Supplying renewable energy to deferrable loads: Algorithms and economic analysis

Abstract

In this paper we propose a direct coupling of renewable generation with deferrable demand in order to mitigate the unpredictable and non-controllable fluctuation of renewable power supply. We cast our problem in the form of a stochastic dynamic program and we characterize the value function of the problem in order to develop efficient solution methods. We develop and compare two algorithms for optimally supplying renewable power to time-flexible electricity loads in the presence of a spot market, backward dynamic programming and approximate dynamic programming. We describe how our proposition compares to price responsive demand in terms capacity gains and energy market revenues for renewable generators, and we determine the optimal capacity of deferrable demand which can be reliably coupled to renewable generation.