Towards understanding the value of decentralized heat pumps for network services in Germany: Insights concerning self-consumption and secondary reserve power

Heat pumps in households have emerged as potentially important actors in future energy systems characterized by large shares of intermittent renewable energy generation from wind and PV systems. The flexible electricity demand from heat pump systems combined with thermal storage allows load balancing and even participation in reserve and ancillary services markets. The effects of such micro scale DR systems on both the national grid and on local grid conditions have not been sufficiently studied. In this paper, we expand on previous work by combining simulations of a model neighborhood's participation in DR with household heat pumps with an estimation of requirements and potential revenue in the secondary reserve market in Germany. Combining simulations of control strategies for household heat pumps with the electricity grids demand function for secondary reserve power, sheds light on the complexity of providing DR services at this scale and opens up new avenues of research on business models and control strategies for aggregators and other utility companies operating virtual power plants.