Coordinating resources at the transmission and distribution level | Luis Ochoa

The EU-funded SmartNet project is attracting interest from Europe and beyond. Professor Luis Ochoa (https://bit.ly/2Pj4pRa), from the University of Melbourne (Australia), joined the workshop http://fsr.eui.eu/event/smartnet-workshop-series/ organised in Florence to explore the latest novelties on related topics with a global relevance: the integration of the growing number of distributed energy resources (DER) and the coordination of transmission and distribution electricity systems. In this podcasts with Nicolò Rossetto (FSR), Professor Ochoa reflects on the difficulty of addressing the issue, especially considering the growing expectation to use DER not only to supply flexibility to the transmission system, but also to provide flexibility to the local grid. Market-based integration of DER requires coordination of the market at the local level with the market at the transmission (wholesale) level, taking into account the numerous issues that arise when dealing with low voltages and radial grids. Australia, a country with one of the highest penetration of residential PV in the world, is particularly sensitive to this issue. Aggregators and platforms for DER to access the market are emerging, but for the moment they address only the wholesale market. “Local markets” do not yet exists.