Petten - Prosumer behaviour

Prosumer behaviour model generates “real-time” active and reactive power quantities consumed (generated) by prosumers and transfers this data through the cloud to update load values of the distribution system. This model is a Matlab-based tool which integrates individual consumer behavior (considering switches’ status of different appliances/generators of each household and the consumption amount) to create a very realistic aggregated load profile. As references, a set of typical load profiles in Italy are considered for medium voltage loads and aggregated consumption of low voltage feeders. For this remote input-to-simulator data exchange, a simplified read-from-local-file option is adopted here to demonstrate possibility for a remote user to interact and impact simulation scenario.

The particular objective of the simulated scenario designed for this demo was to demonstrate the need of large-scale power system simulation and to highlight the benefits and the purpose of the detailed simulation models of both transmission and distribution grids. In this scenario, a power system of the future where there is a high penetration of distributed generations is under study. The system is investigated during a summer day around 5 pm, when there is a high demand, people are back from work and a large number of EVs are plugged in for charging. At the same time, local generation from PV panels rapidly drops from a high level to a very low level due to sudden weather change from sunny to cloudy. Consequent voltage drop in distribution system and frequency perturbations in transmission grid are observed performing co-simulation.

The PV generation is assumed to drop (e.g. a big cloud appears suddenly and change solar irradiance due its intrinsic variability and uncertainty characteristic) at the same time when the residential consumers are increasing their consumption plugging EVs and utilizing more appliances. It results in a sudden increase in power absorption from the substation connected to the transmission system.