition of a slope Wgra (in % of MaxWout /Hz) that leads to the shedding of
the entire DER flexibility (T otW out − M inW out) within the standard accuracy of frequency
measurement df (equation III.7):
T otW − M inW out 1

W gra = 100 × × (III.7)
M axW out df
This relation can be simplified considering the inequality of equation III.8:
T otW out − M inW out ≤ M axW out (III.8)
<=>
T otW − M inW out 1 M axW out 1
W gra = 100 × × ≤ 100 × × (III.9)
M axW out df M axW out df
<=>
100
W gra ≤ (III.10)
df
Finally, the definition of a slope W gra = 10000 in the CE synchronous area - where df = 0.01Hz
(Table II.2) - enables the characterization of the delivery of flexibility using the ON/OFF mode
(equation III.11):
100
W gra ≤ = 10000 (III.11)
0.01
Such W gra slope of 10000 can be used in NE as well, while a slope of 6667 is sufficient in GB
and IRE where df = 0.015Hz.
However the coordination algorithm (layer 2) performs the clearing through successive sub-
clearing steps of 10mHz width. Hence, it is advised to rely on the values W graM in =
W graM ax = 10000 to operate a DER in ON/OFF mode, regardless of the synchronous area of
operation. Such a definition of W graM in and W graM ax would guarantee an accurate delivery
at the system scale, of the resultant power-frequency characteristic.
3.5 Cooperation between two different coordination platforms - layer 3
PrimarySupport has been designed as a system able to be deployed either within one unique
coordination platform of large scale or around a multiplicity of reduced scale coordination plat-
forms, easy to replicate one another. While a wide-scale platform would be cloud-oriented, the
use of a multiplicity of small platforms would for instance enable to rely on aggregation portfolios
that are in adequacy with the grid topology as presented in Section 4.2.
On the one hand, the use of a reduced-scale portfolio enables the provision of a resilient service
at the system scale. Indeed, if one coordination platform crashes or gets in trouble, only a
reduced amount of vital reserves will not be supplied. The loss of such a unit of aggregation
could be included in power flow simulations as a probable network incident for which the power
113
system must remain safe (N-1 rule). Such computation exercise would for instance provide an
idea of the suitable maximum size of aggregation portfolio. RTE’s preliminary rules of FCR
delivery from DR units requires an accurate delivery 99% of the time. The constitution of 100
different aggregation portfolios, with a probability of failure lower than 1/100 would for instance
enable the fulfilment of such a criteria 24/7, in terms of software and ICT risk.
On the other hand, the use of too-reduced portfolio of aggregation independent one from another
would not be efficient. Indeed it would require to keep too large amount of reserves in back-up
compared to the portfolio’s size, to guarantee an accurate and resilient delivery of FCR per
coordination platform.
Therefore, the introduction of one upper layer of coordination wherein back-up bids would be
shared among coordination platforms looks interesting. Such a layer would enable that one
back-up offer would be operated by a coordination platform in situation of excess of reserve
at the benefit of another coordination platform that misses back-up. In such a situation, the
DER controller (G2Elab_A in Figure III.10) is charge of the control of one DER used as shared
back-up (G2Elab_A_1 in Figure III.10) would communicate its real-time input and output
parameters directly to the coordination platform that looks for back-up capacity (SmartPower
Aggregator in Figure III.10), instead of remaining controlled by its usual coordination platform
(energydreams Aggregator in Figure III.10).
This upper Layer 3could be coordinated by an upper authority or an automated ICT agent in
charge of operating a dedicated pool. It could either be self-regulated thanks to peer-to-peer
trading and agreements among several coordination platforms (blue link looped in the layer 3
in Figure III.2 on page 95). Such peer-to-peer trading of back-up reserves has been tested in
an off-grid context at G2Elab but did not lead to wide demonstration results. At the moment,
such peer-to-peer link is not implemented in the Primary Support application of Struxureware
Flexible Resources Operation platform (see Section 2) and no data model has been defined yet
for such real-time sharing of back-up reserves.
3.6 Future improvements

The concept of Primary Support would evolve in the future, by either the implementation
of additional functionalities or by the modification of the algorithm of thresholds and slopes
clearing. Five directions of improvement are listed below:
It can be observed that the algorithm currently addresses only the supply of upward frequency-
controlled reserves to handle frequency drop events. As previously announced in Section
3.2, an extension of the present algorithm to address downward regulation would be easily
achieved as well.
The algorithm presented considers both the FCR and UFLS demand as non-elastic bids. As
a result, the demand is satisfied regardless of the bid price of the offer bids selected to match
114
Layer 3
Traders
Back-up agreement on
a theoretical flexibility Inter-coordination
(TotW-MinWout) servers FCR bids
Brokers Suppliers
exchange
Layer 2
Aggregator
PrimarySupport
Coordination
Servers
Flexible Resources
Operation / IU
Flexible Resources id server:
Operation / IU
’’controller-flexderps’’
Redirection of the
ICT control flow
Layer 1
Direct DER monitoring

{MinWout,TotW,MaxWout}
and control DERs Controller
{HzStr, Wgra}
platename:
’’G2Elab_A’’
Layer 0
DERs
id load: ’’G2Elab_A_1’’
Figure III.10: Principle of operation of the Layer 3 in Primary Support
the demand. An improvement could be to consider the maximum admissible price of each
demand bid and satisfy their delivery only if such a price remains larger than the price of
the offer bids selected to match such demand.
The present algorithm can lead to the purchase of an offer bid that can be only partly
activated. Indeed, clearing situations can occur where the admissible DER slope range
[W graM ind ; W graM axd ] does not enable the selection of a slope W grad capable of mod-
ulating the entire DER flexibility within the admissible frequency range of modulation
[F mind ; HzStrd ] ∩ [47.5Hz; HzStrd ]. In such a case, the algorithm maximizes the slope
of delivery - i.e. W grad = W graM axd - and summed only the activated flexibility to the
resultant curve of f erAssigned. However the DER owner cannot refuse such partial activa-
tion. Hence, a complementary clearing rule could be to enable the DER owner to accept or
not the delivery of such a partial bid, as proposed in the initial claims of Primary Support
[Lebel et al., 2015b].
A previous algorithm assumes the filling of both offer and demand bids whose prices were
defined as a function of the frequency of assignment / delivery. It was a way to better assume
the DER interruption that a DER owner was likely to accept. Such a product proposed in
the initial claims of Primary Support Lebel et al. [2015b], has however been considered
as too different from conventional power products. Hence it has not been implemented in
operational scripts.
115
Since the resultant demand is usually a linear function while the resultant offer is composed
of piled blocks, tolerance limits could be introduced in the algorithm, to guarantee that both
curves of resultant demand and offers remain close enough one another. The introduction of
such tolerance limits follows the spirit of the implementation range that has been introduced
by ENTSO-E [2015b] for the delivery of LFDD (Figure II.12). The aggregation of small-size
offers compared to the resultant demand is however supposed to make this discontinuity of
offers negligible when compared to the system scale demand.
The standardization of the function of peer-to-peer trading of flexibility between the two
different coordination platforms (Section 3.5), could be natively implemented in the system.
To prevent a risk of lack of offer within the time of operation, the algorithm of coordination
could introduce a ratio of non-affected bids to be kept in reserve. The peer-to-peer exchange
of bids during the time of operation would thus focus on the exchange of these non-affected
bids. Such repartition would enable to split the business issue of bid sourcing from the
operational issue of real-time delivery of flexibilities.
116
The opportunity of standardization

The spreading of the IEC 61850-8-2 [2016] standard, using XMPP to connect DERs is a
promising opportunity for the supply of energy and capacity services to either wholesale
actors or System Operators. By purchasing ancillary services provided by DERs, System
Operators tip actually over an area astride regulated systems - the distribution and trans-
mission grids as a natural monopoly - and deregulated systems open to the market. To
communicate with these DERs, the utilities have to go over the public power meter and so
go out of their private ICT network (blue dotted lines in the figure below) over their own
proxy. As such, they would tackle a wide variety of protocols that compromises their effec-
tive ability to control in real-time these DERs, facing proxies and native port closure of the
private ICT networks (orange dotted lines) wherein the DERs are connected. As illustrated
in the figure below, the emergence of a future dominant protocol that requires only output
flow, like XMPP is a great chance to breakdown complexity towards DERs connectivity.
MV/LV RTU Smart Meter Energy Box

Power Power
ICT (PLC) ICT (RX/TX)
Regulatory issue
ICT
(TCP/IP) Firewall
ADSL box
DMS
ICT (TCP/IP)
Firewall
- 8-2
Server
Legend: Physical ICT infrastructure

Direction of data-flow
Beyond the only issue of connectivity compliance claimed by the IEC 61850-8-2 [2016], the
use of standard function claimed by IEC 61850-7-420 [2015] appears as a business oppor-
tunity. Firstly, it would cost-kill the effort of DERs integration. Secondly, such a stan-
dardization would ease the involvement of a given DER into power market successively or
even meantime, given that the capabilities of each DERs would be better known in advance
according to the standard. Doing so, the critical size of a DER required to pay-back its
integration cost, would be significantly reduced.
Primary Support has been designed having in mind such opportunities. In such a spirit
of reserve sharing, a DER could provide both VoltVAR and FCR support. Indeed, the
coordination ability of Primary Support enables the guarantee of a constant supply of FCR
reserves at the scale of a pool of DERs, despite the local disturbance of level of load induced
by the VoltVAR support at the scale of one DER.
117
4 Value Proposition of Primary Support

The added values claimed by Primary Support are mainly its robustness, its adaptability of
architecture and its contained impact on the DER processes, ensuring its easier acceptance by
the DER owners. These three characteristics are detailed in the three subsequent Sections.
4.1 Robustness
The present section summarizes the specificities of Primary Support architecture that ensure
the robustness of the solution:
The architecture of system monitoring: the coordination platform gathers the power
consumption of each load directly monitored by each DER controller. The frequency
monitoring is then performed only by the DER controllers.
The coordination of the solution behaviour: the coordination platform self decides
ahead of the operational time the behaviour of all the DERs of the portfolio of aggregation,
in case of frequency deviation events.
The distribution of the decision process: Each DER controller decides finally au-
tonomously to shed and re-energize the DERs it controls, thanks to an on-site frequency
monitoring, in order to comply with the specific frequency behaviour of each DER that
has been defined ahead of the operational time by the coordination platform.
The replicability of the solution: Each set of {coordination platform + DER con-
trollers + coordinated DERs} is replicable autonomously. It enables the building of several
pools of reasonable size whose individual failure would not jeopardize the system stability.
It is reminded that the real-time processes i.e. the up and down modulation of the level of
load – are performed by the DER controllers only, in a distributed manner. The coordination
platform performs only periodic or event processes. As detailed above, this distribution of the
real-time processes among the agents is a key factor of robustness of the solution. Neither
the communication delay nor even a minutes-long loss of communication channel can stop the
supply of these distributed frequency-controlled reserves, since the DER controllers interpret
the shedding and reconnection order only from an on-site monitoring of the system frequency.
4.2 Adaptability to topology-dependent architecture for regulated operation
The reader is reminded that the efficiency of the UFLS scheme is capable of becoming particularly
challenging in highly constrained power systems, such as in islanding grids (Section 2.4). In such
a situation, Primary Support can be deployed locally at the scale of a primary substation or
even at the scale of a secondary substation, in accordance with the normal scheme of operation
of the distribution grid. Hence, it enables the deployment of a topology-dependent architecture,
that would control in priority the DERs connected to MV feeders not involved in the UFLS
118
4. VALUE PROPOSITION OF PRIMARY SUPPORT
scheme. Doing so, Primary Support and the UFLS would rely on a different pool of loads,
without jeopardizing the UFLS activation.
Beyond its interest for the weak grid stability, the deployment of topology-related architecture
is a way to reuse the utilities’ components already deployed in the grids, such as the connected
power meters and secondary substation RTUs. The technologies of smart meters2 embed already:
a solid-state relay able to shed domestic thermal loads;

frequency measurement ability with a 10mHz accuracy;
a communication channel toward a data concentrator located in the secondary substation,
such as Power Line Communication (PLC).
A simple update of the smart meters firmware would be enough to convert it into a distributed
DER controller compliant with the layer 1 of Primary Support (see Section 3.3). The addition
of a market clearing script into the secondary substation would then enable the distributed
deployment of the layer 2 (see Section 3.4). Finally, an either peer-to-peer communication
between secondary substations or a link with a DSO-operated bids trading platform would
ensure the layer 3 (see Section 3.5).
Such architecture would be well adapted for a DSO or an integrated utility that would like to
operate the service of FCR supply itself. Figure III.11 provides an illustration of such topology-
related architecture, where the coordination platform is embedded in the substation’s RTU.
Correlated or not-correlated with the grid’s topology: such adaptability of the architecture of
deployment of Primary Support is assessed as a valuable opportunity for the System Operators.
4.3 DER modulation acceptance by DER owners
One significant hardship toward Smart Grid penetration relates to the willingness of DER owners
to get their DER involved in the delivery of any power product that relies on a modulation of
the level of load of the DER. The lack of familiarity of the DER owners with these uncommon
products appears as a first reason of this difficulty. The second reason comes from the fear of
the DER owners regarding the impact that the modulation of load could have on their business-
as-usual process.
Thus, a set of frequency measurements has been gathered from the Continental Europe (CE)
synchronous area, to assess the impact that an involvement of a given DER in the supply of
FCR would have on its business-as-usual process, depending on the frequency threshold HzStr
respected by the DER. While RTE [2015a] publishes open frequency measurement data from
October 2014 with a 10-second sampling, complementary measurements have been performed
over 40 days to get data with 1-second sampling and an accuracy of 10mHz. Having data avail-
able based on faster sampling is important to assess accurately the number of load modulation
2
observed on Siemens’ booth at Cired 2015
119
UFLS FCR
…
POFF (f)
Load i
…
Load 3
Load 2
Load 1
f
Fa Range of operation Fb
!
! "
Figure III.11: Topology-related system-scale architecture
events that would be induced for a DER, given that Primary Support targets a reaction time of
the DER much lower than 10 seconds.
Figure III.12 provides the frequency dispersion observed over 40 days of data which have been
monitored per set of weeks from April to August 2015. It can be observed that the frequency
remains contained within the FCR dead-bandwidth ]49.98; 50.02Hz[ 59% of the time, while
no frequency excursion out of an extreme bandwidth [49.87; 50.09Hz] occurred. Finally the
frequency excursions are lower than ±50mHz above 99.15% of the time. These statistics of
frequency dispersion are confirmed as well by Filip [2011] in Table III.5 (sampling however
unknown).
Table III.5: Frequency dispersion occurrence in Continental Europe [Filip, 2011]
Bandwidth ±20mHz ±50mHz ±100mHz ±150mHz

Occurrence within the bandwidth 66.58% 96.77% 99.88% 99.999998%
120
4. VALUE PROPOSITION OF PRIMARY SUPPORT
Repartition of the System Frequency over 40 days in Continental Europe (one-second data)
24
Fmin:49.87 Hz
Fmax:50.09 Hz
22
Mean Frequency:
49.9989 Hz
20
18
Occurance (in %)
16
14
12
10
Chart requencyHistogram
6
0
49.85 49.9 49.95 50 50.05 50.1 50.15
Frequency (in Hz)
Figure III.12: Mean Frequency Deviation Dispersion
Daily number of load modulation events expected depending on the frequency threshold
1000
900
Number of events
No Modulation
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
49.85 49.9 49.95 50 50.05 50.1 50.15
Daily duration of load modulation expected depending on the frequency threshold

10
9
Duration (in hr)
No Modulation
Chart tatistics hauvinArnoudFrequency umLength

7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
49.85 49.9 49.95 50 50.05 50.1 50.15
Frequency Threshold HzStr (in Hz)
Figure III.13: Common daily occurrence of load modulation events, as a function of the frequency
threshold applied
The 1-second frequency dataset has then been introduced in a model in order to characterize
the impact that Primary Support would have on the DER depending on its threshold HzStr.
The model targets to assess the daily number of load modulation episodes - like a reversible
ON/OFF switch manipulation -, the daily cumulative duration of load modulation, the maxium
and finally the mean duration of each load modulation event.
Figure III.13 displays first the estimation of the number of load modulation episodes that would
occur daily depending on the DER threshold HzStr. Figure III.13 displays then the daily
cumulative duration of load modulation. The bars in black represent the threshold located
in the FCR dead-bandwidth, while the bars in red are located within the frequency range of
operation of the FCR in CE.
121
Both the Figures III.12 and III.13 enable a clear differentiation between two main bandwidths
of frequency operation. A centred bandwidth lays on [49.95; 49.98Hz] ∩ [50.02; 50.05Hz]. A
second one lays on [47.5; 49.95[∩]50.05; 51.5Hz]. On the one side, the involvement of a DER
for an FCR delivery in the range [49.95; 49.98Hz] ∩ [50.02; 50.05Hz] would induce significant
impacts for the DER. A wide disturbance of its business-as-usual process can be expected due
to significant daily load curtailment, associated with an over-ageing of its power components due
to an excessive number of manipulation per day. 800 manipulations would so occur per day for
HzStr = 49.98Hz, inducing a daily interruption of five hours. On the contrary, the involvement
of a DER for either UFLS or FCR delivery based within the range [47.5; 49.95[∩]50.05; 51.5Hz]
would statistically have almost no impact on its business-as-usual process. An upper average of
20 events of modulation per day, for a daily interruption of 6 minutes only could be expected
for HzStr = 49.94Hz.
Such an assessment leads to a claim for the emergence of two main categories of reserves. A
first category would supply FCR in the bandwidth [49.95; 49.98Hz] ∩ [50.02; 50.05Hz]. A second
category would cover the other FCR and UFLS needs i.e. [47.5; 49.95[∩]50.05; 50.2Hz]. Each
of these bandwidths would rely on the involvement of DERs of different natures. For example,
ESS and electric heating modulation could get involved in the centred range [49.95; 49.98Hz] ∩
[50.02; 50.05Hz]. Public lighting and industrial processes could then contribute on the excep-
tional range [47.5; 49.95[∩]50.05; 50.2Hz].
Two sub-FCR reserves are actually already operated in some European countries such as in
the Nordics, where the Frequency Normal Containment Reserves (FCR-N) are activated in
priority at the vicinity of 50Hz before being completed by additional Frequency Disturbance
Containment Reserves (FCR-D) for the case of larger frequency deviation.
Based on this assessment of widely different solicitations of the FCR depending on its frequency
range of operation, Jomaux and De Jaeger [2015] go even further, by claiming for the commis-
sioning of an FCR-D which has a steeper slope than the FCR-N (Figure III.14). The authors
place the limit between the FCR-N and FCR-D at ±150mHz. By now, the Nordics TSOs pro-
ceed actually in the opposite direction, applying a droop of ≈ 7.5GW/Hz within [49.9; 49.98]
followed by a droop of only ≈ 2.5GW/Hz within [49.5; 49.9] [ENTSO-E, 2007]. Jomaux and
De Jaeger [2015] see such market organization as an opportunity to enhance the involvement of
DER in the FCR, while keeping a resilient power system. The commissioning of larger FCR-
D at the expense of the FCR-N leads however to a more diffuse distribution of the frequency
deviation (Figure III.15).
The last characteristics of DER modulation, likely to interest a DER owner are the maximum
and mean duration of each modulation event, depending on the threshold HzStr assigned.
Figure III.16 presents the outcomes of the model launched for this analysis. The mean duration
have been obtained by averaging the length of all of the load modulation events observed at each
threshold HzStr = {49.85; 49.86; ...; 49.98} ∩ {50.02; ...50.14; 50.15}. The maximum durations
122
ο݂ ൌ ܴே ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ ൅ ߠሺ‫ ݐ‬െ ܶ஽ ሻܴ஽ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ
‫ܫ ୒ܤ ܦ‬ ௅௧ ‫ݐ ୒ܤ‬
ܴே ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ ൌ ൬ ൅ ଶ ൰ ൬݁ ି ூ െ ͳ൰ ൅
‫ܮ‬
4. VALUE PROPOSITION OF PRIMARY SUPPORT ‫ܮ‬ ‫ܮ‬
‫ܤ‬ୈ ‫ܤܫ‬ୈ ିሺ௧ି்ీሻ௅
ܴ஽ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ ൌ ሺ‫ ݐ‬െ ܶୈ ሻ ൅ ଶ ൬݁ ூ
‫ܮ‬ ‫ܮ‬
‫ݐ‬௡௔ௗ
expression is written in (6).
‫ܤ‬ே ‫ܤ‬஽
‫ܫ‬ ൅
‫ݐ‬௡௔ௗ ൌ െ ݈‫ ݃݋‬൮ ‫ܮ‬ ‫ܮ‬
‫ܮ‬ ‫ͳ ܦ‬ ்ವ ௅
൅ ൬‫ܤ‬ே ൅ ‫ܤ‬஽ ݁ ூ
‫ܮ ܫ‬
ܶୈ
solution is expressed in (7) using the Lambert
‫ܫ‬
ܶ஽ ൌ ሾܹିଵ ሺെ݇ଵ ݁ ି௞మ ሻ ൅ ݇ଶ ሿ
‫ܮ‬
݇ଵ ൌ ‫ܮܦ‬Ȁ‫ܤ‬ே ‫ ܫ‬൅ ͳ ݇ଶ ൌ ݂஽஻ ‫ܮ‬ଶ
Figure 2. Combination of FCR-N and FCR-D the region of interest and with the values of T
Figure III.14: Combination of FCR-N and FCR-D claimed by Jomaux and De Jaeger [2015]
ܲ௠௔௫ǡி஼ோ ሻ
݂௟௜௠
݂஽஻ ሻ
െ‫ܫ‬ ݂஽஻ ‫ܮ‬
ܶ஽ ൌ ൬ ൅ ͳ൰
݂஽஻ ‫ܮ‬ ‫ܦ‬
ܲ௠௔௫ǡி஼ோି஽ ‫ܭ‬௜ ሻ
݂஽஻
‫ܭ‬ி஼ோ ൌ ‫ܭ‬ி஼ோିே ൅ ‫ܭ‬ி஼ோି஽ ሺͳ െ ሻሺ͵ሻ
݂௟௜௠
FigureFigure
8. Frequency deviation
III.15: Frequency distribution
deviation distribution for various
for various penetrationpenetration of FCR-D.
of FCR-D [Jomaux and
De Jaeger, 2015]
The simulation has been performed on 365 days with a time step of 1s. The
have been obtained using the statistical relation that links the average of a dataset, its standard
deviation and its maximum value fulfilled by 95% of the data (equation III.12):
M axHzStr = dHzStr + 1.96 × σHzStr ; (III.12)
where
dHzStr is the mean duration of the modulation events having a threshold HzStr
σHzStr is the standard deviation duration of these events
M axHzStr is the maximum duration of these events, fulfilled by 95% of the events
It can be noticed that the under-frequency events observed, last ≈ 20seconds while the over-
frequency events are even shorter: ≈ 10seconds. 95% of these under-frequency events last less
than 2minutes, and even less than 1minute for the over-frequency events. However, these statis-
tics concern only the supply of FCR in normal operation, given no major outage occurred during
123
Maximum* duration of load modulation events depending on the frequency threshold (in min)
4
Max duration (in min)

* statistical maximum lengh
No Modulation
3
for 95% of the events
2
0
49.85 49.9 49.95 50 50.05 50.1 50.15
Chart tatistics hauvinArnoudFrequency eanLength

