Flexible Power Systems : A Study on How Local Flexibility Can Mesh with the National Balancing Markets

The Swedish power system is facing a lot of change in the near future. A system which is built around nuclear- and hydropower now contains more and more intermittent power sources such as wind and solar. In addition, Sweden is entering a second electrification era, where the electricity use is predicted to increase substantially. This means the need for flexibility in the power system is bigger than ever and is going to increase. The power system needs to be in balance at every instance. The same amount of energy that is produced also needs to be consumed. This balance, or imbalance, affects the frequency in the system and there are balancing markets in place to handle disturbances in the frequency.Flexible solutions outside these balancing markets can also be valuable since they can lower costs for power use and prevent unnecessary investments in the power grids. This thesis was written in cooperation with the municipal energy company Gävle Energi. The cases it is built on are both cases in and around Gävle. The study is based on two cases: One case where a local hauling company is interested in a combination of solar power, electric charging for vehicles, and a battery storage. The hauling company plans to electrify parts of their fleet and will by doing so increase their power use. The second case regards the building of a gasturbine for electricity production in Gävle Energi’s grid. Both cases examine how the balancing markets can be used to motivate investments in flexible solutions. The hauling company can lower their power peaks by using a battery storage and the battery storage can also be used to sell capacity on the balancing market FCR-D. Through planning when heavy duty charging and regular vehicle charging is done, unnecessary power peaks can be avoided. The study shows that a battery storage can in fact be profitable and bring benefits to both the hauling company and the national energy system. The second case, the gas turbine, is based on income from both the spot market and the balancing market mFRR which is then compared to the price for gas. The income from mFRR was varied between 140-250% of the prices from 2021 and the gas price was varied from 800-2100 SEK. The results show that the prices for mFRR need to increase a lot for the turbine to be profitable and the gas turbine could perhaps be more beneficial if combined with other solutions. The case has a lot of insecurities as the turbine runs very few hours per year (only 10 hours would have been profitable in 2021). It becomes vital that the bidding is won these hours, which is hard to predict