Smart Markets in Southern Germany: Key factors for profits of biogas plants

摘要

One approach to reduce curtailment of RES electricity is to create temporarily and spatially limited markets that provide financial incentives for flexibility options to participate in market-based congestion management. This paper describes the basic functional principle of these so-called Smart Markets and analyses under which conditions Smart Markets can increase profit of biogas plants. Congestion situations, derived from historical feed-in management data of a distribution system operator in Southern Germany, are used in a Smart Market model to evaluate the operation of three representative biogas plant concepts on Smart Markets.The results show that base load and very flexible (two feed-in blocks) biogas plants can only generate additional profits on Smart Markets to a limited extent in current congestion situations. For biogas plants with a single flexible feed-in block, there is a higher potential to make additional profits during these congestion situations. "Operational concept and technical constraints", "Timing" and "Composition of the Smart Market cluster" are identified as key factors for additional profit in a Smart Market and are described in detail in this paper.