I. Introduction
The economic dispatch is the basic mechanism used to determine close to real-time the operating set-points of all controllable devices connected in the power system in an economically efficient way. In its traditional form, it largely involves committed conventional generators, known renewable generation and demand, and could well be approximated by a deterministic problem typically covering a short period in time. However this changes when deferrable demand is taken into consideration, as the utility gained by a unit of energy purchased by an electric vehicle (EV) or storage unit now depends on the price of energy in the future, which is typically determined by the large generating units located at the transmission level. While currently some system operators use economic dispatch mechanisms that look up to 2 h ahead [1], this is probably not an adequate period of time to schedule an EV or a storage device. As [2] has shown, insufficient coordination between demand shifting decisions and generation scheduling can result in increased energy price volatility. In addition, the increased flexible demand (mainly in the form of EVs) will put considerable strain on existing power distribution infrastructure. Consequently the balancing market should not only determine the price and optimal amount of energy trades for the current time-step (as it currently does) but also provide a good indication of the demand shifting impact on the value of energy in the near future. Furthermore, it would have to incorporate the constraints and peculiarities of distribution networks. Overall the structure of the traditional ED problem has to change. Naturally two fundamental questions come up: what is the formulation and how could it be solved.