Distribution Grid Compatible Renewable Energy Through Optimal Exploitation of Bottom Up Flexibility.

The critical challenge that modern smart grids face in term of their management is the maximum possible exploitation of the energy that Renewable Energy Sources (RES) produce. The non-controllable nature of the rate that RES produce energy depends on the dynamic and non-accurately predictable weather conditions. In this context, flexibility noted as the modification of the energy demand, harmonizes (balances dynamically) energy production and energy consumption. Its advanced modeling and the optimization of its use highly affects energy cost in modern smart grids. In this paper we present a novel Distribution-Level Flexibility Market (DLFM) architecture which is noted Reactive DLFM (R-DLFM). R-DLFM operates after the clearing of the well-known day ahead energy market and/or balance market and ensures: i) the minimization of the energy cost and ii) the compliance of the dispatch with the constraints of the distribution system. The evaluation of R-DFLM depicts that its flexibility exploitation has high impact in the energy cost and compliance with distribution network constraints.