Market based optimization of a utility scale grid connected battery (case study Edison Altomonte).

In a context of energy transition and increasing intermittency of the electricity fleet due to the growing Renewable Energy Sources (RES) plants, the large - scale use of storage systems, such as Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) becomes necessary to contribute to the stability of the complex energy apparatus and encourage the abandonment of conventional production plants, still relying on fossil fuels. In this thesis project it was analysed the behaviour of a grid connected BESS facility owned by Edison S.p.A., located in the South of Italy, in Calabria region, Altomonte (CS). The work is aimed at studying the optimization potential of the Lithium - ion based battery plant within the current and future energy trading background. The system, whose energy performance has been examined, has been treated as an independent asset connected to the electric network, able to exchange energy and generate revenues according to the energy market regulations. Indeed, the remotely controlled BESS, has been experimentally tested with both programmed schedules by the author and automatically imposed operation, so as to respectively simulate time shift and Primary Frequency Regulation (PFR) services. A time arbitrage based financial model, featuring past and expected energy prices, has been developed, so as to match the measured energy performance of the plant with various market trends. The purpose is to examine an hypothetical merchant operation to buy the electric commodity at lower prices and sell it at higher amounts, so as to, every time gain the price differences. For this concern, different cost scenarios have been selected to understand the impact on the profit evaluation. The objective of the economic analysis is to examine how altering the duration of energy storage within the system might affect the revenue assessment, with the final aim of piloting the bidding optimization of the BESS in the spot market framework. Through a synthesis of both the economic and experimental dimensions, various conclusions have been depicted from the study: The higher efficiencies have been measured for operating powers lower than the nominal one; In the scenario review context, the most flat one proved to have the largest optimization potential; A balanced behaviour featuring average storing times of six hours is able to provide marginal revenues comparable with the maximum price difference driven functioning.