Phd in ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE FOR ENERGY
AND INDUSTRY

Thesis title: Integrating scheduling process for Italian ancillary services and balancing markets, considering uncertainties of RES-based DG.

The penetration and the spread of Renewable Energy Systems (RESs), with their uncertainties, affected the way of managing of the electrical grids and the electricity markets. The thesis work for my PhD, made in collaboration with the Italian Transmission Operator (TSO) Terna, was focused on the study about how the RESs impact on the National trasmission grid can be contained, reviewing the electricity market rules and the conventional thermal power plants managing. The main issue investigated is if it was possible to formulate a new ancillary market algorithm, in order to manage better the RESs evolution. In fact, the presence of RESs implies the need to implement actions for integrating scheduling process for ancillary services and balancing markets, considering uncertainties of RESs. To reach this aim, first, a deeply research about the state of the art on Optimum Power Flow (OPF) algorithms has been conducted. Then a Projected Assessment of System Adequacy (PASA) simulation has been performed using the software PLEXOS, in order to analyse how solar and wind generation can impact on the choice of scheduling maintenance for conventional thermal power plant. This manuscript is divided into five section and one appendix. In particular, the Introduction will deal with the current state of art of the Italian electrical grid, illustrating the different interconnection between Italy and the neighbouring countries and anticipating the principal problem that the RESs can introduce into the electrical grid operation. In Section 2 called “The power flow algorithms in electricity markets” a description about the Italian electricity market will introduce the problem under consideration. In Section 3 called “The state of art about the Optimum Power Flow algorithms” the state of art of the OPF algorithms will be analysed, distinguishing the classic OPF problems from the stochastic OPF methods. The Section 4 called “Projected Assessment of System Adequacy (PASA)” will describe the PASA simulation and how the model has been implemented and the results will be shown in Section 5 called “PASA simulation results”. Finally the “Other research activities” writes in appendix will illustrate the parallel activities that I have been conducted during this three year of work.