A quick overview of the technology

The PowerMatcher

• The PowerMatcher is an information and communications technology (ICT) for coordination in a smart electricity grid. It is capable of optimizing over high numbers of small units: distributed generators, responsive demand and electricity storage.
• The PowerMatcher is designed for scalability: in future power systems high numbers of smaller units, typically 100W to 5MW, will be involved in coordination tasks.
• The technology is using available open industry standards in both the ICT and energy sectors.
• Since its incarnation in 2004, the PowerMatcher has been implemented in three major software versions. In a spiral approach, each software version was implemented from scratch with the first two versions being tested in simulations and field experiments. The current, third, version is planned to be deployed in a number of field experiments and real-life demonstrations with a positive business case.

A changing electricity system

• Electricity grids are facing a continuous increase of fluctuating renewable power sources. This increase happens on a central level (off-shore wind, large-scale solar power plants) as well as on a distributed, decentralized level (micro-scale renewables and CHP). Increasing volumes of electricity from wind turbines, photovoltaic generators and others cause power fluctuations that require additional balancing effort.
• World-wide electricity use is ever-growing. The “electrification of everything”, the growth in the number of devices that require electricity, is one of the main drivers. Over the course of the 20th century, electricity has made a transition from a novelty, to a convenience, to an advantage, and finally to an absolute necessity.

PowerMatcher Business Cases

Business cases for the PowerMatcher can be found in electricity trading, active distribution management and in energy management in homes and buildings.

Business Cases in Electricity Trading

• With the PowerMatcher technology virtual power plants can be created, clustering numerous distributed generators, responsive loads and electricity storages in a single operational unit. Such a virtual plant is able to provide flexibility services for the balancing markets.
• In a field test involving industrial & residential generation and demand response the PowerMatcher was used to balance wind energy production. The system achieved an imbalance reduction of 40 – 45%.
• In the Dutch balancing market, a 100MW wind farm has approx. 1 Mio euros imbalance costs on an annual turn over of approx. 10 Mio euros.

Business Cases in Active Distribution Management

• In distribution system operations, PowerMatcher business cases can be found in network congestion management, network load profile shaping and black-start support, for instance

• In a field test involving 10 micro-CHP systems at the premises of end-customer’s premises, PowerMatcher showed capable of reducing the peak load at the MV/LV transformer with 30% to 50%.