Mean duration of load modulation events depending on the frequency threshold (in s)
40
Mean duration (in s)
No Modulation
30
20
10
0
49.85 49.9 49.95 50 50.05 50.1 50.15
Frequency Threshold HzStr (in Hz)
Figure III.16: Common duration of load modulation events, as a function of the frequency
threshold applied
the 40 days of frequency monitoring. Such frequency excursion in the situation of disturbance
can last probably much longer, but it has not been possible to monitor one of them during the
PhD work. A complementary work of the open-data of RTE [2015a] should be performed.
These statistics conclude the present section by calling again for a compliant contribution of DER
in the supply of FCR, preferably out of a given bandwidth center at 50Hz, width of ±50mHz
or even only ±35mHz.
5 Conclusion of Chapter III

The present chapter has presented the developed Primary Support concept. Primary Support
is a concept of coordinated modulation of DERs, capable of supplying both FCR and LFDD
reserves, without inducing an undesirable interruption of the DERs’ power supply. It has been
designed to answer to the upcoming challenges of frequency stability that have been summarized
in Chapter II.
Primary Support relies on a four-layers process, composed first of a multiplicity of DERs (layer
0) and of DER controllers (layer 1), at least one coordination platform (layer 2) and finally one
trading platform to share reserves of flexibilities among different coordination platforms (layer
3). Such multi-layer architecture enables the splitting of the operations of DER modulation
that occurs in real-time, from the operations of coordination of the behaviour of each DER that
occurs ahead of real-time. Such coordination of the DERs enables the obtaining of an aggregated
behaviour of the entire pool of DERs, that complies with the operational specifications of either
the FCR or the LFDD. The constitution of the portfolio of aggregation can be performed by
considering either market concerns or power system operation concerns. The DERs can thus be
aggregated according to either their power retailer or their localisation in the grid topology.
To do so, the operations of coordination start by sending ( in Figure III.17) the level of
124
5. CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER III
ntainment Reserve (FCR) Slope of the targeted

power-frequency characteristic:
r based on Distributed POFF (f)
HzStrj
Pcumoff
Load- …
HzStr3
shedding DER i
HzStr2
DER 3
y ICT penetration to DER 2
n contribution to FCR
DER 1
Fa Fb
f 3
which embed a sub-meter

relays, with remotelly
er consumption of each load
e of bulk generation unit by 1 4

2
y threshold to each DER
e system-scale a linear Power-

FCR. Figure III.17: Simplified operational process of Primary Support
flexibility of each DER by their DER controller at the destination of the coordination platform.
In parallel, the DER owners of each DER firstly define the frequency range wherein they allow
the modulation of their DERs. Secondly they set both the energy and capacity prices they want
to be compensated for the involvement of their assets. The coordination platform determines
( ) then the frequency threshold and slope of modulation of each DER (Figure III.4 on page
97). Such a coordination relies on an algorithm which considers on the one side the parameters
that characterize both the willingness and effectiveness of contribution of each DER, and on
the other side the resultant FCR and LFDD demands that have to be supplied by the pool of
DERs. The operations of coordination end by sending ( ) the operational frequency threshold
and slope of each DER to each DER controller.
The real-time operations are then driven autonomously and independently of one another by
each DER controller. To do so, each DER controller monitors on-site the system frequency
and modulates the level of load or of generation of the DERs it controls according to the
predetermined power-frequency slope of modulation, starting from the predetermined frequency
threshold ( ) . Moreover, the characterization of the process of modulation of the level of loads
of each DER relies on the standard Frequency-Watt mode (FWHZ) logical node, defined by the
IEC 61850-7-420 [2015] in order to guarantee the interoperability of the DER and maximize the
opportunity of supply of several services based on the same DER.
The statistics of frequency deviation that have been performed, enable the possibility of in-
volvement of a wide diversity of DERs such as domestic heaters and tap boilers, HVAC sys-
tems for tertiary building, pumping applications, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), Elec-
125
tric Vehicles (EVs) or even public lighting facilities. The willingness of the DER processes to
get interrupted would then determine their frequency range of modulation, considering that
two main bandwidths of frequency operation can be differentiated, split one another by a
±50mHz limit. On the one side, the involvement of a DER for FCR delivery in a range
[49.95; 49.98Hz] ∩ [50.02; 50.05Hz] would significantly impact the business-as-usual process of
the DERs, with modulation from 20min up to 5hr per day. It would thus be adapted only for
the DER that can dispose of large buffer such as tap boilers or EVs charging. On the contrary
the involvement of a DER for either LFDD or FCR delivery based on a threshold lower than
< 49.95Hz or greater than > 50.05Hz would induce a modulation of the level of load during
less than 6min per day. Such a frequency range of operation would be adapted to UPS or public
lighting facilities.
The next arguments toward a wide adoption of Primary Support by Smart Grid actors will come
from the outcomes of the demonstrations which have been performed in the framework of the
present PhD work. These outcomes are presented in Chapter IV.
126
CHAPTER IV
Field Deployment and Validation of

Primary Support
Chapter IV
Field Demonstration and

Validation of Primary Support
The present chapter details the activities performed to test and validate the concept of Primary
Support, presented in Chapter III. The works performed in this direction aimed to validate the
Primary Support concept in real conditions and identify operational issues that will have to be
solved before thinking of scale-1 industrial deployment.
The first developments presented in Section 1, lead to the realisation of tests on micro-grid test
bench and on physically simulated interconnected network, with the objective to assess the speed
of operation of both the DER and their controllers i.e. the layers 0 and 1 of Primary Support.
A second part of developments presented in Section 2, leads to the commissioning of a pre-

industrialized coordination platform i.e. the layer 2 of Primary Support. The creation of such
advanced platform enables to think at the connection of a quite significant numbers of DERs to
Primary Support environment.
A third set of developments, presented in Section 3 supposed upon the deployment of the
Primary Support concept in a critical industrial environment: the international airport of Milano
Malpensa. Operational and legal difficulties that occurred on the airport operator side have
however led to the cancellation of the demonstrations in this field test.
1 Validation of DERs real-time modulation (Layers 0 & 1)
1.1 ON/OFF DER’s response on a lab micro-grid
The first physical validation of Primary Support has been performed on Grenoble INP’s PREDIS
platform [Hadjsaid et al., 2009, 2010], by deploying energy boxes as DER controllers on a
reduced scale power system. The response of the pool of DER controllers in both steady-state
and disturbed situations have been assessed. The outcomes are presented below, following the
description of the field test and of the protocol of tests.
129
CHAPTER IV. FIELD DEMONSTRATION AND VALIDATION OF PRIMARY SUPPORT
1.1.1 Field Test
Figure IV.1 presents the architecture of the field test used to emulate a micro-grid. On the power
supply side, the micro-grid relies on a 4kVA synchronous machine, operated as an alternator.
This demo synchronous machine, behaves at a reduced scale as a typical conventional thermal
unit connected to the French power system [EDF, 1986]. The machine is not equipped with an
excitation control. On the demand side, five resistive loads are connected to the grid and are
controlled by the energy boxes. Figure IV.2 presents the energy boxes used (layer 1). They
have been specifically developed for the demonstration purposes, in order to embed a sub-layer
of real-time control of the solid-state relay, hosted by an Arduino Uno [2016] and a sub-layer of
frequency threshold coordination, performed by a Java agent hosted by a Raspberry PI [2016].
The accuracy of the monitoring script embedded into the Arduino Uno has been compared and
validated with the measurement outcomes of a Chauvin Arnoux [2014] model 8334, ahead of its
operational validation. A coordination agent is finally hosted by an independent computer to
perform the task of coordination of Primary Support (layer 2). The energy boxes agents and
the coordination agent communicate with one another through a local Ethernet network.
Limit of the micro-grid

Coordination
agent
25W 25W 25W
4kW Synchronous DC Machine

E-box E-box E-box
Machine
x5 50V/230V
ifmcc
,
Power & mechanical
frequency transmission
monitoring 600W to 900W
3-phases baseload ifms
Figure IV.1: Presentation of the agent-based platform and the field test
HzStr TotW
Wgra MaxWout
EnergyBox MinWout
HzStr
Relay Hz
-controller
Hz
TotW
Power &
Frequency Sensor
Figure IV.2: Scheme of principle and real energy box developed
130
1. VALIDATION OF DERS REAL-TIME MODULATION (LAYERS 0 & 1)
Frequency Deviation to the mean frequency. Regulation slope:1.35 mHz/W

Field Test Frequency and dispatchable power over the time 20
50.2
19
Frequency (in Hz)
18
Deviation occurance per deviation range (in %)

50.1
17
16
50
15 With Regulation
14 Without Regulation
49.9
13
12
49.8
11
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
10
Time (in min)
9
180 8
170
160 7
Power (in W)
150 6
140
130 5
120
110 4
100
90 3
80
70 2
60 1
50
40 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 −180−160−140−120−100 −80 −60 −40 −20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Time (in min) Deviation range, per step of_10 mHz
Figure IV.3: Test of the agent-based platform in steady-state operation
1.1.2 Protocol of tests
The demonstration aimed to prove the ability of the agent-based distributed platform to provide
a support to the grid with the same accuracy as a bulk generation unit can do. The use of a
reduced scale power system fed by one generator has however imposed an adaptation of the
protocol of tests. Indeed, it has not been possible to reproduce a blackout on the micro grid,
given that the machine always remains able to stabilize the frequency at a lower value, regardless
of the amount of load suddenly connected to the grid in a limit of the nominal capacity of 4kVA
of the machine.
Three kinds of tests have consequently been performed. The first ones aimed simply at showing
the agent-based platform’s ability to regulate the micro grid’s frequency in steady-state situ-
ations. The second ones aimed at testing the energy boxes’ time response when faced with a
sudden frequency drop, while the third ones aimed at validating the respect of the droop line
predefined. The results of these three sets of tests are presented from Sections 1.1.3 to 1.1.5.
1.1.3 Illustration of frequency stabilization in steady-state operation
The validation of the concept in steady state operation was not planned initially, for two reasons.
Firstly, the electric wave provided by the 4kVA generator can vary naturally by ±80mHz due
to the machine’s imperfections and the lack of inertia of the micro grid. Secondly, the natural
slope of the micro grid’s droop curve is comprised in a range of [1; 2mHz/W ] [Kuypers, 2014].
This natural deviation is due to the absence of closed-loop excitation control on the machine. It
induces voltage drops while the micro-grid is loaded and so a damping of the load consumption.
Thus the impact of a 25W load-shedding on the grid frequency cannot be really analysed and
used to assess the platform robustness. It has finally been decided to perform some tests with a
reduced droop curve of 1.35mHz/W. The evolution over the time of both the system frequency
and the consumption level of the dispatchable loads curves are presented in Figure IV.3, as well
as the evolution of the frequency deviations dispersion with or without regulation. The figures
show the energy boxes’ relays act fast enough to reduce the bandwidth of natural frequency
deviations, hence benefiting to the system stability. Indeed, the dispersion of the frequency is
reduced when the regulation is activated (red curves in Figure IV.3).
131
∆
∆
∆
Response of the test bench face to a sudden loading on the system

50.1
50
Without
With Reg-
Regula-
ulation
49.9 tion
(ON)
(OFF)
Number of tests 15 12
Frequency (in Hz)
49.8 Mean Drop 455 547

Frequency drop ∆Fd
∆FdON Max Drop 514 584
observed on the field
Min Drop 307 492
49.7 ∆FdOFF test (in mHz)
Standard Dev. 50 29
Mean Rebound 72 81
Rebound ∆Rd ob-
49.6 Max Rebound 118 115
served on the field
Min Rebound 12 54
∆RdON test (in mHz)
Standard Dev. 28 17
49.5 Number of occurences
∆R OFF
d ∆TdON
Frequency drop delay 785ms 11 2
observed ∆Td (sam- 1045ms 3 8
49.4
∆T OFF pling period: 260ms) 1310ms 1 2
d
Mean Delay 872ms 1046ms
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Time (in s)
Figure IV.4: Micro-grid response to a major outage, with and without frequency regulation
1.1.4 Validation of the agent-based platform time-response
Figure IV.4 displays the response of the field test faced with a sudden frequency drop engen-
dered by the connection of a large load to the system. 27 tests have been performed, with or
without the contribution of the frequency-controlled loads. The characteristic frequency and
delay values obtained during these tests are summed up and displayed beside the time-response
curves obtained.
The results illustrate that the energy boxes effectively handle the frequency droop faster than
the natural system behaviour. First, the frequency drop’s depth ∆Fd is reduced by 20% with
the frequency regulation, while the rebound ∆Rd remains at the same magnitude. Then, the
mean delay ∆Td of occurrence of the frequency Nadir lasts from 1046ms to 872ms, i.e. is reduced
by 17%. Both observations prove that the DER controllers act fast enough even on such low-
inertia system. Finally it validates the added-value that the controls of dispatchable DERs
through ON/OFF relays may have for the system stability, compared to the control of variable
speed loads. The response time of ON/OFF relays is much shorter than for variable speed loads
(see Section 1.3.3).
1.1.5 Validation of the droop curve conformity
The conformity towards the expected droop curve has been assessed by modifying slowly the
micro grid frequency, by acting on the synchronous machine speed. Eight cycles of frequency de-
creasing and rising have been performed over 12min. Figure IV.5 displays all of the {f requency; load}
values, monitored on the micro grid at a time interval of ≈ 250ms. The red curve in stairs added
above, represents the droop curve in stairs applied by the coordination agent.
The switches from one step of the stair to the next one correspond to a manipulation of the
relay of one energy box. The small load variations observed within a given step are due to a
slight voltage variation on the grid. The values plotted in red represents the values which are
actually out of the frequency bounds defined by the coordination agent, while the dark-grey
points represent compliant values. The out of bounds values represent 15.8% of the values
132
Frequency Deviation to Regulation stages. Regulation Slope:4 mHz/W

Expected and Obtained droop curve. Regulation Slope:4 mHz/W 5
150
Deviation occurance per deviation range (in %)

140
4
Power of the dispatchable loads (in W)
130
Deviation lower than the
Energy−box frequency
120 precision (+/−10mHz)
3 Values out of bounds:15.8%
110
100
2
90
80
1
70
60 0
49.4 49.5 49.6 49.7 49.8 49.9 50 50.1 50.2 −130 −110 −90 −70 −50 −30 −10 10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150
Frequency (in Hz) Deviation range, per step of_20 mHz
Figure IV.5: Characterisation of the obtained droop curve compared to the droop expected
monitored. The graph on the right of Figure IV.5 sorts these values depending on their distance
to the frequency range where they should be included. The additional 5.4% of values (black bar
in Figure IV.5 - right), having a deviation of less than ±10mHz are not considered as out of
bounds, given that they correspond to the energy boxes’ accuracy.
This proportion of 15.8% of out of bounds values can be considered as an acceptable rate. More-
over, none of these out of bounds values have been engendered by the periodic updates of the
frequency thresholds, which have been performed by the coordination agent every 60 seconds
during these tests. These deviations could be explained first by the high steady-state instability
of the micro-grid (Figure IV.3). The presence of reactive power on the phases to which the
dispatchable loads have been connected may also damage part of the frequency measurement
performed due to proof-of-concept equipment. Finally, six different lab-made frequency mea-
surement devices have been used in the demonstration, based on Arduino Uno devices. Their
quality and the absence of time synchronisation of the different devices that have been used for
load driving and for monitoring the system reaction may explain as well part of the deviation.
However, all of these assumptions regarding the origin of measurement problems do not explain
why errors of more than 50mHz have been monitored. No explanation of these large deviations
have been identified yet.
1.2 ON/OFF DER’s response on a interconnected system
The second physical validation of Primary Support aimed to assess the behaviour of an industrial
ON/OFF DER controller, on an interconnected power system. The response of a pool of DER
controller has been assessed using a Power Hardware In the Pool (PHIL) test bench. The
outcomes are presented below, following the description of the field test and of the protocol of
tests.
133
Figure IV.6: Architecture of the Power Hardware In the Loop simulation test bench at PREDIS
1.2.1 Field Test
This set of tests has been performed on Grenoble INP’s PREDIS platform. The use of PREDIS
platform enables the access to a Power Hardware In the Loop (PHIL) test bench. Figure IV.6
c
describes the architecture of this test bench. It is composed of an RT-lab¥ digital real-time
simulator that drives a power amplifier. Then, analog devices such as scale-1 DERs can be con-
nected to the power amplifier. The real-time simulator enables to simulate any kind of scenarios
c
by loading Simulink¥ files. The power amplifier is then able to play physically each of these
scenarios. Current sensors are finally associated to the power amplifier to provide a feedback
to the real-time simulator of the effective current consumptions of the analog devices that have
been connected to the power amplifier. Thanks to this architecture, the power system that is
simulated is impacted by the real-time behaviour of the analog devices. Last but not least, a
current coefficient can be applied on the current measurements. This enables to modify the scale
of simulations. According to such logic, the PHIL can either execute a specific event or repro-
duce power system architectures of any size, from micro-grids up to large-scale interconnected
grids.
This test bench has been firstly used to test and validate the behaviour of ON/OFF DER con-
trollers, that have been built using industrial power components provided by Schneider Electric.
Figure IV.7 displays the architecture of these ON/OFF DER controllers. Figure IV.8 presents
one of the three ON/OFF demonstration suitcases that has been built by Schneider Electric for
the needs of demonstration. Out of the power protection components, the cubicle is composed
of three main kinds of components: one sub-power meter, one Power Logic Controller (PLC)
and two or three steady-states relays - depending on the suitcase version - that turn the loads
ON or OFF independently one another. For the specific needs of the coordination between the
layers 1 and 2 of Primary Support, an ICT gateway has been added and hosted in a Raspberry
PI (RPI). The PLC communicates with the power meter and the ICT gateway using a Mod-
bus RTU protocol. The PLC is the unique master device, the others are Modbus slaves. The
steady-state relays are driven by a 0/5V analog signal that comes from the PLC. The power
meter provides to the PLC the informations of power consumption of each of the loads, as well
134
layer 2
Webservice
TCP/IP
Raspberry PI
TotW
HzStr MaxWout
Wgra MinWout
Power layer 1
Meter Programmable
PM3250 Logic Controller
M171
Steady-
state
relay
Loads
layer 0
Figure IV.7: Architecture of the ON/OFF demo kit to the deployed within Schneider Electric
show-room
as the power system frequency. The set of {M inW out; T otW ; M axW out} and {HzStr; W gra}
parameters are exchanged between the DER controller and the coordination platform through
the ICT gateway.
The test implemented on these industrial ON/OFF DER controllers aimed essentially to as-
sess the time response of controllers. Indeed, the introduction of communications between the
components of frequency monitoring and load driving is a source of response delay. This delay
had to be evaluated and compared with the results that have been obtained using the all-in-one
energy boxes (Section 1.1).
The mean time-response of the suitcases has been assessed by connecting the three independent
suitcases to the power amplifier. On the whole, eight loads where connected and controlled by
three independent PLC. The power amplifier played a scenario of sudden frequency variations
of ±1Hz with a period 40s. 26 events of sudden frequency drop and 26 events of sudden
frequency recovery were played the one after the other. The frequency evolved between 49.05Hz
and 50.05Hz. Each of the eight loads had nearly the same power consumption. They were
coordinated to provide an aggregated linear power-frequency characteristic between 49.8Hz and
49.98Hz. Given the frequency step magnitude of ±1Hz, it was expected that the eight loads
were disconnected and reconnected simultaneously. Seven of the eight loads were resistive loads.
The eighth load is a fan. The behaviour of the suitcases during these events is presented in next
Section 1.2.3.
1.2.3 Validation of ON/OFF DERs time-response
Figure IV.9 presents the evolution of the overall power consumption of the test bench depending
on the system frequency prior and after each of the 26 events of frequency drop. Figure IV.10
presents then the equivalent power consumption prior and after each of the 26 events of frequency
135
Figure IV.8: Prototype of ON/OFF demonstration suitcase
recovery. The measurements have been performed with a sampling of 50ms.
Three main levels of power consumption can be observed in Figures IV.9 and IV.10. Each of
these levels correspond to the simultaneous disconnection of all of the two or three loads that are
controlled by the same PLC. Given that two suitcases control three loads while the third suitcase
controls only two loads, the power consumption of one of the three suitcase is lower. Hence,
depending on the chronology of disconnection of the three suitcases, the power consumption of
each of the main three main level observed, can differ.
Nonetheless, the main conclusions of these test remains the same despite of these slight variations
of power consumption:
The delay of disconnection of 100% of the loads is close to 5s with the present suitcase
architecture. Despite 5s is a value that complies with the European Grid codes - except for
the FCDM power product in GB synchronous area - (Figure II.10 in page 65), such delay
would remain too large for micro-grids, that can face ROCOF of several Hertz per second
(see page 56). Hence an one-in-all architecture of energy boxes as presented in Section1.1
would remain preferable.
136
Suitcases response to a sudden frequency drop (8 loads, 3PLC)

50.1 600
50
Frequency
49.9 Power 500
Power average
49.8
Power consumption (in W)

49.7 400
Frequency (in Hz)
49.6
49.5 300
49.4
49.3 200
49.2
49.1 100
49
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14 14.5 15
Time (in s)
Figure IV.9: ON/OFF industrial DER controllers response to a sudden frequency drop
Suitcases response to a sudden frequency recovery (8 loads, 3PLC)

50.1 600
50
49.9 500
49.8
Power consumption (in W)

