A Competitive Market Integration Model for Distributed Generation

High penetration of distributed generation (DG) resources is increasingly observed worldwide. The evolution of this process in each country highly depends on the cost of traditional technologies, market design, and promotion programs and subsidies. Nevertheless, as this trend accelerates, higher levels of penetration will be achieved and, in turn, a competitive market integration of DG will be needed for an adequate development of the power sector. This paper proposes a competitive market integration mechanism for DG in a pool-based system. The mechanism encompasses both energy and capacity payment procedures in the wholesale market with DG units located at the distribution level. The proposed model is validated for the current Chilean regulation framework and extended to more general market structures. The model can be considered a novel development on the design of competitive markets for DG resources, which are still dominated by subsidies/compensation schemes.