Increased awareness of climate change and reduced costs of renewable energy generation systems have helped increase the amount of distributed energy resources (DERs) being interconnected to the grid. To further encourage DER implementation, grid operators and utilities have developed programs and policies that entice customers to extract even more value from their solar, storage, and flexible demand resources.
My research will focus on optimizing DER utilization to ensure that maximum value is realized. An optimization problem will be formulated to minimize customers’ total electricity costs, with revenue from DER participation being considered. For this problem, mathematical models of DERs and data-driven models of power markets and incentive programs will be created and utilized. Research will be extended to formulate optimal bidding strategies for DERs participating in power markets. Leveraging data provided by grid operators, pricing and demand forecasts can be created to better influence market strategies.
Advisor: Daniel Kirschen — Electrical & Computer Engineering