49.7 400
Frequency (in Hz)
49.6
49.5 300
49.4
49.3 200
49.2
Frequency
49.1 Power 100
Power average
49
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14 14.5 15
Time (in s)
Figure IV.10: ON/OFF industrial DER controllers response to a sudden frequency recovery
As soon as the PLC takes the decision of load shedding, both the transmission of the shedding
order along the 0/5V analog bus and the effective shedding of the load are almost instanta-
neous. Indeed it is not possible to differentiate the specific shedding of each of the loads that
are controlled by the same PLC with measurement sampling of 50ms. Only the fan can be
identified more easily. In Figure IV.9, the frequency drop induces slight oscillations of the
fan’s motor, inducing slight variation of its power consumption. In Figure IV.10, its power
consumption rises progressively while the screw speeds up.
Consequently the delay of response is induced by the sending of frequency value from the
power meter to the PLC i.e. is induced by the Modbus delay. The use of Modbus complies
with large-scale power system but is not doable in micro-grids.
137
layer 2
Webservice
TCP/IP
Raspberry PI
TotW
HzStr MaxWout
Wgra MinWout
Power layer 1
Meter Programmable
PM3250 Logic Controller
M171
Variable
Speed
Driver
Altivar 21
Loads
layer 0
Figure IV.11: On-site generic architecture of an HVAC system and picture of the equivalent
system built within PREDIS platform
1.3 Variable-speed DER’s response on a interconnected system
The third physical validation of Primary Support aimed to assess the behaviour of an industrial
rotating machine, on an interconnected power system. The outcomes of the demonstration are
presented following the same logic as in the previous section: the field test is described first,
ahead of the description of the protocol of tests. The section ends with the validation of both
the time-response and the droop conformity of the variable speed drive controller.
1.3.1 Field Test
This set of tests has been performed again on Grenoble INP’s PREDIS platform. A specific
industrial cubicle has been built for this purpose, using components provided by Schneider
Electric. This cubicle aims to reproduce an architecture of control-command of one or several
conventional variable speed loads that can be found in the industry, such as a compressor of an
HVAC system or a pump. Figure IV.11 displays the generic architecture of an HVAC system
usually deployed in tertiary buildings. This architecture has been used as a reference for the
design of the final cubicle, whose picture is displayed as well in Figure IV.11.
Out of the power protection components, the cubicle is composed of three main kinds of compo-
nents: one sub-power meter, one Power Logic Controller (PLC) and at least one variable speed
drive. The cubicle can be composed of as many variable speed drives as the number of vari-
able speed loads to be controlled independently one-another. The variable speed drives supply
the flexible loads at a local frequency that depends on the drives’ set-points. For the specific
needs of the coordination between the layers 1 and 2 of Primary Support, an ICT gateway has
been added and hosted in a Raspberry PI (RPI). The four components, including the gateway
communicate on-site by Modbus. The PLC is the unique master device, the others are Modbus
slaves. In the generic architecture, the power meter aims to provide sub-metering data of the
138
entire HVAC process. The variable speed drives control the rotational speed of both the HVAC
compressors and fans to optimize the thermal flow according to concerns of high power efficiency.
The PLC defines finally the set points fdrive of the variable speed drives, according to a set of
temperature, air quality or presence sensors spread among the building. fdrive is the frequency
of the electrical wave generated by the variable speed drives to feed the loads they control. The
information of power consumption of the drive T otW is provided by the drive in answer to a
Modbus request of the PLC.
For the purpose of Primary Support, the PLC operates as well the FWHZ function. It is
reminded that FWHZ [IEC 61850-7-420, 2015] characterizes the local power-frequency charac-
teristic i.e. it characterizes how does the modulation of the level of load occur depending on the
variation of the system frequency. The modulation of the level of load - i.e. the modification of
fdrive - which is imposed by FWHZ, has the priority on the business-as-usual process of thermal
flow optimization. The information of system frequency is provided on-site by the power meter,
while the {HzStr; W gra} parameters of the DER controller’s power-frequency characteristic
are transmitted from the coordination platform to the DER controller through the ICT gate-
way. The flows of data requested by the PLC to operate FWHZ are presented in red in Figure
IV.11 along the communication bus. The ICT gateway is hosted by a RPI - i.e. a computer -
which uses an RS485/USB converter to perform a Modbus-RTU/webservice-TCP conversion on
a Python script.
Physically, the modulation of load is controlled by a variation of the frequency fdrive at the side
of the variable speed and not by a direct control of the power consumption T otW . The task
of determination of the correlation T otW = f ct(fdrive ) belongs to the script embedded into the
PLC.
In PREDIS, the cubicle drives a 4kW asynchronous machine that behaves like an HVAC com-
pressor or a pump. The mechanical torque to be supplied by the asynchronous machine is
passed by the connection of a DC machine to the shaft of the asynchronous machine. The DC
machine itself is the source of supply of a DC sub-grid, to which are connected resistive loads.
The mechanical torque - and so the power consumption of the variable speed drive - depends
on the amount of resistive loads connected. This process of power conversion deployed for the
need of the demonstration is displayed in Figure IV.12. The correlation between the power
consumption of the loads T otW and the drive’s frequency fdrive corresponds to a polynomial
function of order 2. This correlation is demonstrated by the successive equations IV.1 to IV.5,
that use the parameters of Figure IV.12:
2



T otW = RUload
e
+ δP

Ue = Emcc − ULd − Ur (IV.1)



Emcc = k × φ × Ω

139
Imcc
HVAC
demonstration Rmcc Ur
Variable cubicle
Speed Ldmcc ULd Ue
Drive
Emcc=k. .
TotW fdrive mechanical x5

transmission
p
Ue
P
,
losses
4kW Asynchronous DC Machine Rload Rload

Machine
Resistive loads
Figure IV.12: Power conversion process from the HVAC-emulator cubicle down to the final
resistive loads
By simplifying the input equations thanks to the assumptions:
δP ≈ 0
Ur = Rmcc × Imcc ≈ 0
dImcc
ULd = Ld × = 0 in steady-state operation
dt
It leads to the equation IV.2:

 2
T otW = Ue
Rload
(IV.2)
U = k × φ × Ω
e
i.e. :
(k × φ × Ω)2
T otW = (IV.3)
Rload
(k × φ × ( 2π
p × fdrive ))
2
T otW = (IV.4)
Rload
2π × k × φ 2
5 6
T otW = √ 2
× fdrive (IV.5)
p × Rload
The tests implemented on the HVAC cubicle aimed to assess the response of the 4kVA asyn-
chronous machine to frequency deviation disturbances. Achieving these tests requires the re-
production of the scenario of frequency drop that would not occur by the simple connection of
the cubicle to the power system of Continental Europe, due to the extremely low probability
of occurrence of these events. Based on this assessment, there are two ways left to simulate
140
such disturbances : either connect the cubicle to a real-time simulator, with a frequency mov-
ing in real time according to predefined set of data as it has been presented in Section 1.2; or
replace the cubicle’s power meter by a second RPI that returns the given set of frequency data
in response to the Modbus initiated from the PLC.
The method chosen and presently presented is the second one that emulates the power meter.
It has been chosen for its easiness of deployment, which does not require a modification of the
grid point of connection of the cubicle in PREDIS. In this method, the RPI is in charge of the
monitoring of the power-response of the HVAC unit faced with the variation of frequency. The
RPI achieves this monitoring by handling the values of level of load T otW which are transmitted
on Modbus by the PLC at the destination of the Modbus-RTU/Webservice-TCP gateway. It
leads to the saving of set of {Hz, T otW } points, wherein each of the Hz and T otW data of the
couple are saved at the same time-stamp.
Two successive disturbances have been triggered. The first scenario is a set of 1-second sampling
frequency data measured in CE synchronous area, wherein a frequency Nadir of 49.88Hz has
been observed and recovered. This set of data is extracted from the 40 days of data monitored
in 2015 within Schneider Electric show-room (see Section 4.3), and corresponds somehow to an
exceptional monthly-event. The second scenario is the sequence of events that lead to the Italian
blackout in 2003 [ENTSO-E, 2004a], starting from the disconnection of the Italian power system
from the rest of Continental Europe. Such an event can represent a decade or multi-decades
event at the scale of a synchronous area.
The power-response of the HVAC unit along the temporal sequence of incidents are represented
by continuous black lines T otW (t) in Figure IV.13 (monthly-event) and Figure IV.14 (decade-
event). The curve of frequency Hz(t) is plotted in red on the figures with an accurate linear
scaling. Such scaling highlights a clear correlation between the curves of frequency and of the
level of load. Nonetheless, a time-offset can be noticed between both curves, especially in Figure
IV.14. Such offset is assessed in Section 1.3.3.
1.3.3 Validation of the HVAC cubicle time-response
As presented in Section 1.3.2, each of the Hz and T otW data of the points {Hz, T otW } have
been saved with the same time-stamp. However, the response of the HVAC unit to a given
variation of frequency can be observed at the RPI side, only after the effective variation of the
level of load of the HVAC unit, as presented in Figure IV.15. The RPI faces therefore a delay
∆T which is the sum of three sub-delays: a first ICT delay ∆TICT 1 due to the emulation and
monitoring of the scenario ; a second ICT delay ∆TICT 2 due to the control of the variable speed
drive following a request for frequency surveillance and a third physical delay ∆TP ower induced
by the power process of modulation of the load.
In the context of FCR supply, the commitment of a given FCR supplying unit is to get a
cumulative delay from the real time occurrence of the frequency deviation (Start icon ), up to
141
50.06
295
System Frequency sent to the PLC (in Hz)
Asynchronous motor consumption (in W)

Frequency Hz(t)
50.04
50.02
Level of load TotW(t)
Level of load TotW(t - T) 245

50
49.98
49.96 195
49.94
49.92
145
49.9
49.88
49.86 95
00:00:00
00:00:20
00:00:40
00:01:00
00:01:20
00:01:40
00:02:00
00:02:20
00:02:40
00:03:00
00:03:20
00:03:40
00:04:00
00:04:20
00:04:40
00:05:00
00:05:20
00:05:40
00:06:00
00:06:20
00:06:40
00:07:00
00:07:20
00:07:40
00:08:00
00:08:20
Time (in s)
Figure IV.13: Power-response of the HVAC unit to a monthly-event observed in Continental

Europe (March 2015)
that
- Event simulated led to
through an the 2003ofItalian
emulation Black-out
the Frequency Sensor with a Raspberry PI -
50.5
Frequency Hz(t) 270
50 Level of load TotW(t)

Sum of simulation and 220
Asynchronous motor consumption (in W)

operation delay
49.5 Level of load TotW(t - T)
System Frequency sent to the PLC (in Hz)
170
49
120
48.5
70
48
20
47.5
-30
47
46.5 -80
Frequency Scenario 2003 played by a -130

46
Raspberry PI replacing the power meter
45.5 -180
03:25:25
03:25:35
03:25:45
03:25:55
03:26:05
03:26:15
03:26:25
03:26:35
03:26:45
03:26:55
03:27:05
03:27:15
03:27:25
03:27:35
03:27:45
03:27:55
03:28:05
Real Event Time (in s)
Figure IV.14: Power-response of the HVAC unit to a decade-event (2003 Italian Black-out)
the effective power modulation (Stop icon ) that remains shorter than the FCR Full Activation
Time (Figure II.10), i.e. commonly 15 seconds but ideally 10 seconds for Demand Response
contribution. In the present demonstration, the total delay ∆T monitored by the RPI is of
7s ± 2s. This observation lead us to establish two conclusions:
On the one side, such a total delay is compliant with the supply of FCR. The effective delay
is even shorter given that ∆T includes two Modbus messages that are out of the committed
path from the start to stop icons. Moreover the Python script operated by the RPI
is much less optimized and slower than the script that runs a power-meter. Figures IV.13
142
Hzreal Real-time command Physical process
Hzmeasured(t) set point real
Load
TICT 1 TICT 2 TPower
inertia
TotWmeasured(t+ T) TotWmeasured TotWreal

Scenario emulation & monitoring
Figure IV.15: ICT and physical path from Hz modification up to new T otW value observation
(a) HVAC droop conformity on the decade-event (b) HVAC droop conformity on the monthly-event
-Italy 2003-
250
Level of Load (in W)
Level of Load (in W)

y = 914.53x - 45494
200 220 R² = 0.9472
y = 94.352x - 4483.6
R² = 0.9833
150 y = 16.35x - 593.38
180
R² = 0.0059
100
140
50
y = 13.459x2 - 1222.8x + 27734
R² = 0.9906
0 100
49.86
49.88
49.9
49.92
49.94
49.96
49.98
50
50.02
50.04
47.5
48
48.5
49
49.5
50
Frequency (in Hz) Frequency (in Hz)
Figure IV.16: Validation of delivery of the slope Wgra by the HVAC cubicle
& IV.14 each show a power-response curve plotted in dashed black line that compensates
arbitrarily the over-delay of communication ;
On the other side, the present operational process of variable speed load modulation coor-
dinated by a PLC using Modbus link is finally not an instantaneous process, and must be
considered as such. The RPI received for instance a frequency request only once every 2
seconds and it has not been managed to reduce this time interval in operation.
1.3.4 Validation of the droop curve conformity
The set of {Hz, T otW } points saved by the RPI have then been exploited to assess the conformity
of the power-frequency droop of the HVAC demonstration unit with a contractual droop W gra.
The operational droop has been assessed after having removed the time offset that occurred
during the monitoring of each Hz and T otW point. On the script-side, the droop has been
implemented as a linear function of the rotational speed, thus neglecting the theoretical second
order of the relation T otW = f ct(fdrive ).
Figure IV.16 plots the two operational droop obtained during the demo test. Each droop
represents one of the two outages simulated.
143
On the monthly event (b), the limit of modulation of the droop has been defined as in equation
IV.6:

fdrive = 1500rpm ≡ F ≥ 49.98Hz
(IV.6)
f
drive = 600rpm ≡ F ≤ 49.8Hz
%M axW out
It leads to the supply of a power-frequency droop of 914W/Hz i.e. 22.9 on the
Hz
variable speed drive of 4kW (M axW out = 4kW ), with a good coefficient of regression (0.94).
Figure IV.16 (b) clearly dissociates the two different behaviours of the HVAC: the upper range
of non-modulation and the range of power modulation. However the third behaviour i.e. the
inferior range of non-modulation has not been observed due to too-contained frequency deviation.
On the decade-event (a), a droop of the same nature as for the monthly-event (b) has been
implemented but on a wider range of frequency, limited by the conditions of equation IV.7:

fdrive = 1500rpm ≡ F ≥ 49.98Hz
(IV.7)
f
drive = 600rpm ≡ F ≤ 48Hz
%M axW out
It leads to the supply of a power-frequency droop of 94W/Hz i.e. 2.3 on the variable
Hz
speed drive of 4kW (M axW out = 4kW ), with an even better coefficient of regression (0.98).
During this outage simulation, only the two behaviours of the HVAC associated with the range
of power modulation and inferior range of non-modulation, can be observed in Figure IV.16 (b),
due to a lack of frequency data historic available before the occurrence of the outage.
Figure IV.16 (a) displays in green a droop trend characterized as a polynomial function of order
2. It can be noticed that such an approximation improves the coefficient of determination R2
of the approached droop, as it was expected considering the theoretical order of the correlation
T otW = f ct(fdrive ). Such improvement of the coefficient is however of less than 1% and it can
be assessed that the linear approximation is sufficient for the present process.
In the present case, the linearisation of the non-linear correlation went well which is a good
outcome for Primary Support. It does not guarantee however that it will remain true in any
process. It highlights as such a potential challenge for any industrial deployment of Primary
Support on variable speed drivers. Despite the fact that the link with the coordination platform
which has been standardized thanks to the use of FWHZ, the characterisation of the transfer
function that links the slope W gra with the parameter of control of the drive fdrive will have to
be tested & validated individually for each process.
144
2. DEPLOYMENT OF PRE-INDUSTRIAL COORDINATION PLATFORM (LAYER 2)
2 Deployment of pre-industrial coordination platform (Layer 2)

The coordination of the individual behaviour of each DER is one of the two main innovations
claimed by Primary Support, with the distribution of the decision of load modulation. The
validation of the philosophy of coordination put forward during the conception of Primary
Support (see Ch III Section 3.4), went through the development of such a kind of coordination
platform that uses software and telecommunication tools that comply with the requirements of
industry. The first commitment of this step of development was to deploy the telecommunication
infrastructure that enables the exchange of data between the DER controllers (layer 1) and the
coordination platform (layer 2). The second commitment was to host the algorithm of market
clearing that has been presented in Section 3.4.3, within the coordination platform and operate
it to effectively test the coordination of the DER.
2.1 Architecture of the coordination platform of demonstration
Figure IV.17 presents the entire architecture of the coordination platform developed for the
purpose of the testing and validation. Four main tools are implemented beside the central
market and operation database, that stores all of the 24 parameters per offer or demand bid
that are required to operate Primary Support (see Section 3.4.1). These four tools provide either
functions of telecommunication (Telecom interface), computation (Market clearing and Clearing
visualisation algorithm) or Human Machine Interface (HMI).
The HMI is composed of three main components. The first one aims to declare FCR or UFLS
demand bids (see synoptic’s details in Figure E.4 in page 206). The second one enables the input
of parameters that characterize the willingness of each DER owner to get its DER involved in
the process of frequency regulation (see synoptic’s details in Figure E.3 in page 205). The third
component enables to plot the effective resultant offer that satisfies the resultant demand in
time of operation at the scale of the portfolio of aggregation (see synoptic’s details in Figure
IV.18 in page 148).
A set of arrows have been drawn between the different components of architecture that are
represented in Figure IV.17. These arrows represent flows of data that occur between the
different components of the platform. The arrows are plotted in four different colors depending
on the nature of the event that induces their exchange:
The grey arrows represents the flow of data induced by the HMI. Such flows could first
occur on-event, following a modification of the behaviour of a DER by its owner. Otherwise
such flows occur following the modification/creation/suppression of a FCR or UFLS demand
bid by a customer. Both these kinds of flows are presented by the grey arrows plotted on
the right upper corner of Figure IV.17. On the other side, the continuous visualisation of
the resultant offer and demand curves induces the download from the database of the data
that are required for the building of these resultant curves by the algorithm of clearing
visualisation. In the demo testing, such downloads occur every two or ten seconds. In scale-
1 operation, such an interval could be adapted to an effective need to be determined with
145
Telecom Market Market & operation database Clearing HMI

interface clearing Intern
clearing Real-time
Market-
related
DER
behavior
visua- FCR&UFLS demand
declaration
algorithm parameters parameters parameters parameters lisation
algorithm
Type
idCEMS Figure D.4
IsXMPP
(Number of DERs + Number of demand bids) lines

Load historic -
IsRequester Save data
operation - following each
Reception & ___ update filled in
Plugin
of an market ____ the HMI DER owner willingness
HTTPS
HTTPS webservice data_____ TotW Capacity WCtlHzEna declaration
request MaxWout Price HysEna
MinWout Energy ActDiTmms
Price ClcNxtTmms
WgraMax
WgraMin
Figure D.3
Fmax
Fmin
Inform the Plugin language
reachable XMPP HzStr
DERs Wgra Update the Clearing output visualisation
HzStop visualisation
Save HzStopWgra interface
Clearing BidPrice every 2s
output PminCum
PmaxCum
Figure IV.18
language
Java interface
24 columns HZ
Figure IV.17: Architecture of the demonstration coordination platform of Primary Support
respect to the feedbacks gathered in effective operation;
The green and red arrows are induced by the handling of a message from a given DER
that requires the computation of the market clearing algorithm. The algorithm implemented
complies with its theoretical definition that has been presented in Figure III.8. The repre-
sentation in Figure IV.17 of the start and stop icons aims to delimit one full sequence
of treatment of real-time operation data emitted by one DER controller and that has been
handled on the HTTPS plug-in. The green arrows indicate the flows of data induced to feed
the market clearing algorithm. The red arrows indicate then the flows of data induced by
the saving of the clearing outcomes and the emission of the message of behaviour update
at the destination of the reachable DERs that belong to the portfolio of aggregation. The
reachable DERs are all the DERs connected by an XMPP channel and the DERs that are
controlled by the DER controller which had emitted the HTTPS message handled by the
coordination platform. Figure IV.17 does not currently present accurately the green and red
flows of data that would occur following the handling of an XMPP message. In such a case,
neither green nor red communication would occur with the HTTPS plug-in. Instead, the two
green arrows that used to be received and emitted by the HTTPS plug-in would be linked
with the XMPP plug-in.
The red dotted arrow represent the flow of data that enables finally the provision of the
real-time value of system frequency to the visual interface of clearing output. Such real-time
value is updated each time a message of a DER controller has been handled;
The messages that are exchanged through both HTTPS and XMPP plug-ins are written in a
JSON semantics. However, the conditioning of the keys and data does not comply with the
standard defined by IEC 61850-8-2 [2016], that claims for the use of an XML conditioning
146
2. DEPLOYMENT OF PRE-INDUSTRIAL COORDINATION PLATFORM (LAYER 2)
Table IV.1: Semantic of the JSON messages exchanged between the DER controllers and the
coordination platform
Request for threshold and slope Answer to the request

emitted by a DER controller by the coordination platform
{ {
′
LogicalN ode′ :′ G2ELAB_C_3′ , ”LogicalN ame” : ”G2ELAB_C_3”,
′
DRAT 1$SP $M axW out$setM ag.i′ : 1000.0, ”F W HZ1$SP $HzStr$setM ag.f ” : ”49.18”,
′
DRAT 1$SP $M inW out$setM ag.i′ : 0.0, ”F W HZ1$SP $HzStop$setM ag.f ” : ”0.0”,
′
M M XU $M X$T otW $mag.i′ : 910.0, ”F W HZ1$SP $W gra$setM ag.f ” : ”10000.0”,
′
M M XU $M X$T otW $t′ : 1448971039, ”F W HZ1$SP $HzStopW gra$setM ag.f ” : ”0.0”
′
M M XU $M X$Hz$mag.f ′ : 49.1 }
}
instead of JSON. Such a choice has been taken for easiness of deployment and compliance with
the different field tests of Dream [2013]. However the keys’ names that have been used remain
in compliance with the standard names defined by IEC 61850-7-420 [2015] ed.2 (Figure III.6
and Table III.2). Table IV.1 presents the effective call and reply JSON semantics that are used
between the DER controller and the coordination platform.
2.2 HMI of visualisation of the resultant offer and demand power-frequency

characteristics
Figure IV.18 displays the HMI of visualisation of the curves of resultant offer and demand,
which are built at the scale of the portfolio of aggregation of the coordination platform. In
Figure IV.18, the x-axis represents the frequency in hundredths of Hertz. The y-axis represents
the cumulated regulating power in Watt. The aggregated demand is plotted in blue, while the
aggregated offer is plotted in green. The graph displays as well in yellow the range of power
contribution of the given DER that has been selected for the plot. The graph displays finally
the value of the last frequency measurement that has been sent by a given DER controller at
the destination of the coordination platform (red dotted arrow in Figure IV.17).
Figure IV.18 illustrates the behaviour of the algorithm for the threshold and slope coordination:
The clearing is performed such as the resulting offer is at least equal to the aggregated
demand. Thus the values of the green resulting offer curve are supposed to be larger than
the value of the blue demand curve;
Both green and blue curves can unfortunately cross each-other in the case of a lack of offers
to meet the resulting demand;
The linear demand to be supplied in the interval [48.5Hz;50Hz] is supplied thanks to the con-
tributions of DERs that are modulated either in slope or ON/OFF mode. The resulting offer
curve looks like a stair whose limits between two steps do not have the same downgrade. Such
147
Power
contribution
of the DER HzStr
Figure IV.18: Interface of visualisation of the resultant offer and curves
difference of downgrade is impacted by the limit of admissible slope {W graM in; W graM ax}
of each DER (see equation III.3 in Ch. III Section 3.4.3);
The effective frequency range of contribution of a given DER can be identified at the intersec-
tion between the green resulting offer curve and both the lower and upper bounds of the range
of power contribution of the DER, plotted through a yellow shadow. The HzStr threshold
of the DER corresponds to the x value of the intersection between the green resulting offer
curve and the lower bound of the range of power contribution.
Last but not least, the height of each step of the resulting offer depends on the flexibility
(T otW − M inW out) of each DER selected for contribution.
The Figures E.1 to E.5 provided in Appendix E, details all of the other synoptics of the coor-
dination platform, that enables the input of the FCR and UFLS bids and the definition of the
admissible behaviour of each DER of the portfolio of aggregation.
3 Deployment of a scale-1 Primary Support infrastructure

