Democratizing energy markets through flexibility-baseddemand response optimization services

Today, the energy system is largely driven from the perspective of suppliers and only a few consumers are able to track their energy use or actively  participate  in  the  market. The  possibilities  for larger  commercial  and  industrial  consumers  have  started  to  develop  and  active  consumer engagement in Demand Response programmes is gaining traction, nevertheless this is not the case for residential consumers. While the participation of European residential and small commercial/industrial users, accounting for ca. 70% of final electricity consumption, there is still limited access from the end users in energy markets. Within this context, we present an end-to-end Automated Demand Response Optimization Framework, towards incorporating innovative and highly effective tools to enable dynamic VPPs formation which will further allow for energy customers and cooperatives to introduce themselves in energy markets. Optimization in the proposed framework applies to multiple levels. It spans local generation output,  demand  and  storage  flexibility,  as  well  as  the  flexibility  offered  by  EVs  (in  their  dual  role  as  demand  and storage  assets)  to  facilitate maximum RES integration into the grid, avoidance of curtailment and satisfaction of balancing and ancillary grid needs. The overall framework is tested in several demo sites in Europe and the preliminary results from this evaluation process are reported in this document.