Chance-Constrained Pre-Contingency Joint Self-Scheduling of Energy and Reserve in VPP

With the increasing penetration of primarily inertialess distributed energy resources, allowable delay in the fast frequency reserve provision to ensure marginal stability condition can become comparable with the requisite dead-time for fast-switching in a radial power distribution system (PDS) connected to the transmission system. Consequently, the prevailing short-duration load-generation imbalance might propagate as system-wide frequency excursion in the future power system, which traditionally has not been observed. Furthermore, during the fast-switching, some of the fast-acting reserve (FAR) providing local generators remain inaccessible to the bulk power system (BPS). This work has answered the questions of requisite reserve requirements to cater to such events through efficient energy and FAR provision joint-scheduling. Stochasticity of fast-switching, with temporary faults as a use-case, requires modeling of load-generation imbalance and local resource unavailability, vis-a-vis FAR requirement problem, as a chance-constraint. Due to the limited visibility at the BPS level, PDS operators must ensure sufficient FAR availability for a given confidence level of the chance-constraint. Individual chance-constraints are used to ensure mathematical simplicity. Here, the PDS is operated as a virtual power plant (VPP), where the operator can procure resources locally or from the wholesale market with the aim of profit maximization before the contingency occurs. Results show that FAR requirements can influence the local energy schedule and raise energy costs. Furthermore, the confidence level of the chance-constraint can impact overall profitability, and FAR should be scheduled carefully. Comparative analysis with a modified benchmark IEEE 33-node radial test system and a 98-node test system shows the superior performance of the proposed approach. The impact of the limited available FAR is also demonstrated.