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In order to enable large-scale penetration of renew-abies with variable generation, new sources of flexibility have to be exploited in the power systems. Allowing asymmetric block offers (including response and rebound blocks) in balancing markets can facilitate the participation of flexibility aggregators and unlock load-shifting flexibility from, e.g., thermostatic loads. In this paper, we formulate an optimal offering strategy for a risk-averse flexibility aggregator participating in such a market. Using a price-taker approach, load flexibility characteristics and balancing market price forecast scenarios are used to find optimal load-shifting offers under uncertainty. The problem is formulated as a stochastic mixed-integer linear program and can be solved with reasonable computational time. This work is taking place in the framework of the real-life demonstration project EcoGrid 2.0, which includes the operation of a balancing market on the island of Bornholm, Denmark. In this context, aggregators will participate in the market by applying the offering strategy optimization tool presented in this paper.

Energy storage systems (ESS) are considered as a promising solution to improve power system flexibility and facilitate the integration of renewables in electricity markets. This paper investigates the impact of strategic offering by an ESS operator in the day-ahead and balancing market. The offering strategy of a price-maker ESS operator is formulated as a bilevel model, where the upper-level problem represents the profit maximization of the ESS operator and the lower-level problem simulates the market-clearing outcome. This methodological framework can be used either to assess market efficiency distortion or as a trading strategy from the perspective of the ESS operator. Our analysis shows that adopting strategic behavior may improve ESS expected profit but reduces social welfare, especially for high ESS energy-to-power ratios.