Business case assessment of balancing large scale PV with flexible CHP

In a situation where the share of less predictable electricity production from renewable energy sources (like solar energy) in the overall electricity production-mix increases, the electricity system will be confronted with more imbalance. Balancing markets deal with these imbalances. In this context, a balancing responsible party (BRP) is responsible to maintain the balance in its portfolio on a quarter-hourly basis and is charged for any incurred imbalances. A BRP with less predictable electricity production in its portfolio, like PV production, has a higher imbalance risk and thus on average a higher imbalance cost. The case study under consideration aims at optimizing the portfolio of a BRP, which consists of a large scale PV installation and an industrial CHP unit. A software tool is used that is able to calculate to what extent the imbalance costs of the BRP can be decreased by actively controlling the available flexibility in its portfolio (in this case the CHP installation). The paper presents the results of the simulations and discusses the potential reduction in imbalance costs for the BRP if the flexibility of the CHP is used within different scenarios.