IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2016 - 44

table 1. A summary of field validation results for the PowerMatcher.
Project/Demo

Description

Results

Year

Crisp field experiment

Flexibility sourced from industrial and
household sites reacting to fluctuations
in wind energy generation.

Electricity market related gain: wind
imbalance reduction of 40%.

2005-2006

Microcogeneration
field experiment

Flexibility from microcogeneration units
at households used to perform peakload reduction in a distribution grid.

Distribution grid peak-load-reduction
of 30% (during summer) to 50% (during
winter).

2006-2007

PowerMatching City

Demonstration of simultaneous
optimization for energy trade and active
distribution management. It included a
value assessment of end user flexibility.

Based on the demo's outcomes, the value
of end user flexibility in The Netherlands
may reach an estimated €3.5 billion
(US$2.8 billion). The Netherlands has a
population of 17 million people.

2009-2015

Smart-charging
electrical vehicles
(EVs)

A series of tests with smart-charging
EVs coordinated using PowerMatcher,
backed by large-scale simulation study
(Grid4Vehicles project).

Active network management: distribution
grid peak-load-reductions of 30-35%.

First EV test:
about 2007;
Grid4Vehicles
simulation:
2010

SmartHouse/
SmartGrid scalability
field experiment

Scalability stress test of large-scale
information communications technology
(ICT) architecture connected to a cluster
of real households.

Scalability beyond 1 million customers is
feasible.

2010

EcoGrid EU
demonstration

Large-scale demonstration of a novel
real-time market involving 5-min
electricity prices communicated to
about 1,800 households, of which
a subset ran PowerMatcher's ICT
architecture.

Large-scale roll-out experience for
price-based and transactive smart grid
technologies. Unleashed flexibility from a
large number of heat pumps, making 20%
of their power consumption shiftable in
time.

2011-2015

Couperus

Approximately 300 apartments
with heat pumps (HPs) involved
in simultaneous optimization for
energy trade and active distribution
management.

Electricity market related gain: wind
imbalance reduction of 80%.
Active network management: proof
of principle of locational-price based
congestion management. Operation of
HPs shiftable up to eight hours.

2011-2015

temperature of 19°, then his/her heat pump's agent will keep
the temperature between 18.6 and 19.4 °c. a temperature
variation in such a narrow bandwidth is not noticed by the

resident, while it allows the agent to postpone activation of a
heat pump by six to eight hours.
during the demonstration, the wind imbalance was
reduced by more than 80%. at the same time the system
showed it was capable of performing locational-price based
congestion management in the local distribution grid.

Lessons Learned

figure 9. The Couperus building in The Hague, The Netherlands, was used as a TE test site. (Photo courtesy of Van
Dongen-Koschuch Architects and Planners.)
44

ieee power & energy magazine

the analysis results from these demonstrations indicate that
independent decision making based on a frequently updated
market-based signal can regulate the overall feeder load for
economic and reliability benefits. automation with simple
user interfaces and program design is important to make this
work. the technology must also be inexpensive and simple
to install and maintain. the costs of deploying specialized
communications and automation that can host the intelligent
agents will likely lead to deployment approaches that incorporate these technologies for additional purposes (such as
general building automation, premises security, or healthmonitoring systems).
may/june 2016

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