Primary Support has been deployed in the facilities of three different partners of the Dream
project: the PREDIS platform of G2Elab, the innovation show-room of Schneider Electric in
Grenoble and temporary in ICCS facilities in Athens. The deployment of Primary Support were
expected as well among SEA’s facilities at Milano Malpensa Airport, but unfortunately it faced
operational troubles. The DER controllers deployed in each of these locations are coordinated
by a server hosted in Lyon. The locations concerned are all connected to the synchronous area
of Continental Europe. Figure IV.19 displays the geographical repartition of the components as
well as the nature of the DER deployed within each location. The Sections 3.1 to 3.4 detail the
resources available and the architectures of control of the DER in each location. The scenario
of deployment of the DER controllers at Malpensa remains presented in Section 3.4, given that
the nature of the resources that would have been controlled differs from the other field tests.
148
3. DEPLOYMENT OF A SCALE-1 PRIMARY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
Lyon
Cloud-based
coordination
platform
Grenoble Flexible Resources
Operation / IU
GreEn-ER Milano
building
slope
mode
Variable
speed drive Parking
mode lighting
Grenoble Athens
ON/OFF
mode
Show-room
Utility Innovation ICCS lab
ON/OFF ON/OFF
ON/OFF
mode mode
mode
PhD defense @GaspardLebel | April 26th, 2016 | Grenoble /47
Figure IV.19: Map of the DER controllers of Primary Support deployed among Dream facilities
3.1 Schneider Electric - Grenoble
One ON/OFF load controller that has been deployed in the innovation show-room of Schneider
Electric. This is one of the three easy to move demo-kit suitcases that have been developed by
Schneider Electric for the demonstration needs of Dream. The suitcase and its architecture have
already been presented in Section 1.2 (Figures IV.7 and IV.8).
3.2 G2Elab - Grenoble
The field test of G2Elab is composed of two sets of DERs : a set of loads connected to a Power
Hardware In the Loop (PHIL) test bench, presented in Section 1.2 and the HVAC emulation
unit, presented in Section 1.3.
In the present scale-1 demonstration, the HVAC emulation unit was coordinated by the remote
coordination platform located in Lyon, and the cubicle got its power meter reconnected to the
PLC - that was not the case during the tests presented Section 1.3.The set of loads connected
to the PHIL test bench are a mix of two kinds of physical loads and one kind of virtual loads,
that are all ON/OFF-controlled.
The first kind of physical loads as well as the virtual loads have
the same architecture as the energy boxes presented in Section 1.1. Up to three three-phases
or nine single-phase resistive loads can be physically connected on the test bench and directly
c
driven by the RT-lab¥ digital real-time simulator, depending on the system frequency that is
c
computed in real-time by the Simulink¥ script. The coordination of these set of loads is enabled
c
by a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), that is interfaced with RT-lab¥ . It enables the coordination
149
layer 2
Webservice
TCP/IP
Saitel DR Gateway
TotW
HzStr MaxWout
Wgra MinWout
Power layer 1
Meter Remote Terminal
SOCOMEC Units (RTUs)
Saitel DR
Variable
Voltage
Regulator
IREM
Stabilux
Loads
layer 0
Figure IV.20: Architecture of the airport lighting modulation system to the deployed at Milano
Malpensa for Primary Support purpose
of the frequency threshold and slope {HzStr; W gra} of the loads over an XMPP link with the
coordination server.The second kind of physical loads are three heating loads that has been
connected to one of the three ON/OFF DER controller developed by Schneider Electric and
that have been presented in Section 1.2.
3.3 ICCS - Athens

The third ON/OFF load controller, developed by Schneider Electric (Section 1.2) has been
deployed during a short period among ICCS facilities, for perspective of vulgarisation as it has
been done within Schneider Electric innovation show-room.
3.4 SEA - Milano Malpensa

SEA is willing to involve a wide range of lighting loads on Milano Malpensa Airport in the
operational process of Primary Support. As presented in Figure IV.20, the modulation of the
level of loads would have been performed by a modulation of the voltage level that feeds the
lighting sources involved. The lighting loads concerned are first LED lamps that light streets
and car parks. The second kind of lighting loads are apron lighting towers that light other car
parks and aircraft facilities on both the cargo city area and satellite A of the main terminal.
Figures IV.21 & IV.22 displays the map of the lighting facilities able to be controlled.
"SEA is interested in Primary Support to replace the gas and steam turbine
operated by SEA Energia in the supplying of primary frequency regulation re-
quired by the Italian TSO. We aim to avoid thermal and mechanic stress on the
turbines, prolonging so their life-time." SEA Environment team.
150
3. DEPLOYMENT OF A SCALE-1 PRIMARY SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
PARKING SUD
APRON LIGHTING
TOWERS
ROAD APRON
LIGHTING TOWERS
PARKING P3 LED LAMPS
Figure IV.21: [Left] Overview of the parking lighting of Milano Malpensa Airport to be involved
in Primary Support
CARGO CITY AREA
APRON LIGHTING
TOWERS OF
CARGO CITY AREA
Figure
Figure 46 overview
IV.22: [Right]ofOverview
potentialofofthe
parking lighting
parking flexibility
lighting of Milanowilling to beAirport
Malpensa involved in involved
to be Primary
in Primary Support
151
4 Conclusion of Chapter IV
The works of demonstration performed to test and validate the efficiency and the robustness
of Primary Support led to the development of a pre-industrial coordination platform able to
coordinate the behaviour of a pool of DERs. The coordination platform is hosted by a cloud
server physically located in Lyon. Three different DER controllers, located in two different
locations in Grenoble, have been connected to the coordination platform. These controllers
drive either variable speed loads or resistive loads controlled in ON/OFF mode. Unfortunately,
the connection to the platform of the industrial lighting loads of Milano Malpensa airport have
not been performed by the end of this PhD work, due to an issue of grid connection agreement
with the airport authorities.
The tests of operation of the real-time process have shown an accurate fulfilling of the power-
frequency characteristic for the different cubicles deployed. These tests have then highlighted a
variability of the delays of modulation of the level of load from less than 1 second to more than
5 seconds, depending on the architecture of the cubicles. The faster response time has been
obtained by the ON/OFF load, tripped by a relay controlled by the DER controller through a
serial bus. The slower response time has then been obtained by the variable speed load controlled
through Modbus set-points, where the electro-mechanical delays have been added to the delay
of connectivity. All of the cubicles enabled nonetheless a modulation in less than 10 seconds
that validates the commitment of Full Activation Time of the FCR in Europe.
In terms of connectivity, the communication between the coordination platform and the DER
controllers has been achieved through an either XMPP or HTTPS communication channel. On
the one side, the use of HTTPS makes the connectivity of the DER easier by not requiring
the opening of the port 5222 for out-stream flows of data ; on the other side, it induces an
additional computational complexity for the algorithm in charge of the coordination of the slope
and threshold of each DER of the pool. Indeed, the use of an HTTPS webservice does not
allow the sending of data to the DER controllers at the initiative of the coordination agent.
Consequently for each computation, the algorithm is able to update the behaviour of all of
the XMPP-connected DER controllers. But meantime it can only update the behaviour of one
unique HTTPS-connected DER controller: the latest one which had been in contact with the
coordination platform. XMPP - which is promoted by the IEC 61850-8-2 [2016] - should thus
be used by preference each time it does not require a too complicated process of opening of the
port 5222.
Ahead the generalisation of XMPP, robustness studies should consequently be performed to

assess how does the penetration rate of XMPP connectivity at the expense of HTTPS, improve
the accuracy of the resultant offer power-frequency characteristic compared with the targeted
demand characteristic. Moreover the impact of the load variability over the time of the DERs
that compose the pool of aggregation would have to be assessed as well. It is effectively ex-
pected that a portfolio of DERs whose available flexibility varies a lot over the time would
increase the number of required algorithm computation per interval of time, inducing additional
152
4. CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER IV
computation complexity. The risk of obtaining a resultant power-frequency characteristic out of

a pre-determined implementation range, should be assessed accurately. However such scenario
was not carried out at the end of this PhD.
153
General Conclusion
General Conclusion
Twenty four years after Rio92, six years after COP15 in Copenhagen and several months after
COP21 in Paris, the international community duly notes the need for a new energy paradigm.
Such an energy transition would induce the migration from an energy mix driven by conventional
bulk generation assets to a new paradigm relying on partly distributed RES-E assets. As a direct
consequence, the amount of conventional capacities naturally available would decrease, while the
constraints on the distribution networks would rise.
The principle of aggregation of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) emerged in previous years,
with the objective to propose new solutions to handle such issues. The DER aggregation enables
the coordination of the behaviour of each of the DER controlled. In doing so, it becomes possible
to reproduce the behaviour of a bulk generation asset. Hence, these technologies of aggregation
of DERs are commonly called Virtual Power Plants (VPP).
Review of business opportunities of DER flexibility operation

In such a context, the first drive of this PhD work has been the identification and the promotion
of the technologies of VPPs, likely to contribute positively to this new paradigm. Performed
thanks to the sponsorship from the manufacturer Schneider Electric, this industrial PhD targets
then the development of solutions that remain easy to deploy in compliance with the existing
market and power operation rules. Moreover, these technologies would likely be profitable
without the support from public policies. Such a choice is motivated by the wish not to see the
business model of VPPs being jeopardized by the modification over time of such public policies
as it occurred for photovoltaic energy in France in 2011.
The review of business opportunities of VPP is commenced with an analysis of both the elasticity
and volatility of the day-ahead spot markets (Figures A.1 and A.2 on page 166). This analysis
relies on the elaboration of a methodology of data mining and analytics of three million day-
ahead spot market data points. The data of all the bidding areas of the Nordics, the Baltics
and of France have been computed from 2001 to 2014. One premier objective was to assess the
opportunity of supplying peak load reserve based on DER load-shifting, being remunerated by
the spot market. Indeed, the peak load adequacy is directly challenged by the phasing-out of
bulk generation units due to either a lack of competitiveness or the introduction from 2016 of
the European directive n◦ 2010/75/U E on pollutant assets phasing-out. Hence, the contribution
of DER flexibility to the peak load adequacy appeared as interesting. Moreover the choice of
being remunerated by the spot market only reduces the exposition to public policies. A second
157
GENERAL CONCLUSION
objective of such an analysis was to identify the period of the year and the time of day where DER
load-shifting would be the most profitable and beneficial for the power system. The business
model studied relies on the operation of intra-day load-shifting, that enables the purchase of
energy during the cheapest hours of the day and their resale during the most expensive hours
of the day, benefiting from the prices’ spread.
Unfortunately, the analytics have highlighted that an involvement of DER flexibility for the
supply of load-shifting only during the days of peak loads would not constitute a sufficient
source of revenue. The revenues from load-shifting can be expected from the day-ahead spot
market during the 10% of the time that has the largest network load, are not significantly larger
than the potential revenues outside of the peak load. Hence, the peak load adequacy remains
an opportunity of the capacity market and not of the energy market. The supply of peak load
reserve is interesting only in the case of a complementary remuneration of the assets with a
capacity price, associated with an exceptional activation request (some hours a year). In these
conditions, it would constitute a profitable model for industrial assets.
In regards to the second objective of analysis, the volatility and elasticity of the spot prices
remain contained. The generation of revenues on the day-ahead spot markets would require the
involvement of DER flexibility assets that have a really contained marginal cost of load shifting
(≈ 20e/MWh). Indeed, such a marginal cost would enable the operation of intra-day load-
shifting all year long, hence increasing significantly the annual revenue. Finally, the profitability
of DER flexibility on the spot market is largely dependent on the bidding area of involvement.
If a decision of investment would have to be done on short term, focussing on wholesale market
spread business, the bidding areas to address in order of priority would be France, Eastern
Denmark and the Baltics. France would afford a mean revenue of 45ke/MW/year.
Based on these conclusions, the involvement of DER flexibilities on the day-ahead spot market
could be envisaged as a source of preliminary revenue, prior to the involvement of these assets
on the delivery of more advanced power products, such as frequency regulation services. A gross
revenue of 10-30ke/MW/yr would be expected, nevertheless the final income remains largely
dependent on the bidding area and potentially volatile depending on the year.
The review of business opportunities of VPP focussed then on the concerns of power system
stability. Such stability is impacted by four concerns, capable of endangering the procurement of
sufficient amount of fast-enough FCR. First of all, a lack of availability of conventional FCR and
FRR resources would occur. Such a lack would be induced by either a deficit of competitiveness
of the FCR markets for these assets compared to the revenue they could earn on the wholesale
markets, or the periodic non-availability of bulk generation assets in periods of negative resid-
ual loads. The second concern addresses the degradation of frequency quality induced by the
discontinuity of the units commitment around the clock from one bidding hour to the other,
while the demand is continuous. Such a degradation becomes a risk for the system stability
while it constitutes an additional obstacle to the involvement of FCR suppliers, that would fear
a larger solicitation and an over-ageing of their assets. FRR assets would be concerned to a
158
GENERAL CONCLUSION
lesser extent. The third concern addresses the degradation of system inertia, that is engendered
by both the penetration of power electronics interfaces in newest RES-E technologies and the
phasing-out of bulk generation assets. Finally, the large scale development of Distributed Gen-
eration downstream the primary substations is likely to alter the effective activation of LFDD’s
relays, degrading as such the efficiency of the LFDD at the power system scale.
Faced with such a list of concerns, the question of the maintaining of the power system stability
has been considered as central during the PhD work. The challenge of FCR supply involving
DER flexibility appears achievable, using an innovative methodology of DER coordination. The
remuneration of the FCR would be adequate depending on the process of FCR supply selected.
Last but not least, such a contribution is likely to contribute to a rising need of the System
Operators. Hence a specific process of coordinated modulation of DERs, named Primary Support
has been developed.
Specifications of Primary Support

A pragmatic approach of development has been adopted driven by cost-oriented drivers. The
first driver of Primary Support targets the use of the same DER asset for the supply of several
wholesale and ancillary services in parallel or sequentially, considering especially the supply of
both FCR and LFDD reserves. The sharing of the same asset for the supply of several services
enables the multiplication of the sources of revenues, and therefore the chance of setting-up a
profitable business model. In addition, in doing so, the critical size of a DER required to pay-
back the DER integration cost would be significantly reduced. The monitoring of the frequency
of the Continental Europe synchronous area has been performed over 40 days with 1-second
sampling and an accuracy of measurement of 10mHz. It shows that the supply of FCR in 80%
of the contractual range of delivery would induce less than 20 minutes of load modulation per
day. Hence, a given DER would be able to perform a baseline operation of intra-day load-shifting
to benefit of the spot price spread. In parallel, the DER could supply FCR all the day round,
in proportion with its hourly consumption, without impeding the baseline process of intra-day
load-shifting. Such a case illustrates the complementarity that can be found in the delivery of
power products.
However the coordination of delivery of several power products could induce complexities of
operation depending on both the nature of each product and the buyer of the DER flexibility.
Faced with such an issue, an interesting proposition has been promoted within the European
project EvolvDSO, to rely on the use of standard business use cases that structured the call of
DER flexibility at the benefit of either the producers, the TSOs, the DSOs or the retailers. This
PhD work has contributed to the final redaction and validation of the EvolvDSO business use
cases that structure the DER integration in the distribution grids (Figure A.3 on page 167).
Beyond the standardization of the DER business use cases, the standardization of the operational
functions and of the communication services of DERs is of great importance. It appears as a
promising opportunity toward the inter-operability of DERs and power system components. It
would ease the business of DER flexibility operation by first cost-killing the effort of integration
159
GENERAL CONCLUSION
of DERs. This is then an achievement of prior importance to enable the coordinated contribution
of a given DER to several services, as previously claimed. Hence, the embedding of a native
IEC61850 compliancy constituted a second major driver of Primary Support. It has to be
noticed that standardization is becoming a significant concern of the utilities as well, despite
it requiring a deep update of their present infrastructures of power system operation. Faced
with such challenges, my thoughts go to Mr. Guise and Ulian for their - unattractive but of
importance - contributions to the works of the IEC61850, at the benefit of the entire power
system community.
The third driver toward the development of Primary Support targets the definition of operational
specifications in compliance with the Network Code of ENTSO-E. The compliancy with such
codes, likely to be adopted by the European TSOs enable the building of Primary Support
on a robust framework. Of course, such network codes would not 100% comply with specific
situations such as islanded grids. Nonetheless, the initial objectives and priorities of the PhD led
to the decision not to assess in depth the capability of Primary Support to improve the stability
of such specific grids, compared to the contribution of business-as-usual FCR suppliers.
With respect to the three drivers presented above, Primary Support has been designed as likely
to supply both FCR and LFDD reserves, without inducing an undesirable interruption of the
DERs’ power supply (Figure A.6 on page 169). Primary Support relies on a multi-layer process,
composed first of a multiplicity of DERs and of DER controllers, at least one coordination
platform and possibly one trading platform to share reserves of flexibilities among different
coordination platforms. Such an architecture enables the splitting of the operations of DERs
modulation that occurs in real-time, from the operations of coordination of the behaviour of
each DER that occurs ahead of real-time. In real-time, the modulation of the level of load of
each DER is driven autonomously and independently of one another by each DER controller.
The modulation depends on the system frequency measured on-site, in respect with a power-
frequency droop. The power-frequency droop is characterized by a standard pair of slope and
frequency threshold, defined by the IEC 61850-7-420 [2015]. The use of the data model of the IEC
61850-7-420 [2015] guarantees the interoperability of the DER and maximizes the opportunity
of supply of several services based on the same DER. The slope and frequency threshold are
pre-determined ahead of the operational time by the coordination platform. The computation
of the slope and threshold depends on the effective flexibility of the DER and the willingness
of the DER owner to get its asset involved in the process of frequency regulation. Such a
coordination of the DERs enables the obtaining of an aggregated behaviour of the entire pool
of DERs, that complies with the operational specifications of either the FCR or the LFDD.
The consideration in the period close to real-time of the effective flexibility of each DER as the
input of the slope and threshold algorithm enables the guarantee of the effective delivery of the
reserve. In opposition, most of the existing systems randomly assign a frequency threshold to a
pool of interruptible loads, without monitoring their consumption among the day. Hence, they
constitute frequency-controlled loads but their reserve is proportional to the load consumption
of the pool of interruptible loads at the time of operation. As a result they behave as suppliers
160
GENERAL CONCLUSION
of a system of self-regulation of loads and as firm FCR suppliers.
In Primary Support, the constitution of the portfolio of aggregation can be performed by con-
sidering either market or power system operation concerns. Thus, each DER can be aggregated
according to either its power retailer or its localisation on the grid. Primary Support is capable of
involving a wide diversity of DERs such as domestic heaters and tap boilers, HVAC systems for
tertiary buildings, pumping applications, Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS), Electric Vehi-
cles (EVs) or even public lighting facilities. The willingness of a DER process to get interrupted
would determine its frequency range of modulation, considering that two main bands of fre-
quency operation can be differentiated. On the one side, the involvement of a DER for FCR
delivery in a first range of [49.95; 49.98Hz] ∩ [50.02; 50.05Hz] would significantly impact the
business-as-usual process of the DER. In Continental Europe, the daily duration of modulation
can last from 20min up to 5hr, depending on the threshold assigned. The involvement in such a
range would be adapted only for the DERs that can dispose of large buffer like tap boilers or EVs
charging. On the contrary the involvement of a DER for either LFDD or FCR delivery based
on a threshold lower than < 49.95Hz or greater than > 50.05Hz would induce a modulation of
the level of load during less than 6min per day. Such a frequency range of operation would thus
be adapted to UPS or public lighting facilities.
The concept of Primary Support has been implemented and validated during this PhD work.
A dedicated cloud-based coordination platform has been implemented. In parallel, specific cu-
bicles have been built to test and validate different architectures of DER controllers. These
cubicles control DERs in accordance with a behaviour that has been predetermined by the coor-
dination platform, with respect to the operational principle of Primary Support. The cubicles’
architectures that have been tested enable the control of DER in ON/OFF mode or in slope
mode. It enables on the one side the control of electric heaters, tap boilers, UPS, EVs or LED
lamps. On the other side, it enables the control of variable speed drives. The control of loads
through voltage regulation applicable to public lighting infrastructure, constitutes a third kind
of architecture that still has to be tested. All of the tests of deployment were successful. The
entire architecture of both behaviour coordination and load control is presently in operation.
Future of Primary Support

The conclusions carried out during the prospective works of this PhD enable clarification of
the business potential of DER flexibility. Later on, the test and validation works enable the
confirmation of the operational possibility of coordinating the DERs relying on the Virtual
Power Plant (VPP) architecture. The coordination of DER flexibility can be both profitable for
the aggregator and beneficial for the System Operator. In addition, the architecture of advanced
control that has been tested appears relevant.
Nonetheless, the market penetration of the solutions of distributed delivery of ancillary services
would be faced with hardships. The first concern is that the ICT architectures selected would
need to remain cyber-secure in all conditions, given the criticality of the delivery of some of these
ancillary services such as the FCR. Hence, the improvement of the cyber-security of Primary
161
GENERAL CONCLUSION
Support, would be a major technical task of improvement to be performed to reach a level of

resilience close to that of the banking sector.
A second major concern addresses the process of customer acquisition. In terms of the horizon of
time, this PhD work matched closely with the end of the main demonstration projects launched
in France to assess the technical and economic feasibility of the Smart Grid. Initiatives such
as Greenlys have provided significant knowledge on the behaviours of grid users. Customer
acquisition cost appears even larger than expected, thus challenging strongly the potential supply
of ancillary services based on domestic or tertiary Demand Response assets. Dreamed by a wide
range of the community, a massive involvement of Demand Response at the benefit of the Smart
Grid transition will probably never occur. As a result a key factor of success of initiatives such as
Primary Support could be to target the control of other appliances that have been not addressed
during this PhD work. The democratisation of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) embodied by the
building of the Giga-factory of Tesla Motors in Nevada, would open a new horizon to DER
flexibility operation. Despite it is not profitable at the moment due to a load-shifting cost close
to 200e/MWh, the involvement of ESS in the architecture of Primary Support, in replacement
of Demand Response (DR) assets, could become relevant probably by 2020. It would depend
on the evolution of the learning curve of ESS.
A third concern addresses the potential competition for Primary Support from bulk generation
assets in the delivery of FCR. Despite this PhD work claiming a theoretical lack of competitive-
ness of historic assets in the supply of FCR, the effective strategies of unit commitment of the
utilities remain unclear and have not been deeply investigated during this PhD work. Indications
have shown that producers appear reluctant to modulate up and down their power production in
real-time, likely to induce an over-ageing of their assets. Nonetheless, no clear declaration from
the utilities regarding their effective wish to outsource the supply of FCR has been observed
in the literature. Faced with such unknowns, one positioning of Primary Support would be to
address in priority off-grids and micro-grids systems. In such grids, the marginal cost parity of
PV+ESS with bulk generation would be reached soon. The marginal cost of on-field PV reaches
levels close to ≈50e/MWh in the Middle East and a minimum cost of 70e/MWh have been
reached for the first time in France in 2015. In parallel, the marginal cost of gas turbines is
larger than 100e/MWh [IEA, 2010]. In these conditions, and thanks to the cost reduction of
ESS, the association PV+ESS would be competitive. Hence the phasing-out of bulk generation
assets to the benefit of power electronic-connected RES-E such as PV would occur, challenging
the system stability. Faced with such conditions, the architecture of supply of ancillary services
such as Primary Support would be well adapted and ease to deploy.
Finally, the palliatives identified in response to the three concerns previously mentioned lead to
the conclusion that Primary Support should continue beyond the end of this PhD thesis.
Gaspard Lebel
162
Appendices
Appendix A
Axes of research addressed during

the PhD work
165
APPENDIX A. AXES OF RESEARCH ADDRESSED DURING THE PHD WORK
Spot Market volatility analysis

Assess the effective value that could be caught by
Idea DER operators by performing wholesale-prices
driven peak-load management.
Aggregators focus historically on business

