Project TraDER
Project TraDER developed a flexibility marketplace to coordinate real-time trades between curtailed wind generators and local, flexible distributed energy resources (DERs).
Local curtailment avoidance market
Use case: Project TraDERThis deployment developed a flexibility marketplace to make more efficient use of renewable energy in Orkney, Scotland. Led by Electron, the local real-time market allowed curtailed wind generators to trade with local flexible demand assets during windy periods. This enabled the generators to avoid curtailment, and the local demand assets to get paid to use clean energy.
The local grid operator’s challenge
Annually, renewable electricity generation in Orkney is over 100% of electricity demand. During windy periods of the year, there was insufficient local demand for energy generation. This often resulted in high levels of curtailment as the distribution network operator (DNO) – Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks – was unable to export excess wind energy due to grid congestions.
The renewable energy generators’ challenge
For newer wind farms, with flexible connections, curtailment was typically reaching 40-60% of generation capacity. This meant significant lost revenue and delays connecting assets in a region where there are favourable conditions for wind farms.
The DER aggregators’ challenge (Kaluza)
The aggregator represented local consumers operating electric storage heaters. Local consumers were interested in providing demand turn up services and accessing local renewable energy, but didn’t have an opportunity to do so.
Solution for the local grid operator
Electron designed and deployed a market that allowed curtailed wind farms to pay local demand assets for the demand turn up (DTU) service during periods of excess wind generation. The result was that local consumers got paid for using renewable energy and curtailed wind farms could avoid curtailment. The DNO provided curtailment signals to facilitate trading in this market.
Solution for the local renewable energy generators
The market enabled curtailed wind farms to buy demand turn up services from local consumers. This helped wind farms to benefit from curtailment avoidance during periods of high output.
Solution for the DER aggregator
The aggregator enabled local consumers with controllable loads to get paid for using renewable energy when it was abundant.
Project outcome
Project TraDER showcased the benefits of local flexibility marketplaces. Flexible demand assets got paid to use renewable energy when it was abundant. Wind farms benefited from the opportunity to avoid curtailment during periods of high output.
The overall outcome was that the optimised use of clean energy in both time and place. The project ran from February 2020 to June 2021, with the first trades on 28 March 2020. Over the following year, over 23,660 trades were completed, with 8.26MWh of energy dispatched.
Working together
For a better futureWhether you’re buying flexibility or providing grid services, use a marketplace that suits your needs.
Let’s accelerate the transition to Net Zero energy together.
