Regulatory Framework for Residential Aggregators: Solutions for Low-Resolution Metering

Independent aggregators and the flexibility that they unlock allow to accommodate growing shares of renewable energy sources in the power system in an affordable way. Therefore, different regulatory models have been developed and implemented to integrate these actors efficiently in electricity markets. However, these models have mostly been designed with the industry and commercial sectors in mind, and entail important barriers for aggregators when applied to residential appliances. In this paper, we propose alternative solutions to allow residential aggregators to enter markets in the short term, in cases where uncorrected operations is not allowed. If the flexible consumers have meters with monthly or yearly reading, which are still dominant in Europe, we show that imbalance perimeters can be corrected with the flexibility volumes in a simple way, without the involvement of many parties. Moreover, we argue that, due to the nature of residential flexibility, supplier compensation could reasonably be omitted. We apply these solutions in a simulation study in which electric water heaters deliver secondary frequency reserves. The arguments and results presented show that the proposed methods can be implemented to accelerate the large-scale valorization of residential flexibility.