Characterising the flexibility of aggregations

The flexibility of a single building can be measured reasonably well. The flexibility of a group cannot: resources react at different speeds and within different limits, their availabilities overlap or cancel out, and the sum of individual flexibilities is not the group's flexibility. Yet it is the latter that the operator buys, and on which the promise made to the grid rests.

This project characterises the flexibility of each cell or aggregation and quantifies its coordination potential: how much load can be shed or shifted, for how long, with what probability of rebound, and with what latency in responding to transactive signals. Too optimistic an estimate commits an aggregate to a service it will not deliver; too cautious an estimate leaves already-installed flexibility asleep.

Main objective

Characterise the flexibility of each cell or aggregation and quantify its coordination potential — that is, its capacity to respond to transactive signals.

Methodology

Identifying the flexible resources present in an aggregation and their individual constraints; aggregating their flexibility envelopes while accounting for overlap and rebound effects; characterising the response to transactive signals in amplitude, duration and latency; validating against data from the laboratory's instrumented apartment and test benches.