A frequency based real-time electricity rate for residential prosumers

The emergence of distributed generation has made a case for a deregulated, competitive, transactive energy market, operating at the level of the traditional residential consumer. These new energy players, prosumers, will interact as the larger energy generators do under the supervision of Independent System Operators (ISOs), but with their own Distributed System Operators (DSOs). This work proposes a prosumer energy management scheme, broken into a day-ahead schedule and a realtime adjustment, mirroring the ISO market structure. Within this framework, a dynamic rate can be designed and tested for the prosumer. A time-of-use (TOU) rate was combined with a frequency based, real-time dynamic rate to produce a hybrid rate that the prosumer can optimize for during its day-ahead and real-time dispatch. This hybrid rate can be calculated every one minute and applied autonomously from the grid frequency, providing secondary frequency regulation and an incentive for better solar management and use of energy storage. Such a real-time rate is the first designed for price-reactive control. In simulation, the real-time hybrid rate is compared to conventional TOU and flat rates and the final daily energy costs are calculated for a variety of residential load types with a realistic distributed solar generation curve gathered from Pecan Street Inc. Dataport. Under the one minute hybrid rate, the results indicate a near zero energy bill can be achieved for a prosumer with day-time load and smart use of energy storage.