Process-to-market matrix mapping: A multi-criteria evaluation framework for industrial processes’ electricity market participation feasibility

Industrial consumers have a high potential to directly participate in short-term electricity markets to provide flexibility to the electricity system, particularly due to their large electricity consumption and accurate control of electricity-consuming processes. However, the different market participation options available in a deregulated electricity market context make participation feasibility unclear, as each (sub)market option has different market regulations. To address this issue, this paper proposes a process-to-market matrix mapping framework to evaluate the most feasible electricity (sub)markets for a given industrial process based on a set of techno-regulatory criteria. There are three stages in this framework: at stage 1, the properties of the industrial consumer and the market options are described in terms of standardised criteria; at stage 2, a matrix is developed to link consumer flexibility criteria (horizontal dimension of the matrix) to the relevant market criteria (vertical dimension); at stage 3, a scoring system is applied to evaluate the participation barrier level for each criterion link in the matrix. This paper uses the Danish electricity (sub)markets to illustrate the evaluation framework, and takes an industrial greenhouse, a cement mill and a cooling house as industrial process case studies to implement the developed method. Results show the main participation barriers, both from a market regulation and an industrial consumer perspective. From these, it appears that the type of industrial process significantly influences the choice of (sub)market to participate in. Barriers can be minimised by choosing market options with regulations better aligned with the consumer’s flexibility criteria. The importance of flexibility at the organisational level for market participation feasibility is also underlined. The developed framework provides a systematic method to evaluate the market participation feasibility, which can be used as a decision support tool for market participation and to overcome identified techno-regulatory barriers.