Flexibility provision of prosumer households to foster low-voltage grid stability

In low-voltage (LV) grids, the integration of renewable energy sources leads to major stability challenges due to their volatile and distributed nature. Photovoltaic (PV) installations are especially located in private households, turning them into “prosumer” households which try to balance production and consumption internally as far as possible (self-consumption optimization). The remaining imbalances are settled with local operators. These imbalances are hard to predict, for instance, short-term weather changes have a remarkable influence. Even worse, they are hard to settle, as many neighbouring installations face comparable conditions, such that simultaneity factors (statistic effects to smooth consumption or production curves) will not have a meaningful influence here. However, prosumer households may use their inherent flexibilities in power production and consumption not only for self-consumption optimization. When receiving appropriate incentives, they can adjust production and consumption according to their attached operator’s stability requirements. In this work, the focus is set on prosumer households equipped with heat pumps as local heating systems, wall boxes for charging electric vehicles, as well as local electric storages. These appliances are used according to the operator’s needs, depending on the current load situation in the LV grid.