The current trend in the electricity market is towards lower prices and increasing price fluctuations, which ultimately is a result of the high penetration of renewable energy sources. This situation is proving to be a big challenge for traditional CHP plants that are not flexible enough to follow the price signals. Furthermore, with the Electricity Market 2.0 this market trend will continue. In this market flexibility is the key! With fast starting and ramping dynamic district heating technology based on internal combustion engines all electrical price peaks, both negative and positive, as well as secondary control power can be utilized, while still fulfilling the district heating demand. This paper will show the great value of flexible dynamic district heating power plants operating in this challenging electricity market. The analysis is based on in-depth power and district heating system optimization using the optimization tool BoFiT with actual data from the German electricity market. The topic is extremely current due to the modifications introduced by the soon-to-be-passed new German District Heating Act, under the name of KWKG 2016. Our preliminary results point to increased profitability by tapping into additional revenue streams for increased turnover, such as the secondary control power market, that have been largely underutilised by traditional, less-flexible CHP investments.
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