Energy District Simulations: A Test System for Flexibility Studies

With the growing integration of renewable energy sources into power systems, and the resulting increase in generation uncertainty, the importance of system flexibility has significantly risen in recent years. Energy flexibility, a critical aspect of system flexibility, is essential for ensuring the stability and efficiency of power systems. Studies on energy flexibility typically require long-term analysis, spanning durations of up to a year or more. One major challenge in this field is the lack of long-term consumer data available in a well-structured test system format, especially for energy districts. Many consumers are reluctant to share their detailed long-term consumption profiles for various reasons, leading to limited access to disaggregated data. Most of the existing data is aggregated, showing only total megawatt-hour values, which limits its usefulness for detailed studies. Furthermore, the growing adoption of multi-energy carrier systems and the increased focus on exploiting the interactions between these carriers have highlighted the need for a comprehensive test system that supports long-term studies across multiple energy carriers. This paper addresses this gap by collecting and analyzing data from various references. After appropriate adjustments and modifications, we propose a test system that integrates two energy carriers: electricity and heat. This test system represents an energy district comprising three household consumption patterns, three heating consumption patterns, electric vehicles, office buildings, and warehouses. The proposed model is designed to support a wide range of energy flexibility studies over a one-year period. Its structure is user-friendly and can be readily adopted by researchers for further analysis and application.