Key Research Projects

Designing Market Mechanism

A key principle of market design is to achieve supply-demand balance with incentivized resource participation, i.e., each participant’s action or bid fulfills its best interest and allows the system operator to allocate resources efficiently. However, the rapid rise of emerging technologies with unique operating characteristics challenges this framework within existing infrastructure. For instance, unlike traditional suppliers, the cost of energy storage is not solely determined by supplied power, as its operational costs are influenced by degradation from temporally coupled charge-discharge cycles. Often, information about these storage-specific costs is either assumed to be truthful or ignored, in the worst case, in market signals, negatively affecting the profitability and efficiency.

Related publications:

[P1] R. K. Bansal, E. Mallada, P. Hidalgo‐Gonzalez . “A Market Mechanism for a Two‐stage Settlement Electricity Market with Energy Storage”, in preparation.

[P2] R. K. Bansal, P. You, D. F. Gayme, and E. Mallada, "Intercept Supply Function and Energy-Cycling Function Bidding in Electricity Markets" in preparation.

[P3] R. K. Bansal, P. You, D. F. Gayme, and E. Mallada, “A market mechanism for truthful bidding with energy storage”, Electric Power Systems Research (EPSR), vol. 211, no. 108284, pp. 1–7, Jul. 2022, also in Power Systems Computation Conference (PSCC), 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.epsr.2022.108284.

[P4] R. K. Bansal, P. You, D. F. Gayme, and E. Mallada, “Storage Degradation Aware Economic Dispatch,” in American Control Conference (ACC), 2021, pp. 589-595. doi:10.23919/ACC50511.2021.9482838.

Policies for Market Power Mitigation

Deregulated markets are designed to promote efficient trading, prevent speculations, and maximize social welfare, thereby fostering economic growth and incentivizing market participation. They encompass spot markets for immediate delivery of commodities and forward contracting to facilitate transactions for future delivery, enabling participants to hedge risks and promote stability, e.g., financial markets, cloud computing, natural gas, and electricity markets. Therefore, potential inefficiencies could lead to market power abuse and significant long-term socio-economic losses. For instance, in electricity markets, as much as 95% of energy is traded through forward contracts. Even though local mitigation policies are activated by specific conditions like congestion, non-competitive behavior continues, prompting broader interventions at the system level. However, policies that do not take into account the interests of the participants may lead to unexpected market outcomes.

Related publications:

[P1] R. K. Bansal, Y. Chen, P. You, and E. Mallada, Intercept Function Bidding in Two-stage Electricity Market with Market Power Mitigation, under review.

[P2] R. K. Bansal, Y. Chen, P. You, and E. Mallada, "Market Power Mitigation in Two-stage Electricity Markets with Supply Function and Quantity Bidding", IEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation, pp. 1-10, 2023, doi: 10.1109/TEMPR.2023.3318149.

[P3] R. K. Bansal, Y. Chen, P. You, and E. Mallada, “Equilibrium Analysis of Electricity Markets with Day-Ahead Market Power Mitigation and Real-Time Intercept Bidding,” in Proceedings of the Thirteenth ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems (e-Energy), 2022, pp. 47-62. doi: 10.1145/3538637.3538839.

Long-term Grid Planning, Implications, and Perspectives

The growing demand for electricity from various sectors, outpacing overall economic growth, underscores the need for significant grid infrastructure expansion and strategic planning. However, the adoption of cleaner technologies is often hindered by interconnection challenges, market entry barriers, limited transmission and distribution capacity, low energy density, and intermittent power generation. Research shows that achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will require at least 150% increase in transmission capacity and a 50% expansion in non-emitting generation capacity. To address long interconnection queues and transmission bottlenecks, deploying diverse energy storage technologies has become a key strategy.

However, simplified and idealized energy storage modeling could result in biased target levels for the generation and storage fleet, based on assumptions about technology costs. Alternatively, it could lead to system reliability concerns due to significant deficits resulting from an aggressive role in the worst case scenario.

Related publications:

[P1] R. K. Bansal, P. Serna‑Torre, M. Staadecker, P. Hidalgo‑Gonzalez . “Impact of Energy Storage Losses on Capacity Expansion Modeling: A Case Study on WECC”, in preparation

Making Decisions With Uncertainty

The integration of emerging technologies, the growth of intermittent renewable energy sources, severity of wildfire and climate risks, and the increasing participation of smart systems – such as prosumers, hybrids, microgrids, and EVs – are introducing significant uncertainty to the grid, particularly in real-time markets. Efficient real-time resource dispatch often involves balancing the system’s unique operational characteristics, uncertainty risks, and the potential for immediate rewards. However, as the system grows in complexity, this becomes analytically challenging and computationally demanding.

Related publications:

[P1] B. Yuan, N. Padmanabhan, R. K. Bansal, E. Ela, S. Assaturian . “Integrating Battery Storage into Electricity Markets: Accounting for Degradation Costs and Participation Models in the IESO Wholesale Markets”, to appear, 2024 IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE)

[P2] N. Singhal, R. K. Bansal, J. M. Kemp, E. Ela and M. Heleno, "Integration of Hybrids into Wholesale Power Markets, Electricity Markets and Policy, Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), 2023.

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