A Scenario-Based Framework for Technical Validation of Demand Response

Active demand is a type of demand response mechanism based on the idea that small commercial and household consumers may become active participants in electricity systems by changing their consumption patterns in return of a monetary reward. This participation is mediated by an aggregator, which gathers the consumers' flexibilities to build up active demand products. These products are then offered in suitable electricity markets. After market closure, the distribution system operator validates the cleared products by checking their compatibility with network constraints and operation. This process is called technical validation. The aim of this paper is to support the above described decision making process by taking uncertainty due to baseline load and distributed generation into account. A scenario-based approach is proposed, which makes it possible to provide a statistical characterization of the validation results. The methodology proposed in the paper is tested by simulating the validation process on real data of demand and generation from an Italian low voltage network.