Data-Analytic Assessment for Flexumers Under Demand Diversification in a Power System

Abstract

Under the carbon-neutral environment, the number of renewable power sources needs to be drastically increased. To respond to the large variability derived from renewable power sources, potential flexible resources have been established and researched. Among these, securing flexibility by using demand is achieved through demand response. For this purpose, it is helpful to identify flexumers - consumers with flexibility - for each player involved in the demand response. To identify the characteristics of flexumers among the demand consumers, we propose a method to classify the characteristics of flexumers into four groups based on power consumption data: price responsivity score, consistency score, flexible amount, and response time score. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed classification, the test system was evaluated with the power-consumption data from 19 companies in 11 industries. One company in the steel industry scored remarkably high in terms of a flexible amount. Overall, companies in the energy, chemical, material, filter and cement industries relatively showed characteristics suitable to flexumers. The suitability for flexumer application was quantitatively compared between industries, and other implications included the scope of criteria application and the direction of formula improvement. With the electrification of other industries, sector coupling, and the digitization of the power industry, the identification of flexumers in demand will significantly alter the plans for securing power-system flexibility. Therefore, the proposed flexumer characteristic formulas can contribute to the advancement of empirical data-based power-industry modeling by classifying resources with flexumer characteristics among the demand agents in the power system model.