Electricity production from renewable energy resources such as wind energy and photovoltaics is variable. Integration of these intermittent resources into the electricity system leads to new challenges in how to manage imbalance between supply and demand on the grid. One way to meet these challenges is to develop so-called smart grid solutions. One idea, called demand response, is to adjust the amount or timing of energy consumption, e.g. by control of household appliances, to provide flexibility that could be used to balance the grid. In aggregate, when applied to many units across the system, large volumes of energy could be made available when needed and this grid flexibility can be used as a product on the electricity regulation market. Despite the potential benefits, the number of demand response bids is currently low. The aim of this thesis is to identify barriers in the Swedish regulation market, and togive Sweden's transmission system operator, Svenska kraftnät, recommendations on how to facilitate implementations of the technique. This has been done throughliterature studies and a wide range of interviews with people within the electricity market sector. The results indicate that a combination of several elements in the complex energy system impede the introduction of demand response. The main issues are related to market regulations and profitability difficulties. The authors recommend that Svenska kraftnät lowers the minimum bid size in all of the Swedish bidding areas, and adjusts the balance responsibility agreement and the system of balancing settlement.

Increased use of variable energy and integration of electricity markets in the European Union have led to new challenges when balancing supply and demand in the grid. Load management is a possible way to manage these challenges by adjusting electricity consumption in order to balance the power system. Household appliances can be used for this purpose, for example by providing automatic frequency control. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the potential of load management from private households and to examine how the power system is affected by a more flexible electricity consumption. The thesis focuses on fridges as automatic frequency control reserves and the ability of fridges to balance the power system. Attributes such as capacity, activation time, persistence and the effect of load reconnection has been modelled in Simulink, Matlab. Complementary interviews with actors from the electricity industry have been done to summarize their insights on demand response. The results indicate that fridges can be used as a part of the automatic frequency controlled reserve FCR-N, based on assumptions made in this study. However, current requirements imposed on balancing resources are not fully met by the fridges. In order for household appliances to provide the needed flexibility, some requirements might need to be rephrased. The results also show that the capacity for providing balancing services differs for positive and negative imbalances, as consumption can be reduced with 30 MW and increased with 66 MW. When controlling the fridges by moving the reference temperature, there is a risk that the appliances will synchronize with each other, i.e. reconnect or disconnect at the same time, resulting in frequency oscillations. It is therefore important that load management is designed to avoid this kind of behavior.

Increased use of variable energy and integration of electricity markets in the European Union have led to new challenges when balancing supply and demand in the grid. Load management is a possible way to manage these challenges by adjusting electricity consumption in order to balance the power system. Household appliances can be used for this purpose, for example by providing automatic frequency control. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the potential of load management from private households and to examine how the power system is affected by a more flexible electricity consumption. The thesis focuses on fridges as automatic frequency control reserves and the ability of fridges to balance the power system. Attributes such as capacity, activation time, persistence and the effect of load reconnection has been modelled in Simulink, Matlab. Complementary interviews with actors from the electricity industry have been done to summarize their insights on demand response. The results indicate that fridges can be used as a part of the automatic frequency controlled reserve FCR-N, based on assumptions made in this study. However, current requirements imposed on balancing resources are not fully met by the fridges. In order for household appliances to provide the needed flexibility, some requirements might need to be rephrased. The results also show that the capacity for providing balancing services differs for positive and negative imbalances, as consumption can be reduced with 30 MW and increased with 66 MW. When controlling the fridges by moving the reference temperature, there is a risk that the appliances will synchronize with each other, i.e. reconnect or disconnect at the same time, resulting in frequency oscillations. It is therefore important that load management is designed to avoid this kind of behavior.