Optimizing Energy and Ancillary Services Markets in Transmission and Distribution Networks Through a Two-Stage Optimal Framework Considering Flexible Loads, Electric Vehicles, and Storage Systems

In this article, a comprehensive two-stage framework for conducting competitive energy and ancillary services markets in transmission and distribution networks is presented. In the first and second stages of the proposed framework, energy and ancillary services markets are held, respectively. In the proposed framework, the suppliers of spinning reserve market capacities are conventional thermal units, while the suppliers of regulation market capacities are fast response generators, energy storage systems, electric vehicles, and demand response aggregators. A linear AC power flow program is included in the proposed framework to verify the applicability of the simulation results in real operating conditions. The introduced framework is modeled as a linear optimization problem in which the objective function of each stage is solved separately. This framework is implemented on a test system that includes a 30-bus transmission network connected to four 8-bus distribution networks, and the CPLEX solver in GAMS software is used to simulate it. The simulation outputs clearly confirm that the participation of resources within the distribution networks in providing spinning reserve capacities significantly reduces the share of expensive thermal units in the market and thereby lowers the daily costs of the system. Moreover, the simulation outputs indicate that the participation of demand response aggregators, energy storage systems and electric vehicles in providing regulation market capacities, not only lowers the costs of this market but also significantly improves technical indicators such as voltage characteristics.