Driver model driven by peak-load management,
promoted by the System Operators on dedicated
ancillary services markets. So could wholesale
market actually handle this issue instead?
Principle • Analyze the day-ahead Spot market data of 10 different
of Study Nordics and Baltics price areas, over 14 years (2001-
2014).
• Plot Spot Price / Load characteristics
• Compare these ones with Gross Product / Load
characteristics
• Identify the presence of niche or mass market for
distributed load modulation for wholesale purpose.
Figure A.1: Research axis on Spot market volatility analysis
Real Time Price tariff for

households
Assess the value for an electrically heated domestic 1
Idea end-user to both replace his old thermostat by a
smart thermostat, and subscribe to Real Time Price 2
tariffs (RTP), to reduce its energy bill.
Driver European hourly metering commissioning

affords incentives towards innovative power
consumption strategies that are made doable by 3
smart thermostat and energy boxes penetration.
Principle 1• Define a theoretical electric heated standard household,

of Study located in the Nordics (Malmö).
2• Define an either energy efficiency driven (conventional
thermostat) or cost driven heat load optimization
program (smart thermostat embedded) 4
3• Simulate the use of the heat load programs in the
theoretical household, with either RTP tariff or Fix
4• Test the model in 10 different day-ahead spot markets
of Nordics and Baltics, over 14 years (2001-2014).
Figure A.2: Research axis on Real-Time-Price tariff for households
166
Business Use Cases Definition and
Requirements [for DER integration]
Define Business Use Cases to standardize the
Idea integration of DERs on the distribution grids, to
either foresee network constraints or use them as
source of constraint resolution (ancillary services).
Driver The involvement of DERs on different power

markets (wholesale, TSO-driven, etc.) is willing
to induce unexpected constraints for the DSO.
Hence, a coordination between power system
actors is welcomed
Contribution on Use Cases

• Optimise Work Programmes (TSO, Producers, and DSO works)
• Optimise network operations until market gate closure based on an operational planning schedule
• Certify, manage the impact of flexibilities activated in Balancing and Flexibility Markets on the
distribution network, and provide data for the settlement process
• Operate the Distribution Constraints Market
Figure A.3: Research axis on Business Use Cases for DER integration
LV4MV
Distribution System Operators (DSO) commonly
Idea operate their MV network by considering a
constant voltage violation bandwidth, regardless
the presence of MV consumers at the MV nodes.
The idea of LV4MV is to use instead a both LV &
MV constraint-dependent bandwidth, that better 3
represents the effective LV voltage state.
4
DSO expects at mid-term voltage violation on the
Driver LV feeders, due to Distributed Generation
penetration like PV. New ways of voltage
management would be welcome.
1• Determine MV admissible voltage bandwidth based on 2

Principle state estimation or real-time monitoring 4
2• Handle automatic or over the phone Voltage violation 1
feedback
3• Inform the Primary Substation RTU
4• Drive the OLTC position, to solve the LV violation while
staying compliant with MV admissible bandwidth fixed by 1
Figure A.4: Research axis on LV4MV
167
DLVM
U N E I D E E D E
!"# $%
, )- )!" (
I N P G
&
E n t r e p r i s e
' ()' * "$ )')
!) $'(!"'
S A & G 2 E l a b
+
Concours ERDF 2015

%./ /( 0 /
Une réponse pragmatique au défaut d’observabilité des

réseaux de distribution Basse Tension (BT), grâce à:
-_des capteurs de tension communicants,
synchronisés, géo-localisés, auto-alimentés, à bas
coûts, et ne nécessitant aucune configuration grâce à
la technologie de communication radio de Sigfox TM .
-_un portail web de visualisation des tensions

envoyées par les capteurs tous les quarts d’heures ou Conditionnement actuel
sur évènement: & taille finale souhaitée
Un démonstrateur fonctionnel:
DLVM
Légende pastilles*:
Déviation de V1, V2
et V3 < 7%
Déviation de V1, V2 ou
V3 entre 7% et 10%
Déviation de V1, V2 ou
V3 de plus de 10%
Perte de la
communication depuis
plus de 2hr
* Seul le capteur G2E renvoie des valeurs de tension réelles en IP depuis le bâtiment démonstrateur GreEn-
ER à Grenoble. Par simplification, ce capteur est représenté à Perrache à Lyon. Les autres capteurs sont
simulés.
Un projet en construction:
1er Dec 1er Jan 15 Mai 1er Juillet 1er Nov 1er Fev 1er Mai
2014 2015 2015 2015 2015 2016 2016
Appel à manifestation Go /
Discussions 1er POC Déploiement 2ème POC capteur avec Pré -
d’intérêts auprès de GRDs No
avec Sigfox capteur logiciel montée en robustesse séries GO
& Concours ERDF
CONTACT: gaspard.lebel@g2elab.grenoble-inp.fr / +33 (0) 6 52 78 43 28 / @gaspardlebel

G 2 E l a b , B â t i m e n t G r e E n - E R 2 1 r u e d e s m a r t yr s C S 9 0 6 2 4 3 8 0 3 1 G r e n o b l e C E D EX 1
Figure A.5: Research axis on DLVM
168
Primary Support
Provide Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR) Slope of the targeted
Idea to the System Operator based on Distributed POFF (f)
HzStrj
Energy Resources (DER) load modulation Pcumoff
…
Load- HzStr3
shedding DER i
HzStr2
DER 3
Opportunity brought by ICT penetration to DER 2
Driver release bulk generation contribution to FCR
DER 1
Fa Fb
f 3
supply by leading on DER instead
1• Deploy DER controllers which embed a sub-meter

and frequency-controlled relays, with remotelly
Principle controllable threshold
2• Gather the effective power consumption of each load
3• Build a stairs droop curve that approach the
conventional droop curve of bulk generation unit by 1 4
2
assigning a specific threshold to each load
4• Send down the frequency threshold to each DER
controller
Enable to reproduce at the system-scale a linear Power-
Frequency characteristic compliant with the FCR.
Figure A.6: Research axis on Primary Support
Second Ice
Provide automatic Frequency Replacement Reserve (aFRR) 3 4
Idea to the System Operator (SO) based on building’s HVAC
Power Load Cooling Load
modulation, using Ice Storage tank as buffer 2
Opportunity brought by ICT penetration & Ice kW

Driver Storage buffer to release bulk generation Set point
contribution to aFRR supply
1
1• Deploy new or re-use existing Ice Storage tank 5 €
2• Deploy a System Operator’s aFRR set point receiver
Principle 3• Load the Ice Storage proportionnally to the SO set Second Ice Building
Operator Owner
point
€
4• Keep constant the Cooling demand supply thanks to
the Ice suffer
5• Get paid by the SO for aFRR supply.
Figure A.7: Research axis on Second Ice
169
170
Appendix B
Method of Day-ahead spot market

data analytics
The present section describes the method of data mining and data analytics that have been used
to assess the profitability of DERs flexibility into the day-ahead spot markets. The assessments
performed at Sections 2.6.2 and 2.8.1 rely on the presented method.
1 Data Harvesting
The data analytics performed address up to sixteen bidding areas spread over eight countries.
France, as well as the four Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) and the three Baltic
(Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) countries have been studied (Figure I.2 in page 19).
The selection of the countries has been driven by two aspects: the wish to benchmark countries
having different history of market deregulations and different energy mix and the ease of access
to the data. The access to the data has finally been the most orienting aspect. Nord Pool Spot
[2015] provided both the hourly prices and volumes exchanged on the Nordics and the Baltics.
[RTE, 2015b] provided the data of the French consumption, used as volume data in the model.
Epex Spot SE [2015a] provided the French price data.
The period of study led from up to 14 years depending on the bidding areas (2001-2014), with a
granularity of one hour. Table B.1 summarizes the period of data computation of each bidding
area. As noticed in the last line of the table, Statnett, the Norwegian TSO has implemented
eight modifications of the Norwegian bidding areas since 2008 [Nord Pool Spot, 2013]. As a
result part of the Norwegian data has not been computed not to distort the benchmark among
the bidding areas.
At the end, almost three millions of data have been collected and computed.
171
APPENDIX B. METHOD OF DAY-AHEAD SPOT MARKET DATA ANALYTICS
Table B.1: Period of market data acquisition per bidding area

of the Norwegian data has not been computed not to distort the benchmark among the bidding areas.
Denmark Sweden
DK Finland France
DK East SE1 SE2 SE3 SE4 Sweden
West
2001- 2001- 2012- 2012- 2012- 2012- 2001- 2001- 2002-
2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014
Norway
Kristians Trondhei Estonia Latvia Lithuania
Bergen Oslo* Tromso Norway
and* m
2010- 2010- 2011- 2011- 2010- 2002- 2012- 2014- 2013-
2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014
* volume data of Kristiansand and Oslo was actually available as well for the period 2001-2007 and
2001-2009, but correspond to bidding area of different topologies.
Table 3-5: Period of market data acquisition per bidding area
2 Data Processing
Successive steps of data sorting, filtering and computing have been performed to produce value
analysis, based on the simple datasets of network load and price previously extracted. Table
B.2 presents the eighteen types of data that have been built to perform the business value
analysis of DER modulation. Each of these eighteen types of data are presented in Section 3,
and illustrated on the Figure B.2 to Figure B.7. These illustrations have been produced using
Finnish data. In Table B.2 the column of the left qualifies data that have been built based on
network load heritage only; the column of the right qualify data that have been built based on
price heritage only; finally the data in the middle have been computed thanks to a combined
treatment of price and load data. Up to four successive steps of treatment have been required.
The data are presented top-down depending on the heritage of data they are based on. It
shows a convergence of the data toward the middle column over the successive steps of data
manipulation. It describes the data empowerment through their successive treatment. The data
surrounded with a red frame are the final data based on which business analyses have been
performed to contribute to Section 2.8.1 (Chapter I, page 32).
Figure B.1 illustrates graphically the principle of successive analytics reinforcement. From an
initial cloud of {network load; price} points, extracted from fourteen years of hourly day-ahead
spot data of Southern Sweden and Finland, it becomes possible to plot one smoothed curve of
Figure B.1: Illustration of data analytic strengthening along the steps of data computation
172
3. ANALYTICS PRODUCED
Table B.2: Representation of the data-heritage along the analytic levels
Load –
Both Price & Load – inherited data Price – inherited data
inherited data
Analytics
Level 0
[D1] [D2]
For each day, difference For each day, difference
between the most between the 3.5 most
Sorting of D2 prices per expensive and cheapest expensive and 3.5 cheapest
Maximum D1 x D2 hourly price of the day hours price of the day
Analytics
value of D1 ascent D1 volumes

Level 1
[D3] [D4] [D5] [D6] [D7]
Sum of D4 among the Smoothing of D5: averaging Descending Descending Sum of D7 among
8760hrs of the D5 prices values, that sorting of D6 sorting of D7 the 8760hrs
10th Maximum of the year have the same value of values values of the year
Analytics
value of D1 volume into one price value

Level 2
[D8] [D9] [D10] [D11] [D12] [D17]
Repartition of D4 turnover per Gliding Extraction of the D11 data Extraction of the D12 data
Analytics
segment of 10% of level of load average of D10 for the days of peak load for the days of peak load
Level 3
[D13] [D14] [D15] [D16]
Sum of D16 for all

Analytics
of the annual hours

Level 4
of peak load
[D18]
price elasticity per bidding area, for a representative period of four years. Morever, the volume
axis is expressed in percentage of the peak load, that enables to compare two bidding areas of
different size. The path that enables thee creation of these plots is represented by the red arrows
in Table B.2.
3 Analytics Produced
The eighteen types of data are presented below from the index [D1] to [D18]. Most of these
datasets are later plotted in Section 4. Table B.3 indicates the figures where the datasets are
plotted.
[D1]: Hourly day-ahead network load (in MW)

[D1] gathers the hourly total consumption of each bidding area. It corresponds to the code
“FBF” in the collection of operation data of Nord Pool Spot [2015]. The French consumption
data have been directly download from RTE [2015b].
Collection of data: 1 data/hour/year/series. 1 series/bidding area
173
Table B.3: Mapping of the Figures wherein [D1] to [D18] data are plotted
Figures of analytic display

Type of data
2001-2014 2001-2005 2006-2010 2011-2014
D1 Figure B.8 (Year 2010 or more recent)
Figure B.11
D10 Figure B.12 ∅ ∅ ∅
Figure B.13
D11 ∅ ∅ ∅ Figure B.14
D12 ∅ ∅ ∅ Figure B.15
Figure B.11
D13 Figure B.12 ∅ ∅ ∅
Figure B.13
D14 ∅ Figure B.11, Figure B.12, Figure B.13
D15 ∅ ∅ ∅ Figure B.16
D16 ∅ ∅ ∅ Figure B.17
D17 Figure B.9, Figure B.10
D18 Figure B.9, Figure B.10
Figure B.2: Example of [D1] data content
[D2]: Hourly day-ahead spot price (in e/MWh)

[D2] gathers the day-ahead spot price of each bidding area. It corresponds to the “Elspot”
product which in trade in Nord Pool Spot [2015] , and to “EPEXSPOT AUCTION” in Epex
Spot SE [2015d].
Figure B.3: Example of [D2] data content
174
[D3]: Annual peak-load (in MW)

[D3] gathers the historic largest total consumption [D2] that occurred per bidding area for each
year.
Collection of data: 1 data/year/series. 1 series/bidding area
[D4]: Hourly spot turnover (in e/h)

[D4] gathers the theoretical turnover exchanged hourly from the power retailers and the power
producers. for a physical delivery in the network. It is assumed that all of the physical volumes
are traded over the day-ahead spot: Future and Forwards products are considered as risk hedging
products only and not as physical products; bilateral and over-the-counter contracts for physical
delivery are assumed as traded at the day-ahead spot price [D2] as well. [D4] is calculated as
the product of [D1] x [D2].
[D5]: Price elasticity (in e/MWh)

[D5] is a collection of the hourly prices [D2], sorted per ascendant hourly network loads [D1].
The sorting is performed per year and per bidding area. By itself, [D5] data are of poor interest
but constitutes a key series for the building of [D10] series.
Figure B.4: Example of [D5], [D10] and [D14] data content
[D6]: Daily spread 1hr (in e/MWh)

[D6] is the price difference measured between the most expensive hour and the least expensive
hour of the day. [D6] is built on the parsing of each [D2] series into one sub-series per day. The
price difference [D6] is then measured within these sub-series of [D2].
Collection of data: 1 data/day/year/series. 1 series/bidding area
[D7]: Daily spread 3.5hr (in e/MWh)

[D7] is the price difference measured between the mean price of the 3.5 most expensive hours,
minus the mean price of the 3.5 least expensive hours of the day. [D7] is built on the parsing of
each [D2] series into one sub-series per day. The price difference [D7] is then measured within
these sub-series of [D2]. This averaging among 3.5hrs has been introduced to match with the
175
semi-period cycling of Tesla Powerwall sedentary storage. Indeed the Powerwall has a storage
capacity of 7kWh and accepts a charge and discharging load of 2kW. Its charging and discharging
periods are so of 3.5hr each. [Tesla Motors, 2015].
Collection of data: 1 data/day/year/series. 1 series/bidding area
[D8]: Historic peak-load (in MW)

[D8] is the 10th largest network load [D1] that has been observed among the years of data
available. The use of such a 10th value aimed to remove extreme load values that are not
representative enough in terms of peak load. It enables for instance not to use data that would
have been corrupted during the generic process of data extraction (issues initially observed for
instance in the Danish data). The historic peak load of each bidding area are displayed in Table
B.4.
Collection of data: 1 data/series. 1 series/bidding area
Table B.4: Peak Load Value [D8] assumed for each bidding area (in MW)
Denmark Sweden
Finland France
2682 3738 2058 3041 17145 5000 26496 14636 98366
Norway
nd m
8367 3813 3710 8205 3062 23761 1540 1297 1649
Table 3-8: Peak Load Value [D8] assumed for each bidding area (in MW)
[D9]: Annual spot turnover (in e/year)

[D9] gathers the theoretical turnover exchanged annually from the power retailers and the power
producers in each bidding year. [D9] is the sum of [D4] over the hours of the year.
[D10]: 1MW-steps price elasticity (in e/MWh)

[D10] is built based on [D5] data. All of the [D5] price data of [D5], which are associated with
the same value of load are converted into one averaged value, saved into [D10]. At the end it
leads to the building of a series, which has a length equals to the value of the historic peak load
[D8] of the bidding area. At a given index, [D10] can return a NaN value if the network load
associated with this index has never been measured in the bidding area over the years of data
available. If such a network load has been measured, [D10] value equals the mean spot price
of these hours of same loads, as explained above. Up to four series have been computed per
bidding area. It enables a better assessment of the evolution of the price elasticity over the last
decade: 2001-2014, 2001-2005, 2006-2010 and 2011-2014.
Collection of data: 1 data/MW/series. 4 series/bidding area
176
[D11]: Descending daily spread 1hr (in e/MWh)

[D11] is the daily spread 1hr [D6] sorted per descending order. Each [D11] series is subdivided
into four series per bidding area. It enables a better assessment of the evolution of the daily
spread over the last decade: 2001-2014, 2001-2005, 2006-2010 and 2011-2014.
Collection of data: 1 data/day/series. 4 series/bidding area
Figure B.5: Example of [D11], [D12], [D15] and [D16] content
[D12]: Descending daily spread 3.5hr (in e/MWh)

[D12] is the daily spread 3.5hr [D7] sorted per descending order. Each [D12] series is subdivided
into four series per bidding area. It enables a better assessment of the evolution of the daily
spread over the last decade: 2001-2014, 2001-2005, 2006-2010 and 2011-2014.
[D13]: 10% Spot turnover shares (in % of [D8])

[D13] is composed of the mean interval of network load within which 10% of the day-ahead spot
turnover [D9] is traded. Each [D13] series could be subdivided into four series per bidding area.
It enables a better assessment of the evolution of the turnover repartition over the last decade:
2001-2014, 2001-2005, 2006-2010 and 2011-2014.
Collection of data: 10 data/series. 4 series/bidding area
[D14]: Gliding price elasticity average

[D14] is a gliding average of the 1MW-steps price elasticity [D10], performed over an interval of
loads of ±0.5% of the peak load [D8]. The series of years averaging computed are the same as
for [D10]: 2001-2014, 2001-2005, 2006-2010 and 2011-2014.
Collection of data: 1 data/MW/series. 4 series/bidding area
177
Figure B.6: Illustration of [D10] (grey points), [D13] (green rectangles) and [D14] content (gra-
dation of green points depending on the period of averaging)
Figure B.7: Example of [D17] and [D18] content
[D15]: Descending daily spread 1hr of peak-days (in e/MWh)

[D15] is the descending daily spread 1hr [D11], of the days of the year which have a load
consumption [D1] at peak-load at least larger than 85% of Historic Peak load [D8]. In the
output dataset, the daily spread is set as null out of these 85%-peak days. Each [D15] series
is subdivided into four series per bidding area. It enables a better assessment of the evolution
of the daily spread of peak-days over the last decade: 2001-2014, 2001-2005, 2006-2010 and
2011-2014.
[D16]: Descending daily spread 3.5hr of peak-days (in e/MWh)

178
[D16] is the descending daily spread 3.5hr [D12], of the days of the year which have a load
consumption [D1] at peak-load at least larger than 85% of Historic Peak load [D8]. In the
output dataset, the daily spread is set as null out of these 85%-peak days. Each [D16] series
is subdivided into four series per bidding area. It enables a better assessment of the evolution
of the daily spread of peak-days over the last decade: 2001-2014, 2001-2005, 2006-2010 and
2011-2014.
[D17]: Annual revenue of the daily spread 3.5hr (in e/year)

[D17] is the sum over each day of the year of the daily spread 3.5hr [D7] (or of the descending
daily spread 3.5hr [D12]).
[D18]: Annual revenue of the daily spread 3.5hr of peak-days (in e/year)
[D18] is the sum over each day of the year of the descending daily spread 3.5hr of peak-days
[D16].
4 Data Analytic plots

Figures B.8 to B.17 provides the computation outcomes of [D1] and of the advanced data [D10]
to [D18] that have been produced thanks to the method presented above. The figures display the
results of the unique bidding area of France, as well as of the fifteen bidding areas that compose
the Nordics and Baltics. For Sweden and Norway, a last plot at the scale of the country is
provided as well. It leads finally to the plot of eighteen charts, over up to fourteen years from
2001 to 2014.
Figure B.8: Observation of the periods of extreme loads among the network load [D1] in the 18
bidding areas. Limits of extreme loads: ]50%; 85%[ of [D8] . Year 2010 or more recent.
180
4. DATA ANALYTIC PLOTS
3.5.10. Annex: Plots of the analytics
Figure B.9: Annual revenue of the daily spread 3.5hr gathered 365 days a year [D17] or during
peak-days only [D18] in Norway, Denmark and France
181
Norway, Denmark and France
Figure B.10: Annual revenue of the daily spread 3.5hr gathered 365 days a year [D17] or during
Figure 3-33: Annual Revenue of the daily spread 3.5hr during peak [D18] and off-peak [D18]
peak-days only [D18] in Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
182
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Norway - Norway Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Norway - Tromso
150 150
[volume;price] mean points 2002 - 2014 [volume;price] mean points 2010 - 2014
140 140
elasticity average 2001-2005 elasticity average 2001-2005
130 elasticity average 2006-2010 130 elasticity average 2006-2010
120 areas of spot value repartition 120 areas of spot value repartition
110 110
100 100
Spot Price (in €/MWh)

90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Spot Volume (in % of the yearly Peak Load) Spot Volume (in % of the yearly Peak Load)
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Norway - Bergen Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Norway - Trondheim
150 150
140 140
110 110
100 100
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Norway - Kristiansand Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Norway - Oslo
150 150
140 140
110 110
100 100
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Figure
Figure B.11:
3-35: Spot
Spot turnoverrepartition
turnover repartition[D13],
[D13],1MW-steps
1MW-steps price
priceelasticity
elasticity[D10]
[D10]and Gliding
and price
Gliding Price
elasticity average [D14] in Norway
183
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in France - France Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Sweden - Sweden
150 150
140 140
110 110
100 100

90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Sweden - SE2 Sundsvall Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Sweden - SE1 Lulea
150 150
140 140
110 110
100 100
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Sweden - SE4 Malmo Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Sweden - SE3 Stockholm
150 150
140 140
110 110
100 100
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Figure
Figure B.12:
3-34: Spot
[D13],1MW-steps
1MW-steps price
priceelasticity
elasticity[D10]
[D10]and Gliding
and price
Gliding Price
elasticity average [D14] in France and Sweden
184
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Finland - Finland Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Latvia - Latvia
150 150
140 140
110 110
100 100

90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Lithuania - Lithuania Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Estonia - Estonia
150 150
140 140
110 110
100 100
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Denmark - Denmark West Elasticity of the D - 1 spot prices & value repartition in Denmark - Denmark East
150 150
140 140
110 110
100 100
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
50 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Figure
Figure B.13:
3-36: Spot
[D13],1MW-steps
1MW-steps price
priceelasticity
elasticity[D10]
[D10]and Gliding
and price
Gliding Price
elasticity average [D14] in Norway
185
Figure
Figure 3-38: B.14: Descending
Descending dailydaily spread1hr
spread 1hr [D11]
[D11] and
and3.5hr [D12]
3.5hr in Sweden,
[D12] Denmark Denmark
in Sweden, and France. and Fran
Average 2011-2014
186
Figure
Descending daily spread
daily spread 1hr [D11]
1hr [D11] andand 3.5hr[D12]
3.5hr [D12] in
in Sweden,
Sweden, Finland, Latvia,
Finland, Latvia, Lithu
Lithuania and Estonia. Average 2011-2014
187
Figure
Descending dailydaily spread
spread 1hr[D15]
1hr [D15] and
and 3.5hr
3.5hr[D16] at peak
[D16] in Norway,
at peak Denmark
in Norway, Denmark and
and France. Average 2011-2014
188
Figure
Descending daily spread
daily spread 1hr1hr [D15]
[D15] andand3.5hr
3.5hr [D16]
[D16] atatpeak
peakin in
Sweden, Finland,
Sweden, Finland, Lat
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Average 2011-2014
189
190
Appendix C
FCR & UFLS data
1 UFLS defence plans currently in application in Europe
Table C.1: Characteristic UFLS schemes in CE
ENTSO-E rule for CE [ENTSO-E, 2014a]

