Matching renewable energy production and consumption by market regulated demand site management (DSM)

An important cornerstone to reach the goals of the Swiss energy turnaround is the consecutive addition of renewable electrical power sources in conjunction with efficient demand side management. This development implies shifts in the daily power production and changes in load-management. In the light of the future liberalization of the Swiss electrical market providers will have to search for new and different business models, which cope with these developments.

Such a new business model is “Change38”. It sets local incentives to drive and accelerate the addition of electrical power supplies and storage systems. Its goal is to establish a local market for the ecological added value of power coming from renewable energy sources (producers) and to thrive the individual load management between the participants (consumers, respectively prosumers, if participants act on both sides). The model thereby follows a self-regulatory approach and merely gives the necessary framework by setting incentives for producers to produce and the consumers to consume energy on the right, most valuable time.

To evaluate and to refine this business model a simulation model was developed, which allows calculating all monetary flows and physical balances for every participant on the basis of time-series for power production and power demand. Using Monte-Carlo simulations the model was tested on its functionality, limits, robustness and sensitivities.

This method allowed the energy service provider of “Change38” to estimate the risk of its new service and hence to design an economical business case. The first pilot in Gachnang, a small community in Switzerland, is in operation since June 2015. The real Data will be analysed for the next two years in order to optimize the business case even further.