Flexibility Requirements and Procurements: Resource Evolution and Emerging Market Products

Renewable resources and increasing extreme weather events impose new operational complexities to modern power systems. High penetration level of variable energy resources intensifies the need for flexibility procurement during operational scheduling. The recent trend of outages, such as California rolling outages, raises concerns about generation capacity shortage and flexibility needs. Adjustments in power system operational practices, e.g., inclusion of new ancillary services products, integration of distributed energy resources and storage devices into operational scheduling models, enable better utilization of available resources. For example, some ISOs have been augmenting their market models with flexible ramping products (FRPs). However, issues such as deliverability and FRP adequacy remain unsolved. Novel effective strategies to better utilize all available energy resources can substantially enhance modern power system operation. This panel will bring together industry and academic experts to discuss various current industry practices as well as innovative approaches to enhance operational flexibility of power systems.