Step
Momentary Cumulated ∆P (in %)
1 49 or 49.2 >5%
... ∆F max: 6 0.2Hz ∆P max: 6 10%
x 48.0 50%
frequency-controlled relays accuracy: 100mHz
France (RTE) [RTE, 2008]
Step
1 49 20%
2 48.5 40%
3 48.0 60%
4 47.5 80%
5 - 0%
Spain (RED) [Sauhats et al., 2011]
Step
Momentary (0.5s) Cumulated ∆P (in %)
1 49.5 2.5%
2 49.3 5%
3 49.0 20%
4 48.7 35%
5 48.4 45%
6 48.0 55%
Table C.2: Characteristic UFLS scheme in GB
Great Britain [ENTSO-E, 2014a]

Step
1 48.8 12%
... ... ...
... 60% in England, Wales
69
... 40% in Scotland
191
APPENDIX C. FCR & UFLS DATA
Table C.3: Characteristic UFLS scheme in IRE
Ireland [ENTSO-E, 2014a], [IEEE, 2007]

Step
1 48.85 12%
2 ... 24%
3 ... 36%
4 ... 60%
Assumptions based on cross information from [ENTSO-E, 2014a] and [IEEE, 2007]
Table C.4: Characteristic UFLS scheme in NE
Sweden (Svk) [IEEE, 2007]

Step
Momentary Delayed Cumulated ∆P (in %)
(0.15s) (20s)
1 48.8 49.0 10%
2 48.6 48.6 20%
3 48.4 48.4 30%
4 48.2 48.2 40%
5 48.0 48.0 50%
2 Dataset of common FCR prices in Europe
Monthly portfolio of FCR reserve in UK

FCR bid prices (in
140
120 Mean FCR price
€/MW/h)
100 List of Bids

80
60
40
20
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Index of FCR providing unit
Figure C.1: Distribution of the FCR prices in UK compared with the mean FCR price (data:
[National Grid, 2015])
192
2. DATASET OF COMMON FCR PRICES IN EUROPE
Table C.5: Summary of mean FCR prices in Europe
January April July October

FNR [49.9;50.1Hz] 12€/MW/h 13€/MW/h 18€/MW/h 22€/MW/h
Denmark East
FDR [49.5;49.9[U]50.1;50.5Hz] 6€/MW/h 9.6€/MW/h 7.7€/MW/h 8.3€/MW/h
FCR upward 42€/MW/h 39€/MW/h 34€/MW/h 35€/MW/h
Denmark West
FCR downward 14€/MW/h 11€/MW/h 4.4€/MW/h 7.3€/MW/h
Ireland (product SOR) 2.17€/MW/h + spot price for energy activation compensation
UK 28€/MWh 28€/MWh 29€/MWh 30€/MWh
Netherland (Average/Marginal) 23/23 €/MW/h 24/24 €/MW/h 23/23 €/MW/h 19/21 €/MW/h
Germany (Average/Marginal) 28/32 €/MW/h 25/27 €/MW/h 22/22 €/MW/h 17/21 €/MW/h
France 17€/MW/h
Area Source
Denmark East http://www.energinet.dk/EN/El/Engrosmarked/Udtraek-af-
Denmark West markedsdata/Sider/default.aspx
Ireland (product SOR) Harmonised Ancillary Services 2013/2014, EirGrid, 2013
http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Industry-information/Electricity-
UK
transmission-operational-data/Data-explorer/Outcome-Energy-Services/
Netherland
https://www.regelleistung.net/ext/tender/
Germany
France
http://www.smartgrids-cre.fr/index.php?p=stockage-reserve-primaire
DK West up & down FCR prices from Jan 7th to Jan 13th, 2015
60
50 FCR upward
40
FCR downward
30
20
10
0
1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19
-10
-20
Time of the day (in hr)
Figure C.2: Hourly evolution of Up and Down FCR prices in DK West (data: [Energinet, 2015])
193
APPENDIX C. FCR & UFLS DATA
DK East FNR & FDR prices from Jan 7th to Jan 13th, 2015
30
FNR
25 FDR
20
15
10
0
1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19 1 7 13 19
Time of the day (in hr)
Figure C.3: Hourly evolution of Frequency Normal Reserve (FNR) and Frequency Disturbance
Reserve (FDR) prices in DK East (data: [Energinet, 2015])
194
Appendix D
Patent Review
List of Patents analysed from Espacenet

The present patent review aims to highlight the patents, likely to provide ancillary services as such Peak Shaving, Voltage and especially Frequency control to the utilities, thanks
to an architecture of Virtual Power Plant (VPP). All of the patents that propose an architecture such focus on the price service without consideration of physical constraints are
considered as Out of scope. and not conflictual for Primary Support.
High IP conflict to solve
Legend of the Patent identified
Patent still to be read. Relative IP conflict
as having an initial "High" IP
IP conflict finally depreciated without Patent content reading
conflict:
No IP conflict left after the Patent content reading
Reference Potential
n° Author Description Analysis
espacenet / google patent Conflict
Issues for the specific Primary Support patent. Key Word: "load shedding frequency"
A two steps processes: 1°) DR potential computation Chinese registration, no details available in
CN101895121 (A) - Low- from local scale, up to global scale thanks to an ABM English. Usage of Google Translate. Finally
State grid electric structure. Definition of the DR local indexes and not a so constraintfull process according to
frequency and low-voltage load-
1 power res; coefficient at the global scale and data forwarding. 2°) High ++ R.Caire
reducing control method based on
nanjing nari corp a local controller that trigger a breaker depending on
multi-agent technology
the real time measured state
A system to define a droop line for local signal Not so constraintfull for Primary Support,
generator. A second local system that defines local since no claims regarding distributed data
US2012041612 (A1) - shedding priorities depending on the signal generator sharing. However still an interesting method
Electric power received . A system based on two parameters: the for Under Frequency Load Shifting using the
2 Emergency frequency load High ++
res inst [us] value of the frequency and the Rate Of Change Of frequency value and the first derivate!
shedding scheme
Frequency (ROCOF), to get better result. No claims
regarding central coordination.
A device which monitors the level of load and send Quite large correlation, and potential overlap
Haier group co load-shedding orders to household appliances through with the hardware. However, any notion of
CN202285400 (U) - ltd; qingdao haier the household gateways, in case of threshold passing. ancillary services, neither ICT link with the
3 Underfrequency load shedding intelligent home The process seems to be more appliances oriented High TSO/DSO.
device based on household network appliances than power system oriented. It claims for appliances
technology co ltd turning-off for the appliance satefy (ageing
protection).
US2004190211 (A1) - Load An automatic load shedding system in case of under- Only a document on a chinese website
control receiver with line under Cannon voltage, without utility neither customer intervention, (soopat.com) which quotes the patent just
4 High
voltage and line under frequency technologies, inc based on voltage threshold. Potentially the same with above: US2012041612. (n°1)
detection and load shedding frequency.
Figure D.1: Patent review - Key words "load shedding frequency"
195
APPENDIX D. PATENT REVIEW
196
Reference Potential
Issues for the specific Primary Support patent. Key Word: "load shedding" + "frequency"
A load shedding system for poorly interconnected Notion of centralization that is painfull for us.
NZ197667 (A) - AC supply load South eastern grids in case of Frequency drop. Seems to include a But actually the patent does not claims for a
5 central control unit. The location of the frequency High ++ real time updating of the frequency threshold.
shedding with frequency drop elec board
sensor remain unclear. Is it embedded in each load
controller or not?
US7595567 (B1) - Thermostat A device which includes a frequency measurement Close to MX2011010064 (review n°24).
Cannon module, able to shed and restore the load if the Potentially constraintfull, but not a real TSO
device with line under frequency
6 technologies frequency drops goes respectively under and over a High connected device that is our value.
detection and load shedding
cooper pow [us] predefined frequency threshold.
capability
A system based on distributed relays whose frequency This patent is really emphasized on the
thresholds can be remotely updated. programmable characteristic of the relays,
US6314378 (B1) - Distributed to assign the frequency threshold, that is
7 Clc global llc [us] High close to Primary Support scope. However,
frequency relay
there is no aspect regarding on how these
thresholds are calculated or coordinated.
A pump storage load (STEP) shedding system in case Frequency based DR for a specific and not
CN102629760 (A) - Method State grid electric of under frequency. Far from distributed frequency distributed application.
adaptive for coordinated power res; henan control aspects.
8 optimization of low-frequency electric power Medium
pump sheadding and load shedding dispatch comm
with secure and stable frequency central
Schweer g carl A down meters located shedding system sending
CA1338405 (C) - Load shedding [ca]; zyl ian d
9 orders to devices / breakers by PLC. Medium/ Low
system van [ca]
US3704380 (A) - Load shedding Leeds & northrup A load shedding apparatus, totally frequency
10 Medium/ Low
apparatus co uncorrelated.
CN101789605 (A) - Frequency No load shedding aspects. Only power
11 reestablishment method used for Univ huazhong Low restoration concern.
microgrid science tech +
CN101442206 (A) - Automatic A non-smart and non load selecting shedding strategy
low-frequency low-voltage load- in case of under frequency.
12 Low
reducing centralization optimization Univ shanghai
control system jiaotong [cn]
Tsukida jirou Just an UFLS system, not connected.
US2007222294 (A1) - [jp]; yasuda
13 Underfrequency Load Shedding tadaaki [jp]; imai Low
Protection System shinichi [jp]
US4359644 (A) - Load shedding South australia A down meters located shedding system sending
14 Low
control means electr trust orders to devices / breakers by PLC.
Reference Potential
Issues for the Global VPP development and the specific Primary Support patent. Key Word: "Virtual Power Plant"
A system that finally allows a utility manager to Potential IP conflict but difficult with the
control the production plan of an on-site energy abstract to clearly identify legal obstacle.
storage (=not owned by the utility). The utility can Patent more oriented toward 15min response-
CA2784728 (A1) - Utility
choose to feed the customer with its own production time than real-time response.
managed virtual power plant Ice energy inc
15 unit or with the customer's energy storage system. The High
utilizing aggregated thermal energy [us]
customer just send its consumption plan, and the
storage
utility seems to optimize for the interest of both actors
the storage system usage.
WO03007120 (A2) - A system A common VPP platform, business oriented. Gather ICT configuration could be constraintful, but
and method for creating and local production unit potential and load estimation. any ancillary services supplying. Ok
Mazzarella Sell/purchase the local production excess/lack with at
16 operating an enhanced distributed Medium/High
joseph r [us] least one exterior power purchasing unit and finally
energy network or virtual power
plant define the local power unit production plan
US2009072624 (A1) - Green Down meters located UPS system for data center…
Secured digital
17 Data Center And Virtual Power No link with the conventional VPP name. Low
storage llc [us]
Plant
US6724180 (B1) - Apparatus for Out of conventional VPP scope! Lighting system
and method of metering separate performance/energy consumption system.
lighting circuits for comparative Verfuerth neal r, ;
18 electric power usage to provide a Low
potts michael j
virtual power plant in electric
power savings
US6710588 (B1) - Apparatus and Out of conventional VPP scope! Lighting system
method for comparison of electric Verfuerth neal r, ; performance/energy consumption system.
19 Low
power efficiency of lighting sources potts michael j
to in effect be a virtual power plant
Figure D.2: Patent review - Key words "load shedding"+"frequency" and "Virtual Power Plant"
197
Reference Potential
Issues for the Global VPP development and the specific Primary Support patent. Key Word: "Demand Response"
US2013024036 (A1) - Ippolito david A global DRMS platform, including a database which
Do not seem to target a specific ancillary
20 Aggregator, monitor, and manager [us]; cona peter stores DR load characteristics, an aggregator and a High
service.
of distributed DR [us] + dispatching module.
EP2538378 (A1) - A system for Not a global platform. The patent adresses
Honeywell int inc Passerelle DRMS - DR ressource (consumer) to use
21 using attributes to deploy DR High mainly an association 'one load' <-> 'the
[us] DR flexibility asked by a utility.
resources platform'. No ancillary services aspects.
A kind of data/request platform, maybe
US2012271473 (A1) - Use of A DRMS: management of DR suppliers, etc. System
Honeywell int inc without trading platform however, probably
22 aggregated groups for managing usable by utilities or systems operators to manage the High
[us] only business oriented (no DMS
DR resources clients, participants, etc. Send them signals and bids.
functionalities).
A DRMS: management of DR suppliers in a context
EP2458703 (A2) - System and
of power network: 1) aggregate cluster 2) estimate DR Close to HONEYWELL INT INC patent
23 method for estimating DR in Gen electric [us] High
potential (response estimation function) 3) DR request (US2012271473) (review n°22).
electric power systems
sending
/!\ Voltage and Frequency measurement device located
Really close to Primary Support. However, it
MX2011010064 (A) - Under between the utility's power line and at least one load.
Aclara power line seems not to rely on an ICT link with the
24 frequency/under voltage detection Usage of predetermined threshold to detect operation High
systems inc [us] TSO/DSO, that is the value of Primary
in a DR unit. issues. Power supply interruption in case of power
Support.
system issue.
US2013033234 (A1) - Frequency
based electric vehicle charge A frequency-based relay, but apparently any
/!\ EV charging controller device able to stop charging
controller system and method for Uchicago communication with a TSO/DSO neither
25 in case of frequency level out of fix predetermined High
implementing DR and regulation argonne llc [us] notion of "droop line". Not an FCR-compliant
bounds.
services to power grid using but only a self-regulation of load process.
frequency detection
A smart plug placed between the wall plug and the Quite close to some hardware systems we
US2012049639 (A1) - Smart plug household appliance. A plug with measurement thought at for Primary Support. However the
26 with internal condition-based DR Gen electric [us] capability, wireless communication protocol and a High coordination is decentralized at the appliance
capability local memory to store thresholds. Then turn the load size, down meter located, without ICT links
off depending on the constraint. with the DSO/TSO.
The system allows to select a node where to
shed power and to optimize the combination
of loads to shed. The optimization targets to
minimize the cost and/or the total power
shedded, without affecting any critical loads.
The systems receive load shedding amount
A DRMS for DSO issues: select the loads located on
from the utility or the DSO. There is no
JP2011062075 (A) - Method and the specific node where the load flow must be
notion of frequency neither voltage threshold.
27 system for DR in power distribution Gen electric reduced. Try to mimize the load modification High
The system includes a method to control the
network compared with the initial flow, to solve only the
effective activation of the command, in order
physical issues.
to potentially update the shedding plan
quickly. Severals method to estimate the load
shedding capacity are claimed in the patent
request. Hardware modules are claimed as
well for data transmission and shedding
request.
KR20090126104 (A) - Method A DRMS designed for peak-shaving. Network Links Ancillary services supply: peak shaving
Snu r&db
28 and system for DR of electric between a power provider, a power consumer High aspects, but no Voltage neither Frequency
foundation [kr]
power (demander) and a power market. support
Load restoration strategies using DR after outage on
The patent definitely adresses ancillary
EP2575230 (A2) - Systems and the grid. Consider an outage area and an area that
services : black-start solution, not in conflict
methods for integrating DR with ABB research ltd remains power supplied. The system seems to provide
29 High/ Medium with Primary Support. It can remain in
service restoration in an electric [ch] power margins from power supplied area and open
conflict with the self-healing use case
distribution system selectives loads' breakers in the outage area to make
developed within Dream.
power restoration easier.
Global system for DR services supply, both up and
WO2011008775 (A2) - System Honeywell int inc Seems to be both up and down meters
30 down meters located. Maybe only a smartless High/ Medium
for providing DR services [us] located, but probably empty!
structure defining communication protocols…
CN101505070 (A) - Electronic A smart meters having a communication module and
Ls ind systems co down meters located. Out of grid aspects!
31 smart meter enabling DR and embedded breakers to control the load depending on High/ Medium
ltd [kr] Breakers embedded however
method for DR signals, mostly price oriented
Solomita michael
An EMS, based on a network of home energy boxes.
v, ; ewald alan, ; ICT links between consumers / utility,
US2004034484 (A1) - Demand- Local data harvesting to allow the utility to adjust
hebert j. Daniell, probably close to a VPP structure. However
32 response energy management rates so as to increase energy savings. Message High/ Medium
; knapp r. any notion of breakers neither automatic
system sending by the utility to the consumers to initiate
Benjamin, ; ancillary services.
energy saving.
mcgurk greg
NZ592295 (A) - System and A DRMS: management of DR suppliers in a context

Close to HONEYWELL INT INC patent
33 method for scheduling DR events in Gen electric [us] of power network: 1) aggregate cluster 2) estimation High/ Medium
(US2012271473) (review n°22).
a network of the final benefit 3) DR event scheduling.
Figure D.3: Patent review - Key words "Demand Response " 1/5
198
Reference Potential
Down meters located, for facilities usage:
Optimization algorithm to select the best combination
EP2408082 (A1) - Integrated DR Siemens corp of DR ressources regarding probable criteria of price No concern of frequency-related ancillary
34 High/ Medium
for energy utilization [us] and volume to respect an objective of cost. Assume services.
marginal cost of usage of each device (foregone
production costs, etc.).
The algorithm seems to focus only on one
Siemens corp
Optimization algorithm to select the best combination side of the market (prod. Or cons.) and not do
WO2012161993 (A2) - [us]; bruschi paul
35 of DR ressource regarding probably price and volume Medium include ICT links neither hardware
Bidirectional DR control j [us]; suresh
to respect the cost objective. development and probably no ancillary
sindhu
services issues.
Not a real issue for VPP. Maybe an hardship
EP2525462 (A2) - DRMS and DRMS for VAR support - question of inductives
36 Gen electric [us] Medium for the VAR part of the ancillary services,
method with VAR support devices.
developed in Dream.
Green Charge Networks sells B2B end-users
US2012245744 (A1) - systems for load management / DR.. Do not
Green charge Seems to be a private DRMS down meters located,
37 Networked Power Management and Medium seem so ready to reach the VPP side ->
networks llc responding to price signals.
DR mainly down meter, responding to price
signal.
CN102592246 (A) - System and A system to first estimate the DR potential coming
38 method for estimating DR in Gen electric [us] from several DR providers before sending a relevant Medium
electric power systems DR request.
Narayam amit
[us]; schwarz
WO2013039554 (A1) - A system henry [us]; singh Seems to be an only business oriented
A system to manage and optimized DR, using ICT and
and a method for optimization and rajeev kumar systems, not answer by itself to ancillary
39 control equipment, in order to reduce the DR cost Medium
management of DR and distribute [us]; bhat vijay services supply request in other way than
participation
energy resources srikrishna [us]; with price signals…
bahl abhishek
[us]
A DRMS for utility network + an inside household
NZ589983 (A) - Managing DR module. Consumers aggregation, DR opportunities
Both up and down meters located, but no
40 events in a power distribution Gen electric [us] estimation depending on the number of DR events and Medium
ancillary services aspects.
network number of opportunities available. Business oriented
system.
An energy box, providing energy price data to the
consumer who can then choose manually the price
WO2009085610 (A2) - threshold for consuming or not power. The system Down meters located. Reduce grid aspect: a
Achieving energy DR using price Aclara power line includes a bypass the utility can use to shed directly a bypass system for emergency load-shedding.
41 Medium
signals and a load control systems inc [us] minimum level of load without previous consumer Only potentially Peak-shaving embedded
transponder agreement to maintain the security of supply. This service.
minimum leve of load has been defined in advance by
the consumer.
An alert sending system, based on several ways of
An alert sending system, potentially of
WO2008079210 (A1) - On- data transmission and at least one communication
Swn comm inc interest in a context of VPP usage for
42 demand alerting and response device per contact. The system allows to define in Medium
[us] Ancillary services supply. Communication
system and method advance scenario to contact a selected number of
channels system patented
actors depending on conditions.
JP2012135193 (A) - System and
Load restoration strategies using DR after outage on
43 method for managing cold load Gen electric [us] Medium/ Low
the grid
pickup using DR
US2012066686 (A1) - DR Probably down meters located and quite far
Honeywell int inc A graphical processing unit to connect a large number
44 system incorporating a graphical Medium/ Low from our concerns but global platform maybe
[us] of DR units…
processing unit behind.. Difficult to assess.
CN102377182 (A) - Load shed DR request building system without Advanced
45 system for DR without AMI/AMR Gen electric [us] Metering Infrastructure. Usage of randomizing Medium/ Low No real ancillary services aspects.
system distribution routine.
Down meters located system: An household Energy
Management System, including a power meter and a
US2012029711 (A1) -
46 Gen electric [us] Human Machine Interface. Addition of a local Medium/ Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
GENERATOR DR BEHAVIOR
generator to reduce utility's power supply depending
on predetermined threshold.
Samsung Down meters located system: An household EMS, to
EP2367254 (A1) - DR system for
47 electronics co ltd optimize and send DR level to household appliances. Medium/ Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
control of electric consumers
[kr] Business oriented only
EP2365600 (A2) - DR method, Samsung Down meters located system: a load-shifting system
48 computer-readable medium and electronics co ltd for high power consumption household appliances , Medium/ Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
system [kr] with an attention on consumer inconvenience.
Down meters located system: Household appliance

