Distribution System Operator (DSO) Design for Distributed Energy Resources Market Participation

In this dissertation, a distribution system operator (DSO) framework is proposed to optimally coordinate distributed energy resources (DER) aggregators' comprehensive participation in the retail energy market as well as wholesale energy and regulation markets. Various types of DER aggregators, including energy storage aggregators (ESAGs), dispatchable distributed generation aggregators (DDGAGs), electric vehicles charging stations (EVCSs), and demand response aggregators (DRAGs), are modeled in the proposed DSO framework. An important characteristic of a DSO is being capable of handling uncertainties in the system operation. An appropriate method for a market operator to cover uncertainties is using two-stage stochastic programming. To handle comprehensive retail and wholesale markets participation of distributed energy resource (DER) aggregators under uncertainty, a two-stage stochastic programming model for the DSO is proposed. To handle unbalanced distribution grids with single-phase aggregators, A DSO framework is proposed for unbalanced distribution networks based on a linearized unbalanced power flow which coordinates with wholesale market clearing process and ensures the DSO's non-profit characteristic. When proposing a DSO, coordination with the ISO is important. A framework is proposed to coordinate the operation of the independent system operator (ISO) and distribution system operator (DSO). The framework is compatible with current practice of the U.S. wholesale market to enable massive distributed energy resources (DERs) to participate in the wholesale market. The DSO builds a bid-in cost function to be submitted to the ISO market through parametric programming. A pricing problem for the DSO is proposed. In pricing problem, after ISO clears the wholesale market, the locational marginal price (LMP) of the ISO-DSO coupling substation is determined, the DSO utilizes this price to solve the DSO pricing problem. The DSO pricing problem determines the distribution LMP (D-LMP) in the distribution system and calculates the payment to each aggregator. An efficient algorithm is proposed to solve the ISO-DSO coordination parametric programming problem. Notably, our proposed algorithm significantly improves the computational efficiency of solving the parametric programming DSO problem which is computationally intensive. Various case studies are performed to analyze the market outcome of the proposed DSO framework and coordination with the ISO.