Energy and Ancillary Service Markets and Market Designs

Our market simulation model, Power System Optimizer® (PSO), is highly customizable to realistically simulate a broad range of proposed energy and ancillary service market designs under a broad range of system conditions, including under high-renewable scenarios.

Customizations we regularly employ include nodal or zonal transmission representations, different settlement horizons, forecast uncertainty that is resolved over time, and different types of ancillary service products. We can model up and down reserves of different types, quality hierarchy among reserves for procurement and replacement (additional higher quality products can be procured to replace lower quality products), and different reserves activation times from initial call.

This enables us to evaluate the impacts of implementing new reserve products or changing market settlement periods. For example, we can model the impacts of shortening real-time settlement intervals from one hour to five minutes. We can also include additional market settlements beyond the traditional day-ahead and real-time markets, such as intra-day cycles. As markets integrate higher shares of renewable generation and storage assets, it will become increasingly important to introduce intra-day “look-ahead” market cycles. We can capture the impacts of different load and renewables forecast uncertainties between day-ahead, intra-day, and real-time market settlements, to reflect real-world market conditions. For instance, the simulations can capture that the outcome of today’s real-time market directly affects tomorrow’s day-ahead market.

We also use the alternative PLEXOS model when requested by clients, typically directing their team’s operation of the model.