Leviton
MX2010008264 (A) - Intelligent DRMS (light, load, meters, etc.). A connection with
49 manufacturing co Medium/ Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
metering DR. Network Operation Center of other utility is available
[us]
for real-time basis control of a building.
199
Reference Potential
Down meters located system: Household appliance
US2011148199 (A1) - Appliance DRMS. Received price signals from the utility (TOU,
50 Gen electric Medium/ Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
DR randomization after DR event etc.). Forward the signals to the household appliance.
Is care full with a potential rebound effect.
US2011148390 (A1) - Appliance Down meters located system: Household appliance

having a user grace period for DRMS. It relies mainly a load controller, probably not
51 Gen electric Medium/ Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
reinitiating operating when in DR so smart. Receive price signals from elsewhere
energy mode (TOU, etc.).
JP2012194977 (A) - Apparatus Down meters located system: A computing device for
52 and methods for providing DR Gen electric EVs, to calculate Energy Price for the end-user based Medium/ Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
information on DR data.
WO2012162570 (A1) - System
and method for integrating and
53 managing demand/response Cameron d kevin DR at LV level, mainly oriented around a DC bus. Low No real issue.
between alternative energy sources,
grid power, and loads
CN102790397 (A) - Reducing
Rebound effect detection - DR impact on Voltage
54 demand/response effects Gen electric [us] Low
level.
implementing volt/var control
US2012173030 (A1) - Method
Accenture global
55 and system for reducing feeder Tool to reduce feeder circuit losses due to DR. Low Out of scope.
services ltd [ir]
circuit loss using DR
WO2012108684 (A2) - Electric
Samsung
device and power management Device to change the level of load shifting for
56 electronics co ltd Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
apparatus for changing DR (dr) household appliances.
[kr]
control level
US2012136915 (A1) -
Honeywell int inc Software tool for client/server connections for DR
57 Installation system for DR Low
[us] solutions.
resources
AU2011250842 (A1) - Systems,
Power switch device for electrical devices connected
58 methods, and apparatus for DR of Gen electric [us] Low
to both the grid and a battery.
battery-powered devices
JP2012143129 (A) - Systems,
Power switch device for electrical devices connected
59 methods, and apparatus for DR of Gen electric [us] Low
to both the grid and a battery.
battery-powered devices
Narayam amit
[us]; schwarz
henry [us]; singh
WO2013039556 (A1) -
rajeev kumar Method to estimate DR potential as best as possible, DR potential calculation method: any notion
60 Determining load reductions in DR Low
[us]; bhat vijay thanks to baseline noise detection. of ABM neither ancillary services supply
systems
srikrishna [us];
bahl abhishek
[us]
WO2012145152 (A2) - Universal Cooper
Remote control module for split air-conditionning Down meters located, even on board device.
61 demand-response remote control for technologies inc Low
systems (household appliances). Out of grid aspects.
ductless split system [us]
CA2753953 (A1) - Clothes
A Strategies to adapt washing machine cycles to DR
62 washer DR with at least one Gen electric [us] Low
constraint. No notion of ancillary services supply.
additional spin cycle
Down meters located method, for DR optimization,
Samsung
EP2375527 (A2) - DR Method using household appliances. Appliances sorting to
63 electronics co ltd Low Down meters located. Out of grid aspects.
and DR System optimize the process by maintaining in parallel the
[kr]
appliance quality.
Sangmyung
KR20120114435 (A) - Method of university council
64 managing electric consumption with for industry No Abstract available. Low No Abstract available.
DR academic
cooperation [kr]
WO2012082173 (A1) - Systems
and methods for predicting ABB research ltd Method to assess the customer compliance to answer
65 Low
customer compliance with DR [ch] to a DR request.
requests
Samsung
KR20110114437 (A) - DR
66 electronics co ltd No Abstract available. Low No Abstract available.
method and DR system
[kr]
CA2722555 (A1) - Appliance DR
Antenna design for wireless communication between
67 antenna design for improved gain Gen electric [us] Low Out of scope.
energy boxes and home appliances.
within the home appliance network
Leviton
WO2011050055 (A2) - Wireless
68 manufacturing co Wireless devices system design. Low Out of scope.
DR system
[us]
JP2012006153 (A) - Image
Konica minolta
69 forming apparatus, DR program and No Abstract available. Low No Abstract available.
business tech
DR method
200
Reference Potential
WO2010093345 (A1) - Method
Accenture global Tool to reduce feeder circuit losses due to DR. Close
70 and system for reducing feeder Low Out of scope.
services ltd [ir] to US2012173030 (A1).
circuit loss using DR
KR20080072045 (A) - Fuel cell
Utc power corp
71 power plant diverting air in A fuel cell system, not grid connected at all. Low Out of scope.
[us]
response to low demand
US2009098427 (A1) - Fuel Cell
72 Power Plant Diverting Air in A fuel cell system, not grid connected at all. Low Out of scope.
Response to Low Demand
KR20090053487 (A) - Method of
Samsung
demand paging for codes which Real time response aspects for IT. Out of power
73 electronics co ltd Low Out of scope.
requires real time response and system's scope.
[kr]
terminal
FR2920937 (A1) - Information
i.e. real estate related information,
broadcasting method for e.g. mobile
telephone, involves interrogating Edet christophe Web portal for mobile phone. Out of power system's
74 Low Out of scope.
database to verify existence of [fr] scope.
response to information demand,
and delivering response to terminal
if response exists
Angel albert j
US2007107016 (A1) - Interactive
[us]; bienstock
Multiple Channel User Enrollment,
terry s [us];
Purchase Confirmation
75 leeper barry [us]; Video on Demand system (VoD) and cable. Low Out of scope.
Transactional System with
weiner gary a
Fulfillment Response Feature for
[us]; eisenberg
Video On Demand Cable Systems
lance [us]
FR2907992 (A1) - Interrupted
content downloading session i.e.
video-on demand session,
recovering method, for set-top box, Thomson
76 VoD patent. Low Out of scope.
involves recovering session when licensing sas [fr]
all channels are available, in
response to session recovery
request from remote server
WO2004040425 (A2) - Highly
programmable mac architecture for
77 handling protocols that require Enikia llc [us] MAC architecture patent. Low Out of scope.
precision timing and demand very
short response times
TWI251996 (B) - System,
method, and computer-readable
media recording software for I2 technologies
78 Media aspects. Low Out of scope.
planning repairs in response to inc [us]
demand in a multi-level repair
network
FR2848055 (A1) - Data e.g.
telephone number supply system for
telephone network, has server to
transform demand of user into France telecom An application for Phone Utilities. Transform a
79 Low Out of scope.
request and delivering unit to [fr] demand into a request.
distribute message to user through
desired media in response to
demand
FR2838593 (A1) - Internet
protocol remote
maintenance/administration/file
transfer having client connection Gouget michel
80 Internet protocols issues. No link with Power System. Low Out of scope.
responding server demands with [fr]
first demand containing
protocol/limiting response
repetition.
JP2001319109 (A) - Demand
transmission and supply response
system using as information Washitani
81 Mobile phone application. Low Out of scope.
terminal portable telephone with kazuhiko
mail function and internet
connecting function
WO0057645 (A1) - Selectively
82 caching video to improve on-DR Infolibria inc [us] VoD patent. Low Out of scope.
time
GB2337912 (A) - Video on Daewoo
83 demand system with adaptively electronics co ltd Low Out of scope.
controlled response stand-by time [kr]
201
Reference Potential
JPH08191283 (A) - Method for
demand and response to Victor company
84 ICT patent. No link with Power System. Low Out of scope.
information, reception equipment, of japan
and reproducing device
NZ260222 (A) - Video-on-

demand service transmits packets of
85 selected video signals in response Alcatel australia VoD patent. Low Out of scope.
to received control signals from
subscribers
FR2691233 (A1) - Domestic and

industrial steam generator with
immediate response - has A patent about steam generator. No link with Power
86 Cogia [fr] Low Out of scope.
intermediate chamber connected to System.
storage tank during demand periods
only, and to boiler only when idling.
202
Appendix E
HMI screen-shot of the coordination

platform of demonstration
The present section displays screen-shots of the HMI of the coordination platform deployed for
the needs of demonstration. Figure E.1 presents the way to access to the different functions
provided by the HMI. Figure ?? explains how to update the parameters related to the DER
behaviour and market-related parameters, that characterize the willingness of the DER owner
to get their DER involved in the frequency regulation process. Figure ?? presents the path that
enables to access to the resultant offer and demand curves that have already been displayed in
Figure IV.18 (page 148). Figure E.4 details the process of creation, modification or suppression
of FCR or UFLS demand bids. Figure E.5 presents finally how to access in administrator mode
to the log files generated at each execution of the algorithm and how to modify these algorithms,
if needed.
Log to access
the main menu
Switch to Configuration
mode to be allowed to
modity the R algorithms
Access to a list of demand

Access the bids sorted according to
control menu of their owner
demand bids
Figure E.1: Map of synoptics: path to the different platform’s functions
203
APPENDIX E. HMI SCREEN-SHOT OF THE COORDINATION PLATFORM OF
DEMONSTRATION
Click to import
Click to declare a pool of DERs
a new DER controlled by
the same DER
controler
Define if the DER is updatable in real-

time i.e. connected through XMPP
Select a DER controller only if the load is
controlled over an XMPP link
Confirm if the load is effectively connected

using XMPP (1=XMPP, 0=HTTPS)
Fill the operation and
market parameters
Select the DER controller
Figure E.2: Path of declaration of a new DER into the pool of Primary Support
204
*
Select a DER
Access to parameters
modification
Market-related
parameters of the
DER
DER behavior
parameters Real-time
View the DER’s parameters
Market- contribution in
related the resultant offer Internal clearing
parameters parameters
Power
contribution
of the DER HzStr
Figure E.3: Path of modification of DER parameters and view of the effective contribution
205
APPENDIX E. HMI SCREEN-SHOT OF THE COORDINATION PLATFORM OF
DEMONSTRATION
Select a demand Bid
Access to market-related
parameters modification
Modify the bid’s

ownership
Figure E.4: Path of modification of demand bids
206
*
Access the list

of R scripts
Open a given script
Modify it Test it
Access the
execution log files
Click to access log
Figure E.5: Path of modification of the market clearing and clearing visualisation algorithms
207
Résumé étendu
Résumé étendu & opinion
Enjeux du Smart Grid & intérêts de la fourniture de flexibilité par les Généra-
teurs d’Energie Distribuées (GEDs)
Les enjeux d’indépendance énergétique et la prise en compte des préoccupations environnemen-

tales par les classes politiques européennes au début des années 2000 ont indirectement conduit
à la naissance du Smart Grid1 . Le point de départ de ce cheminement peut être attribué aux
énergéticiens européens et notamment français qui ont initialement pariées sur la mise en service
de centrales à gaz à haut rendement - les cycles combinés gaz (CCGT) -, construites directement
au sein des terminaux maritimes d’importation de Gaz Naturel Liquifié (GNL). L’objectif de tels
investissements étaient de remplacer les centrales à charbon historiques très polluantes, tout en
bénéficiant de la nouvelle route d’importation d’énergie fossile, en provenance du Moyen-Orient.
Engie a ainsi investi à Dunkerque (2005) et Montoir de Bretagne, EDF à Fos-sur-Mer, brûlant
du gaz notamment qatarie, réduisant la dépendance de la France aux importations russes.
Malheureusement, la ruée vers le gaz de schiste en Amérique du Nord a conduit a un surplus

de charbon sur les marchés de matières premières et à un effondrement des cours du charbon
y compris en Europe. Pendant ce temps et contre toute attente, le prix de la tonne de car-
bone sur le marché européen (ETS) s’est effondré. Faible coût de combustible et faible taxes
environnementales: il n’en fallut pas moins pour redonner une seconde jeunesse au charbon,
venant concurrencer de plein fouet les nouveaux moyens de production au gaz. En parallèle,
des capacités significatives d’énergies renouvelables ont été raccordées au réseau européen, avec
un tarif de rachat garanti et une priorité d’injection sur le réseau aux dépens des moyens de
productions conventionnels (nucléaire, gaz, charbon, etc.). Cette conjoncture a directement im-
pacté la rentabilité des centrales à gaz et mené les grands énergéticiens européens dans une crise
majeure. En mars 2014, dix de ces plus importants énergéticiens se sont regroupés au sein du
groupe Magritte, pour faire front commun devant Bruxelles. A l’offensive, Gérard Mestrallet,
PDG d’Engie, appela à l’instauration d’un mécanisme de capacité pour soutenir la rentabilité
des centrales à gaz, indispensables à la sureté du système électrique européen en période de
pointe, concédant toutefois la nécessité de migrer vers un mix énergétique bas carbone.
La transition énergétique, partant d’un mix bâtit autour de centrales électriques conventionnelles
de fortes puissances, vers des moyens de production renouvelables, partiellement distribués ne
fait dès lors plus de doute. Un tel changement n’est toutefois pas neutre pour la sureté du
1
également appelé Réseau Electrique Intelligent (REI) par le ministère français de l’industrie
211
RÉSUMÉ ÉTENDU & OPINION
système électrique et la conduite du réseau. A titre d’exemples, les capacités de production

garanties sont amenées à diminuer, de manière concomitante à l’apparition de contraintes sur
les réseaux électriques. Dans un tel contexte, le rôle du Smart Grid est d’apporter une réponse à
ces problématiques en devenir, via le déploiement de nouveaux modèles d’affaires, reposant sur
une libéralisation des marchés de l’énergie et le déploiement des Technologies de l’Information
et de la Communication (TIC) au sein des composants du réseau électrique. Ce déploiement
est attendu de la centrale électrique jusqu’aux charges électriques situées en aval du compteur
électrique du client final, en passant par les infrastructures de transport et de distribution de
l’électricité.
La stabilité du réseau électrique est amenée à être impactée par quatre sujets majeurs, à même
de mettre en danger la livraison d’un volume suffisant de réserve primaire (appelée FCR) dans
un temps suffisamment bref. Tout d’abord, la disponibilité des moyens de fourniture convention-
nels de réserve primaire (FCR) et secondaire (FRR) pourrait faire défaut, impactée par la faible
rentabilité que ces fournisseurs peuvent attendre de ces marchés de réserves, en comparaison
des gains qu’ils peuvent espérer obtenir sur les marchés de gros. Par ailleurs, ces moyens de
fourniture de réserve sont à même de rester arrêté et donc indisponible durant les périodes de
charge résiduelle négative du système électrique. La perte de qualité de la fréquence du réseau
constitue une seconde préoccupation. Cette dégradation est induite par la discontinuité des pro-
grammes de production des centrales électriques, qui est à même de varier brusquement d’une
heure à l’autre selon les volumes vendus sur les marchés alors que la demande est continue dans
le temps. Une telle dégradation devient un risque pour la stabilité du réseau, tout en constituant
un obstacle supplémentaire à la participation des centrales électriques à la fourniture de réserve
primaire, qui craignent dès lors une plus grande sollicitation et donc un vieillissement prématuré
de leurs moyens de production. Les fournisseurs de réserve secondaire sont concernés égale-
ment, mais dans une moindre mesure. La troisième préoccupation concerne la perte d’inertie
du système électrique, qui est induite d’une part par l’ajout d’une interface d’électronique de
puissance dans la chaine de conversion électromécanique des dernières technologies d’énergies
renouvelables (photovoltaïque bien sûr mais également éolien), et d’autre part par la fermeture
des moyens de production conventionnels. Finalement, la pénétration de GEDs sur les réseaux
de distribution, en aval des postes sources est à même de réduire l’efficacité du plan de protec-
tion du système électrique - schéma UFLS- face à l’occurrence de creux de fréquence significatifs
au-delà de 1 Hz. En effet, l’UFLS repose sur le délestage de départs entier au niveau du poste
source, sur la base de la puissance estimée dans chaque départ, estimation qui historiquement
ne prend pas en compte l’injection de puissance par des GEDs sur ces départs - En Europe,
le déploiement à venir du nouveau schéma LFDD en lieu et place de l’UFLS devrait toutefois
réduire ce risque - (Figure IV.6).
La sécurisation de la pointe électrique est quant à elle directement mise en danger par la fer-
meture de moyens de production centralisés, due d’une part à la perte de compétitivité de
ces centrales précédemment évoquées mais aussi d’autre part à l’entrée en vigueur au 1er jan-
vier 2016 de la directive européenne n◦ 2010/75/U E imposant la fermeture des unités indus-
trielles les plus polluantes, centrales électriques comprises. Au delà du risque sur la sécurité
212
Unique Interconnection Top-down Top-down

subjected to tripping power flow & down-
only flows
UFLS 0.48 pu 0.48 pu
efficiency 0.52 pu 0.38 pu
~ ~
Reduction of UFLS load
disconnection capacity
UFLS relays UFLS relays
Kuching Kuching
Island Island
RES-E 1pu =
30% RES-E 1pu =
penetration 282MVA penetration 0.14 pu 282MVA
Figure IV.6: Evolution des flux de puissances dans un réseau semi-insulaire avec un fort taux
d’énergies renouvelables, altérant l’efficacité de l’UFLS [Lebel et al., 2015c]
d’approvisionnement, la pointe électrique est en mesure d’induire des pics de prix sur les marchés
de gros, dont l’anticipation reste complexe.
Le déploiement de GEDs est ensuite à même d’induire des contraintes de conduite des réseaux
pour les Gestionnaires de Réseaux de Distribution (GRDs), en modifiant les flux de puissance
pour lesquels les réseaux ont été historiquement planifiés i.e. dimensionnés. Des excursions
de tension sont attendues en particulier dans les réseaux Basse Tension (BT), sur lesquels se
concentrent 80% des demandes de raccordement de GEDs, alors même que ces réseaux restent
à ce jour largement dépourvus de tout système de contrôle-commande.
Dans le même temps, le déploiement de GEDs met au jour des conflits d’usage de la flexibilité
qu’ils sont en mesure d’offrir à différents acteurs du système électrique. Alors que les aggréga-
teurs de GEDs vendaient historiquement leur flexibilité sur le mécanisme d’ajustement (réserve
tertiaire RR) opéré par les Gestionnaires de Réseaux de Transport (GRTs), la dérégulation des
marchés de l’énergie a progressivement permis la commercialisation de telles flexibilités sur les
marchés de gros également. Les GRDs se demandent ainsi dorénavant à quel point la sollic-
itation de GEDs pour de nouveaux usages est à même d’induire de nouvelles contraintes sur
leur réseaux. A l’inverse, le recours à de telles flexibilités apparait comme un outil d’aide à la
conduite des réseaux de distribution, sur lesquels les GRDs espèrent pouvoir compter dans les
années à venir.
Résumé des initiatives de recherches & conclusions principales
Les thèmes abordés aux paragraphes précédents correspondent en réalité à un ensemble de

préoccupations pour lesquels des solutions pourraient être apportés à l’aide de procédés de
coordination de GEDs2 . Ces travaux de thèses se sont donc préalablement attachés à évaluer
le potentiel effectif de tels procédés de coordination de GEDs à contribuer à la résolution de
2
la dégradation du plan de protection induite par le déploiement de GEDs constitue toutefois un autre domaine
pour lequel la coordination de GEDs n’est pas à même en soit de solutionner le problème
213
chacun de ces enjeux. Cette évaluation s’est fondée sur une approche pragmatique, centrée
autour de deux principaux postulats, motivés par des objectifs de rationalisation des coûts. Le
premier postulat repose sur l’objectif de pouvoir réutiliser la même GED pour la soumission
d’offres sur plusieurs marchés, qu’il s’agissent de marchés de gros ou de marchés de services
systèmes. Les périodes de livraison de chaque offre peuvent alors être simultanées ou successives
selon la nature du sous-jacent des offres. Le second postulat parie sur l’absence de déploiement
généralisé des technologies du Smart Grid dans les réseaux électriques, au bénéfice de politiques
de déploiements ciblés topologiquement, en réponse à des problèmes spécifiques à haute valeur
ajoutée locale.
Le principe de réutilisation de la même GED pour des usages différents impose par conséquent de
réfléchir à une politique de coordination de la livraison de chaque produit, sans conflit d’usages
entre les différents acteurs du réseau. Une opportunité encourageante, dont l’adoption par
l’ensemble des acteurs du Smart Grid et d’une grande valeur collective, serait d’axer les différents
modèles d’affaires conformément à des Business Use Cases standardisés. Le recours à de tels
Business Use Cases permettrait de clarifier les conditions d’utilisation des offres de flexibilités au
bénéfice du GRT, du GRD, du fournisseur ou encore des aggrégateurs d’énergie. La philosophie
d’une telle stratégie de coordination opérationnelle, à ce jour largement insufflée par les GRDs,
serait de coordonner l’ensemble de la chaîne de valeurs et de coûts induites par la pénétration de
GEDs dans les réseaux. Le premier maillon consisterait à appréhender l’impact que l’activation
d’une offre de flexibilité par un acteur est à même d’avoir sur un autre acteur - ce que l’on appelle
à ce jour la certification d’une GED -, avant d’évaluer en parallèle le bénéfice qu’une telle GED
peut apporter aux GRTs et GRDs dans un contexte de gestion de contraintes. En dernier lieu,
l’échange de flexibilité sur des plateformes de marchés dédiées permettraient aux opérateurs de
réseaux de disposer de réserves opérationnelles à même de faciliter les opérations de conduite
et de maintenance des réseaux. Dans un tel contexte, cette thèse s’est attaché à contribuer à
la rédaction d’un certain nombre de ces Business Use Cases, dans le cadre du projet européen
EvolvDSO.
La capacité de la flexibilité de la demande à apporter une réponse à la problématique de sécurité

d’approvisionnement de la pointe électrique, a ensuite été évalué grâce au développement d’un
modèle d’analyse de données. Ce modèle fut appliqué aux volumes et prix sur des marchés spot
day-ahead des pays baltes, scandinaves (Nord Pool Spot) et de la France (Epex Spot). Les sorties
de modèle ont finalement mis en lumière que l’élasticité des prix sur les marchés restent contenues
et que le spread intraday - i.e. la différence de prix entre l’heure la plus chère et l’heure la moins
chère de la journée - est relativement réduit, sauf au cours de quelques évènements extrêmes dont
l’occurrence se compte en années. Par conséquent, l’investissement dans des GEDs, de stockage
notamment, dans le seul but de fournir de la flexibilité en puissance uniquement les jours de
pointe de consommation n’est pas en mesure de constituer un modèle d’affaire rentable, si celui
est financé uniquement sur le spread intraday (Figure IV.7). Une rémunération de la capacité
s’avère dans ce cas nécessaire, et est alors en mesure de convenir à des procédés de flexibilité
de charges électriques industrielles, type réserves rapides et complémentaires (cas Français) ou
Effektreserven (cas Suédois).
214
Business model definition Profitability Assessment

70€/yr of revenue
per Powerwall
7 Ends-up in Powerwall profitability, assessing a revenue

of 2kW x 35k€/MW/yr
2800€
Capacity: 7kWh
1 Purchase a Tesla’s Charging &
Powerwall battery
for your home
Discharging
power: 2kW
Cycling efficiency: 95%
Lifetime 2000 cycles
2 Gather friends to get

a capacity of 0.1MW
to trade on the whole & # ' "
market
! # " # $
6 Observe the net annual income depending on the
annual rate of operation
3 Become a day-ahead
spot market
prosumer 5 Bank each day the revenue
induced by the daily Spread France
over 11 bidding areas.
Lulea
4 Adopt a strategy of performing one cycle of Trondheim

charge/discharge per day, width a depth of 7kWh. Finland
Charge the battery at 2kW, Kristiansand

