Distributed resources and re-regulated electricity markets

This paper briefly defines distributed resources (DR) and discusses the current status of DR. The main focus is on discussing the value DR can provide to re-regulated electricity markets. DR can, under certain circumstances, help to significantly reduce the main problem of re-regulation, i.e. market power. Distributed generation and demand-side resources may, even if only small quantities in terms of size of the entire market are utilised, be able to help to significantly reduce market power. This results in a significantly more efficient market. To achieve such benefits, however, DR must be in operation during times when market power issues are likely to arise. To a certain extent this is the case as demand-side resources are usually independent of established generation companies. In addition, many business cases for DG require DG to actually operate to capture the second revenue. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.