Enabling soft open points to support local electricity markets and increase hosting capacity of distribution networks

Active network technologies, such as voltage regulators and capacitor banks have been used for decades to introduce flexibility in electricity networks. These technologies have been mostly used to optimize the techno-economic performance of networks; however, the extent to which they can support the sustainable development of distribution systems via markets has not been investigated. In this work, we investigate the potential of the novel technology, namely, Soft Open Point (SOP), to support Local Electricity Markets (LEMs) by alleviating network constraints and increasing social welfare by accommodating otherwise infeasible transactions. Particularly, to enable SOPs to support electricity markets and increase the hosting capacity of networks, the LEM clearing problem has been integrated into the SOP scheduling. Using realistic supply and demand of renewables and flexible load applied to the IEEE 33-bus system, our studies show that in the congested network, SOP-supported LEM can accommodate 40.7% more transactions in volume, leading to the social welfare increase of 41.9%. The results demonstrate that SOP technology possesses a substantial amount of value to support LEMs and establish sustainable development of distribution systems in terms of integration of renewables and distributed flexibility, which are the keys to efficient energy transition.