Estonia
during the 3.5 cheapest hours Malmo
of the day Latvia
Discharge the battery at 2kW, DK West DK East Lithuania
during the 3.5 most expensive ( ) #

hours of the day
The charging or discharging
period can be composed of
consecutives hours or not,
depending on the prices
Hours of the day
! " # $ %
Figure IV.7: Principe de l’analyse coûts-bénéfices réalisée pour estimer la rentabilité du stockage
chimique intraday sur les marchés spot
Contrairement aux idées reçues, de si contenus niveaux de volatilité et d’élasticité des prix de
gros, sont à même de doucher les espoirs des pro-Smart Grid de voir à ce jour la demande
s’adapter aux prévisions de production des énergies renouvelables intermittentes, grâce à de
simples signaux de prix. La création de valeur sur les marchés Spot day-ahead nécessite dès lors
de compter sur des GEDs ayant des coûts marginaux de stockage ou de report de consommation
de l’ordre de 20e/MWh, permettant ainsi la soumission d’offres de flexibilité compétitive sur
les marchés tout au long de l’année. Enfin, les sorties de modèles ont mis en exergue une très
grande variabilité de l’opportunité de revenu sur les marchés Spot d’un pays à l’autre et même
d’une zone de prix à l’autre.
Dans de telles conditions de coût marginaux d’activation, la commercialisation de flexibilité sur

les marchés de gros peut toutefois rester pertinente afin de générer un revenu de base. Des
revenus de 10-30ke/MW/an peuvent être espérés en fonction de la zone géographique et des
215
années. Cette base sera ensuite abondée via l’engagement sur des marchés de services systèmes
techniquement plus pointus afin d’aboutir à un modèle d’affaire combiné rentable. Ces services
systèmes peuvent comprendre la fourniture de réserve de puissance pour le réglage du plan de
tension dans les réseaux de distribution ou le maintien de la fréquence du système électrique.
Dans une thématique plus proche de la conduite des réseaux, les enjeux de gestion du plan de
tension dans la distribution devraient être réglés via des outils distribués, au plus près des zones
de déviation en tension et reposer sur le moins d’investissement en matériel possible. De plus, la
méthode de contrôle déployée se devraient d’être la plus simple possible, clairement pragmatique
et requérant le moins d’intégration de systèmes possibles. Cette position peut-être discordante
et va à l’encontre des travaux de recherche contemporains sur l’estimation d’état qui visent à
la conception d’outils de planification opérationnelle, déployés à grande échelle sur les réseaux.
Néanmoins, cette conviction repose sur le constat que les GRDs ont jusqu’à maintenant été con-
frontés à bien moins de contraintes réseaux que ce qu’il a été imaginé par le passé. De ce fait,
les stratégies grande échelle, qui parient sur le déploiement complet des technologies Smart Grid
s’avèrent ne pas être compétitives à ce jour, comparées aux stratégies historiques qui reposent
essentiellement sur des travaux de renforcements du réseau. Le renoncement du régulateur alle-
mand d’imposer le déploiement de compteurs communicants à l’instar des Linky français, est
l’illustration du refus actuel des acteurs du système électrique de modifier en profondeur leurs
procédés opérationnels. De la même manière, les principaux équipementiers possèdent d’ores
et déjà dans leur catalogue des transformateurs Moyenne Tension / Basse Tension (MT/BT)
avec régleur en charge, en anticipation des problèmes de tension auxquelles les GRDs devraient
être confrontés. Mais aucune commande n’a à ce jour été passé par les GRDs français en de-
hors d’initiatives de recherche... Révélateur de l’humeur actuelle des équipementiers électriques,
quasiment aucun de ces nouveaux transformateurs et pas plus de cellules MT n’ont été présentés
sur les stands lors l’édition 2015 de European Utility Week. Dans le même temps, le salon faisait
la part belle à une multitude de nouveaux acteurs - non consolidés- de la Smart Home et de
l’internet des objets. Face à un tel constat, une approche élémentaire pour la gestion du plan
de tension BT serait de se reposer sur une infrastructure de capteurs de tension communicants,
géolocalisables et plug&play, de manière à améliorer l’observabilité de ces réseaux historique-
ment dépourvus de tout système de mesure (cf. plaquette de l’initiative DLVM en Figure A.5,
page 168). Au-delà d’une phase initiale de diagnostique, de tels capteurs peu chers pourraient
ainsi être maintenus en quelques points du réseau, connus pour leur propension à affronter des
excursions de tensions. Ces données de tension pourraient alors être utilisées afin de définir une
amplitude de déviation en tension admissible au niveau de chaque poste de distribution et sur
la base de laquelle le plan de tension MT pourrait être ajusté périodiquement - par exemple à
l’échelle du quart d’heure - en jouant sur la prise du régleur en charge au poste source et sur
d’éventuels bancs de capacités.
Ces travaux de thèse se sont enfin attachés à apporter une réponse à la problématique de dégra-
dation de la stabilité du système électrique, évoquée aux paragraphes précédents. La réponse
imaginée repose sur la conception d’un procédé de modulation coordonnée du niveau de puis-
sance d’un ensemble de GEDs. L’élaboration puis la démonstration en conditions réelles de ce
216
Figure IV.8: Exemple de GEDs compatibles avec les spécifications de Primary Support
concept intitulé Primary Support, ont constitué l’axe de recherche le plus prenant de cette thèse.
Primary Support vise à la fourniture de réserve primaire (FCR) et d’urgence (LFDD), grâce à
la coordination de GEDs, sans toutefois induire une interruptibilité d’alimentation indésirable
pour les GEDs participantes. Ce procédé est en mesure d’impliquer une large diversité de GEDs
telle que des chauffe-eaux et chauffages électriques, des systèmes de traitement d’air dans les bâ-
timents tertiaires, des pompes hydrauliques, des systèmes d’alimentation ininterrompus (UPS),
des véhicules électriques ou même des infrastructures d’éclairage public (Figure IV.8).
Primary Support repose sur une architecture logicielle et décisionnelle multi-couches, composée
aux premiers niveaux d’un ensemble de GEDs et de contrôleurs de GEDs, coordonnés au niveau
supérieur par au moins un plateforme de coordination. En dernier lieu, le déploiement d’une
plateforme de marché facultative serait en mesure d’automatiser un procédé de partage de GEDs
d’appoints d’une plateforme de coordination à l’autre, afin de pallier au déficit de flexibilité
temporaire de l’une des plateformes. Le recours à une telle architecture permet de séparer les
opérations de modulation du niveau de charge de chaque GED, qui sont réalisées en temps réel,
des opérations de coordination du comportement de chacune de ces GEDs, qui peuvent avoir
lieu en amont du temps réel, par exemple dans l’heure ou le quart d’heure précédent. En temps
réel, la modulation du niveau de charge de chaque GED est pilotée de manière autonome et
indépendamment d’une GED à l’autre par chaque contrôleur de GED, en fonction d’une mesure
de fréquence du réseau réalisée sur site ( à la Figure IV.9), afin de suivre une caractéristique
puissance-fréquence pré-déterminée.
Cette caractéristique est définie par une pente de modulation et un seuil initial de fréquence
en-deçà duquel la modulation de charge débute ( ). Ce seuil et cette pente sont définis par
un standard international: l’IEC 61850-7-420 [2015], ce qui garantie l’interopérabilité des GEDs
et maximise les chances de pouvoir fournir plusieurs services systèmes ou de gros à partir du
pilotage de la même GED. La détermination de cette caractéristique puissance-fréquence a lieu
au cours de la phase de coordination du comportement de chacune des GEDs, en amont du temps
réel et est réalisée par la plateforme de coordination dont dépend la GED. Cette coordination
est effectuée en tenant compte d’une part de la flexibilité en puissance effectivement disponible
au niveau de chaque GED ( ) et d’autre part du bon vouloir de l’exploitant de la GED de voir
217
ment Reserve (FCR) Slope of the targeted

ed on Distributed POFF (f)
HzStrj
Pcumoff
Load- …
HzStr3
shedding DER i
HzStr2
DER 3
penetration to DER 2
ntribution to FCR
DER 1
Fa Fb
f 3
h embed a sub-meter
ys, with remotelly
nsumption of each load
ulk generation unit by 1 4

2
eshold to each DER
stem-scale a linear Power-

FCR. Figure IV.9: Procédé opérationnel simplifié de Primary Support
son unité contribuer à la fourniture de réserve de fréquence. A titre d’illustration, plus le seuil de
modulation en fréquence d’une GED est proche de la fréquence normale d’exploitation du réseau
électrique - 50Hz en Europe - plus cette GED sera sollicitée et verra son comportement moyen
perturbé, ce qui est à même d’influencer l’acceptabilité du dispositif par l’exploitant de la GED.
La plage de sollicitation peut être séparée en deux principales plages de fréquences, différentiées
l’une de l’autre par une limite de déviation de ±50mHz. D’un côté, la contribution d’une
GED dans la plage [49.95; 49.98Hz] ∩ [50.02; 50.05Hz] est à même impacter significativement
son comportement moyen, avec des durées de modulation cumulées de 20 minutes à 5 heures par
jour sur la plaque de synchronisme d’Europe Continentale. Par conséquent, seule l’implication
de GEDs ayant une inertie importante telles que le chauffage domestique et tertiaire ou la
recharge de véhicules électriques parait compatible avec de tels besoins de régulation. A l’inverse,
la contribution de GEDs pour la fourniture de FCR ou de LFDD en-deçà d’un seuil de <
49.95Hz ou au-delà d’un seuil de > 50.05Hz implique des durées de modulations cumulées de
moins de 6 minutes par jour toujours sur la plaque de synchronisme d’Europe Continentale.
De tels zones de déviations en fréquence sont donc à même d’être livrées par des GEDs de
type UPS ou éclairage public. Chaque exploitant de GEDs a donc la possibilité de définir la
plage de fréquence dans laquelle il accepte la modulation de puissance ainsi que la rémunération
qu’il souhaite obtenir en échange de cette contribution. Une telle coordination permet donc
d’obtenir un comportement agrégé à l’échelle du portefeuille d’aggrégation des GEDs qui est
conforme aux spécifications opérationnelles des réserves primaires ou d’urgences (FCR/LFDD)
fournies jusqu’à présent par des centrales électriques conventionnelles ( ). La construction
d’un portefeuille d’aggrégation peut être réalisée selon des critères de cohérence topologique du
réseau électrique (Figure IV.10) ou des critères commerciaux, comme le regroupement au sein
218
UFLS FCR
…
POFF (f)
Load i
…
Load 3
Load 2
Load 1
f
Fa Range of operation Fb
!
! "
Figure IV.10: Exemple d’architecture de déploiement de Primary Support selon la topologie du

réseau
d’un même portefeuille de l’ensemble des GEDs ayant le même fournisseur ou acheteur d’énergie.
En complément de l’initiative de fourniture de réserves primaire (FCR) et d’urgence (LFDD),

la coordination de GEDs est à même de permettre également la fourniture de réserve secondaire
(FRR), comme imaginé par l’initiative Second Ice, brèvement développée au cours de cette thèse.
Néanmoins, la fourniture d’une telle réserve repose sur une activation simultanée en moins de
30 secondes de l’ensemble des moyens de réserve, décidée de manière centralisée depuis le centre
de conduite du GRT, et indépendamment de conditions de réseau prédéfinies. L’activation de
réserve secondaire à partir d’un pool distribué de GEDs est ainsi en mesure de comprendre des
difficultés opérationnelles notoires.
Perspectives futures de coordination de GEDs au services des acteurs du sys-

tème électrique
L’horizon de temps de cette thèse a correspondu à celui des principaux démonstrateurs Smart
Grid déployés afin de valider la faisabilité technologique du Smart Grid et de tester différents
modèles d’affaires. En France, le projet Greenlys a fournit des enseignements significatifs sur
le comportement des utilisateurs du réseau électrique. En premier lieu, le coût d’acquisition
client visant à convaincre une part de ces utilisateurs de devenir des exploitants de GEDs - via
notamment le déploiement en aval-compteur d’un contrôleur énergétique permettant le contrôle à
distance d’un chauffe-eau ou radiateurs électriques domestiques - se sont révélés bien plus élevés
219
qu’imaginé. Un tel constat est en mesure de profondément remettre en question le potentiel

de fourniture de services systèmes et d’énergie de gros à partir de sources de flexibilité de la
demande dans l’habitat et les bâtiments tertiaires. Rêvé par une large part des communautés
scientifiques et industrielles, le développement à large échelle de l’effacement diffus - appelé
également Demand Response - au bénéfice de la transition vers les Smart Grids ne se produira
probablement jamais. Durant la même période, la croissance du véhicule électrique, sensée
apporter de nouvelles flexibilités sur les réseaux, a été bien moindre qu’espérée.
En parallèle, la plupart des GEDs ont été et continueront à être déployés en aval du compteur
électrique BT, échappant de fait au contrôle natifs des GRDs et GRTs. Cette absence de
moyen de contrôle simple (Figure IV.11) risque de décourager les gestionnaires de réseaux d’avoir
recours à la flexibilité offerte par les GEDs dans leurs opérations de conduite de réseau. La
standardisation des fonctions réalisables par les GEDs et des protocoles de communication que
ceux-ci embarquent de manière native est donc d’une importance capitale. La standardisation
apparait comme donc une opportunité vers une interopérabilité entre les GEDs et les composants
du système électrique. Celle-ci est à même de redonner vie à une partie des modèles d’affaires
du Smart Grid tout d’abord en réduisant les coûts d’intégration logiciels et télécoms des GEDs,
et en permettant ensuite la contribution d’une GED à la fourniture de différents services requis
par différents acteurs du système électrique, et ceci simultanément ou un service après l’autre.
De cette manière, la taille critique permettant d’amortir les coûts d’intégration d’une GED
serait significativement réduite. Les efforts de standardisation deviennent à ce jour une réelle
préoccupation pour les acteurs du système électrique, et ceci bien qu’un déploiement de ces
fonctions standards va requérir une mise à jour des procédés de conduite des réseaux ou des
générateurs d’énergies conventionnels et distribués. Devant un tel challenge, mes pensées vont
à Messieurs Guise et Ulian pour leurs - ingrates mais riches - contributions aux travaux de
l’IEC61850, au bénéfice de l’ensemble des acteurs du système électrique.
Malgré le constat plutôt pessimiste dressé précédemment, l’espoir de voir le Smart Grid aller
de l’avant reste réel, tiré par les avancées spectaculaires du solaire photovoltaïque. Les coûts
marginaux des centrales solaires en plein champ atteignent dorénavant des coûts proches de
50e/MWh au Moyen Orient, alors qu’un prix plancher de 70e/MWh a été atteint pour la
première fois en France en 2015. Le photovoltaïque est devenu moins coûteux que l’éolien
terrestre (70-90e/MWh), alors que les unités de production nucléaires en construction ou en
rénovation affiche des coûts marginaux au-delà de 110e/MWh à l’image du tarif de rachat
négocié par EDF avec le gouvernement britannique pour les futures centrales EPR de Hinkley
Point.
Cette réduction des coûts du photovoltaïque induit deux conséquences majeures. D’un côté, elle
est en mesure de consolider durablement l’industrie du solaire et d’accélérer le déploiement de
nouvelles centrales, dont la rentabilité n’est dès lors plus dépendante des politiques publiques
de soutien aux énergies vertes, qui se sont montrées volatiles par le passé. D’un autre côté,
la différence de coûts marginaux entre le photovoltaïque d’une part et le nouveau nucléaire de
l’autre sont en mesure de fournir un coût d’opportunité en faveur du décalage de charges de
220
MV/LV RTU Smart Meter Energy Box

Power Power
ICT (PLC) ICT (RX/TX)
Regulatory issue
ICT
(TCP/IP) Firewall
ADSL box
DMS
ICT (TCP/IP)
Firewall
- 8-2
Server
Legend: Physical ICT infrastructure

Direction of data-flow
Figure IV.11: Illustration des enjeux de standardisation des protocoles de communication des
GEDs
≈40e/MWh pour un décalage dans le temps de l’ensemble de la production photovoltaïque

d’une centrale ou même de ≈80e/MWh pour un décalage de 50% de cette même production.
Les systèmes de stockage d’énergie pourraient être les grands gagnants de cette nouvelle donne
et prendre l’ascendant sur le Demand Response. Un Powerwall - la batterie domestique de
Tesla - qui aurait une durée de vie de 5000 cycles permettrait d’ores et déjà d’atteindre de tels
coûts, sans avoir à se soucier de la problématique d’acquisition client qui est indispensable à
l’acquisition de nouvelles capacités d’effacement diffus. Alors même que le premier chapitre de
cette thèse s’est attaché à démontrer que le stockage chimique n’était pas rentable à ce jour sur
les marchés Spot, cette technologie est vouée à devenir rentable à horizon 2020 sur des modèles
d’affaires spécifiques... qu’il reste à identifier. A cette date des coûts marginaux de stockage de
≈100e/MWh devrait être la norme au vue de la courbe d’apprentissage du stockage, qui affiche
actuellement des baisses des coûts de l’ordre de 10% par an.
Le photovoltaïque et le stockage sont donc tous deux en mesure de fournir un nouveau souffle à
l’innovation dans le Smart Grid, au bénéfice des acteurs du système électrique à horizon 2020,
alors même que 2016 va marquer la fin d’un grand nombre de projets de recherches français
et européens. Enfin, pour revenir aux problèmes de stabilité des réseaux électriques qui ont
animés cette thèse, le recours à une coordination distribuée de GEDs tels que le photovoltaïque,
le stockage stationnaire et on l’espère le véhicule électrique semble constituer un chemin fiable à
même de fournir une réponse en rupture aux problèmes de fermetures de centrales convention-
nelles, dès lors remplacées par des sources d’énergies renouvelables raccordées aux réseaux via
une interface d’électronique de puissance. Par ailleurs et en guise de conclusion finale, ces archi-
tectures de fourniture distribuée de services systèmes telles que Primary Support devraient être
parfaitement adaptées aux problématiques d’électrification verte des pays du G77, en proposant
des outils de stabilité compatibles avec des réseaux électriques à faible inertie.
221
222
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Coordination de GEDs pour la fourniture
de services systèmes temps réels.
Résumé Dans le domaine de la production d’électricité, les politiques entreprises pour lutter contre le change-
ment climatique reposent communément sur le remplacement des moyens de production fossiles et centralisés par
de nouveaux moyens de type renouvelables. Ces énergies renouvelables sont en grande partie distribuées dans les
réseaux moyenne et basse tension et sont le plus souvent intermittentes (énergies éolienne et photovoltaïque prin-
cipalement). Les gestionnaires de réseaux s’attendent à ce que ce changement de paradigme induise des difficultés
conséquentes dans leurs opérations. Les mondes de la recherche et de l’industrie se sont ainsi structurés depuis le
milieu des années 2000 afin d’apporter une réponse aux problèmes anticipés. Cette réponse passe notamment par
le déploiement de Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (TIC) dans les réseaux électriques, des
centres de contrôle jusqu’au sein même des moyens de production distribués. C’est ce que l’on appelle le Smart
Grid. Parmi le champ des possibles du Smart Grid, ces travaux de thèse se sont en particulier attachés à apporter
une réponse aux enjeux de stabilité en fréquence du système électrique. En effet, celle-ci est mise en danger par
la réduction anticipée de l’inertie des systèmes électriques et la raréfaction des moyens de fourniture de réserve
primaire (FCR), auxquels incombent le maintien de la fréquence en temps réel. En vue de suppléer les moyens
de fourniture de réserve conventionnels et centralisés, il a ainsi été élaboré un concept de coordination de charges
électriques délestables distribuées, qui se déconnectent et se reconnectent de manière autonome sur le réseau au gré
des variations de fréquence mesurées sur site. Ces modulations de puissance répondent à un schéma préétabli qui
dépend de la consommation électrique effective de chacune des charges. Ces travaux ont été complétés d’une étude
technico-économique visant à réutiliser cette infrastructure de coordination de charges délestables pour la fourni-
ture de services systèmes ou de produits de gros complémentaires. Ce travail de thèse réalisée au sein des équipes
innovation de Schneider Electric et du Laboratoire de Génie Electrique de Grenoble (G2Elab), est en lien avec les
projets Européens EvolvDSO et Dream, financés dans le cadre du programme FP7 de la Commission Européenne.
Mots clés Réseaux Electriques Intelligents (REI), Générateurs d’Energies Distribués (GEDs), Centrale
Virtuelle, Services Systèmes, Stabilité du Système Electrique, Réserve Primaire, Effacement Diffus.
Distributed Energy Resources coordination toward the

supply of ancillary services in real-time
Abstract The climate change mitigation policies in the power generation industry commonly rely on the re-
placement of bulk generation assets by Renewable Energy Resources (RES-E). Such RES-E are largely distributed
on the medium and low voltage grids. Most of them are intermittent such as photovoltaic and wind power. Sys-
tem Operators foresee that such a new power system paradigm will induce significant complications in their
operations. Hence, the research and industrial communities structured themselves from the mid-2000s to find so-
lutions for these coming issues. The solutions rely notably on the deployment of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) in power systems assets, from the Network Operations Centers (NOCs) to Distributed Energy
Resource (DERs) units. The aforementioned technologies are collectively described as the Smart Grid. Among
the range of possibilities of the Smart Grid, this Ph.D work targets the development of a solution to handle the
issue of frequency stability of the power system. Such stability is endangered by the combined loss of inertia of
the power system and the phasing-out of conventional assets which were traditionally responsible for maintaining
the frequency in real time through the supply of Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR). The concept developed
relies on a process of coordinated modulation on the level of DER loads, which evolve depending on the system
frequency measured in real time on-site. The strategy of modulation of each DER follows a pattern which is
determined at the scale of the portfolio of aggregation of the DER, depending on the effective level of flexibility
of the DER at normal frequency (i.e. 50Hz in Europe). This work is completed by a cost benefit analysis that
assesses the opportunity of sharing the previous infrastructure of coordinated modulation of DERs for the supply
of complementary ancillary services and wholesale products. This thesis was conducted within Schneider Elec-
tric’s Innovation team and the Grenoble Electrical Engineering Laboratory (G2Elab). It is associated with the
European projects Dream and EvolvDSO, and was funded by the FP7 program of the European Commission.
Keywords Smart Grid, Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), Virtual Power Plant (VPP), Ancillary
Services, Frequency Stability, Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR), Load Shedding.

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Distributed Energy Resources coordination toward the

supply of ancillary services in real-time

To cite this version:

HAL Id: tel-01561949

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est

Thèse dirigée par Raphaël CAIRE et

préparée au sein du G2ELab - laboratoire de Génie Électrique de

Coordination de GEDs pour la fourniture de

Distributed Energy Resources coordination

I Opportunity of DER involvement in power markets 17

2.8.3 Domestic space heating optimisation using day-ahead spot prices 38

II Theory and challenges of frequency stability 51

III Innovation Concept of Primary Support 89

4 Value Proposition of Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

IV Field Demonstration and Validation of Primary Support 129

General Conclusion 157

Appendix A Axes of research addressed during the PhD work 165

Appendix B Method of Day-ahead spot market data analytics 171

Appendix D Patent Review 195

Appendix E HMI screen-shot of the coordination platform of demonstration 203

Résumé étendu & opinion 211

1 Evolution the LNG exporting capacities of Qatar (data: Wikipedia [2015]) . . . . . 2

II.1 Simplified representation of a generator connected to a unique load [Andersson,

III.1 Suitable frequency range of operation of Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

III.10 Principle of operation of the Layer 3 in Primary Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

A.1 Research axis on Spot market volatility analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

A.2 Research axis on Real-Time-Price tariff for households . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

E.1 Map of synoptics: path to the different platform’s functions . . . . . . . . . . . 203

I.1 Assessment of Grid losses cost saving opportunities using DER . . . . . . . . . . 23

B.1 Period of market data acquisition per bidding area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

C.1 Characteristic UFLS schemes in CE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

1 From Geopolitics to Smart Grid

1.1 Geopolitics incentives

Annual capacitty of LNG (in mmtpa)

1.2 Bankruptcy of gas-fired assets

1.3 Migration toward Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) assets

Natural Gas in Russia

2 Structure of the thesis

Power Market Analysis

Gaspard Lebel. DLVM: les capteurs de tension BT autonomes, geo-localisés et commu-

Power System Security: Assessments and Innovation Proposal

4 Axis of research and of inspiration of the present thesis

European initiatives linked to this PhD work

6 Glossary of Important Terms and Abbreviations

Sharing partners of scientific and industrial knowledges

Balancing Capacity: The contracted ⊲ Reserve Capacity [ENTSO-E, 2014b].

Balancing Energy: Energy used by TSOs to perform Balancing [ENTSO-E, 2014b].

Balancing Market (BM): Entirety of institutional, commercial and operational arrangements

Balancing Service: Either or both ⊲ Balancing Capacity and ⊲ Balancing Energy

BM: ⊲ Balancing Market.

BRP: ⊲ Balance Responsible Party.

CE: ⊲ Synchronous Area

DER: ⊲ Distributed Energy Resource.

DG: ⊲ Distributed Generation.

DR: ⊲ Demand Response.

DSM: ⊲ Demand Side Management.

DSO: ⊲ Distribution System Operator.

DSR: ⊲ Demand Side Response.

EC: European Commission.

as conventional generation and not RES-E

Energinet: TSO of Denmark.

Energy Storage System (ESS): Technologies of storage of power energy.

ENTSO-E: European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity as

Figure I.5: (a) Estimation of the total losses *HWDQ,GHDRIWKHFRPPRQ7 'ORVVHVLQ(XURSH