A rolling horizon management model to reduce imbalance in real-time for a renewable energy community

Electricity market regulations are progressively evolving to address the increasing variability of renewable energy sources, particularly by reducing the Imbalance Settlement Period (ISP) and enhancing the responsiveness of balancing mechanisms. This evolution increases the exposure of Balancing Responsible Parties (BRPs) to imbalance costs, as shorter ISPs make deviations between scheduled and actual power exchanges more frequent and financially significant. This paper introduces a real-time rolling horizon control model specifically designed to mitigate imbalances within a Renewable Energy Community (REC). The proposed model, referred to as BAL-RT, leverages the flexibility of distributed energy storage systems by reserving a portion of their capacity exclusively for real-time imbalance compensation. Unlike many approaches in the literature, which rely on intraday market mechanisms and are difficult to apply to small-scale consumers, the BAL-RT model is conceived for practical implementation in RECs composed of prosumers and consumers with limited market access. Furthermore, the model's robustness is assessed by analyzing the impact of key parameters, including the share of storage capacity allocated to the balancing service and the measurement time resolution. Numerical results, based on a real-world case study of an Italian REC, demonstrate that the BAL-RT model can significantly reduce imbalance levels and related costs, even in the presence of increased temporal granularity. • an optimization model, called BAL-RT, able to manage a Renewable Energy Community in real time is presented. • BAL-RT is a real-time rolling horizon management model, where the imbalance settlement period (ISP) is divided into variable intervals. • BAL-RT manages a portion of ESS in scenarios with variable ESS size and time resolution using real measurement data. • the authors evaluate the robustness of the proposed model by also considering a 15-minute ISP.