DSO risk management strategies for reducing risk caused by actions in future flexibility markets

The lack of visibility of the actions of new actors such as aggregators and customers providing demand side response and other ancillary services will present new risks to Distribution System Operators (DSO’s) in both their planning of new investments and in the day to day running of the system. The key question is how will DSO’s identify these potential risks, value them and then act on them to safe guard the operation of their network systems and protect their financial performance? This paper presents a methodology / approach for assessing/quantifying such risks, to help understand the impact of various mitigation strategies. At the heart of this framework, lies an Agent Based Modelling tool, which models the interactions of key agents such as aggregators, generators, independent system/market place operators and domestic/industrial customers.