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Residential chargers are going to become the standard in the near future. Their operational cycles are closely tied to users' daily routines, and the power consumption fluctuates between zero and peak levels. These types of installations are particularly challenging for the grid, especially concerning the balance of electricity production and consumption. Using battery storage in conjunction with renewable sources (e.g., photovoltaic power plants) represents a flexible solution for grid stabilization, but it is also associated with additional costs. Nowadays, grid authorities penalize a destabilization of the grid resulting from an increased imbalance between electricity generation and consumption and reward contributions to the system balance. Hence, there is a motivation for larger prosumers to make use of this mechanism to reduce their operational costs by better aligning their energy needs with the grid. This study explores the possibility of utilizing battery storage when it is not needed to fulfil its primary function of supporting charging electric vehicles, to generate some additional profit from providing a counter-imbalance. To test this idea, we develop an optimization model that maximizes the economic profit, considering system imbalance penalties/rewards, photovoltaic production, electric vehicle charging demand, and battery storage utilization. By means of computer simulation, we assess the overall operational costs while varying key installation parameters such as battery capacity and power, the installed power of photovoltaic panels and the prediction model's accuracy. We identify conditions when counter-imbalance has proven to be a viable way to reduce installation costs. These conditions include temporal distribution of charging demand, electricity prices and photovoltaic production. For the morning time window, with a suitable setting of the installation parameters, the cost reduction reaches up to 14% compared to the situation without counter-imbalance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of renewable energy sources has presented challenges for Balancing Responsible Parties (BRPs) in accurately forecasting production and consumption. This issue is being addressed through the emergence of the balancing markets, which aims to maintain real-time equilibrium between production and consumption across various imbalance settlement intervals. This study conducted a techno-economic analysis of Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LFP) and Redox-Flow Batteries (RFB) utilized in grid balancing management, with a focus on a 100 MW threshold deviation in 1 min, 5 min, and 15 min settlement intervals. Imbalance data, encompassing both imbalance volumes and prices, sourced from the Belgian Transmission System Operator (TSO)—Elia—over a three-year period from September 2019 to September 2022, formed the basis of this investigation. The analysis underscored the significant influence of factors, such as imbalance volume, price dynamics, and market settlement intervals on the technical and financial feasibility of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) within the context of balancing management. Notably, the technical and economic results of LFP and RFB exhibited comparable tendencies across the different market settlement intervals, providing valuable insights into potential developments about how trends will evolve in other settlement intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting imbalance volumes are of great importance for the different actors in electricity markets. From a transmission system operator (TSO) perspective, balancing supply and demand in real-time is one of the main operational tasks to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the power system, while market participants also use forecasting tools to enhance their participation strategy in electricity wholesale markets. Over the last few years, the increasing integration of renewable energy sources into the power system has created additional complexity for the problem of accurately determining the imbalance volume. In the present work, a case study of the Greek balancing market is presented and analysed. Different algorithms and a set of external predictors are adopted both from the market and operational perspective and compared for two different forecasting horizons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential chargers are going to become the standard in the near future. Their operational cycles are closely tied to users’ daily routines, and the power consumption fluctuates between zero and peak levels. These types of installations are particularly challenging for the grid, especially concerning the balance of electricity production and consumption. Using battery storage in conjunction with renewable sources (e.g., photovoltaic power plants) represents a flexible solution for grid stabilization, but it is also associated with additional costs. Nowadays, grid authorities penalize a destabilization of the grid resulting from an increased imbalance between electricity generation and consumption and reward contributions to the system balance. Hence, there is a motivation for larger prosumers to make use of this mechanism to reduce their operational costs by better aligning their energy needs with the grid. This study explores the possibility of utilizing battery storage when it is not needed to fulfil its primary function of supporting charging electric vehicles, to generate some additional profit from providing a counter-imbalance. To test this idea, we develop an optimization model that maximizes the economic profit, considering system imbalance penalties/rewards, photovoltaic production, electric vehicle charging demand, and battery storage utilization. By means of computer simulation, we assess the overall operational costs while varying key installation parameters such as battery capacity and power, the installed power of photovoltaic panels and the prediction model’s accuracy. We identify conditions when counter-imbalance has proven to be a viable way to reduce installation costs. These conditions include temporal distribution of charging demand, electricity prices and photovoltaic production. For the morning time window, with a suitable setting of the installation parameters, the cost reduction reaches up to 14% compared to the situation without counter-imbalance.

Forecasting imbalance volumes are of great importance for the different actors in electricity markets. From a transmission system operator (TSO) perspective, balancing supply and demand in real-time is one of the main operational tasks to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the power system, while market participants also use forecasting tools to enhance their participation strategy in electricity wholesale markets. Over the last few years, the increasing integration of renewable energy sources into the power system has created additional complexity for the problem of accurately determining the imbalance volume. In the present work, a case study of the Greek balancing market is presented and analysed. Different algorithms and a set of external predictors are adopted both from the market and operational perspective and compared for two different forecasting horizons.

In the absence of cardiac pathology, premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) in neurosurgical patients frequently accompany subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury, or raised intracranial pressure. PVCs detected during preanesthesia assessment prompts detailed cardiac evaluation. Our 57-year-old patient, a case of left frontal meningioma, with controlled hypertension, diabetes and hypothyroidism, had normal preoperative ECG and potassium. However, immediately on anesthesia induction, she developed multiple refractory to treatment PVCs but with normal blood pressure. Anesthesia, which was maintained with sevoflurane and fentanyl, was deepened to exclude light anesthesia as the cause, without useful outcome. Two lignocaine boluses (100 mg each), followed by its infusion, also proved ineffective. Her blood gases and potassium, checked twice, were normal. Throughout, her hemodynamics remained stable. As soon as tumor was removed, the PVCs disappeared not to return. Her postoperative recovery was uneventful with normal ECG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]