Regional flexibilities of prosumers in households and in the commercial sector Determination of regional flexibilities as part of the project „WindNODE – showcasing smart energy systems from northeastern Germany”

In the decentralized energy transition, it is possible for small-scale units that are simultaneously consuming energy and producing electricity in renewable energy systems (prosumers) to make their energy consumption more flexible. As a result, they can shift their energy demand to times of high supply. This becomes important when an increasing amount of renewable systems will aggregate in so-called “regional power plants” and thus substitute conventional power plants. As an example of flexibilization, one could take the scheduling of temporally uncritical uses of electricity according to the energy supply, such as washing machines in private households. However, on the one hand the washing machine cannot be terminated during the process of washing and on the other hand, it can only start when it is loaded. The potentials are therefore subject to certain restrictions. In addition, businesses have the opportunity of becoming prosumers and using their flexibility to contribute to the system.

The IÖW uses a simulation with the IÖW-Prosumer-Model to assess the potential of private households and businesses to produce and consume electricity in a flexible way, and to evaluate how they handle restrictions. The Reiner-Lemoine-Institute will then use the results to run their own simulation concerning an ideal schedule regulation of power plants, energy storage systems and flexibilities for the regional power plant Uckermark. Furthermore, the results of these simulations can give some indication of the significance of the prosumers’ flexibility potentials and suggest under which conditions these potentials can be used.