Dias, Leonardo (2025) Enabling Cellular Network Power Infrastructure to Provide Frequency Regulation Services. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
Preview |
Text (application/pdf)
3MBDias_MSc_F2025.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Spectrum Terms of Access. |
Abstract
Over the past decades, the management and operation of power grids have undergone significant changes, posing numerous challenges for utility companies. With growing societal concerns about the environment, there has been a rapid increase in the penetration of renewable energy sources. Because renewable energy sources (such as wind turbines and solar panels) are inherently intermittent, their integration into the power grid can result in undesirable fluctuations in the power system due to potential imbalances between energy production and consumption.
Ancillary services have been introduced to serve as mechanisms to support the continuous flow of electricity, ensuring that demand and production are met in real-time. Given the rapid response capabilities of batteries, their owners are encouraged to participate in bids for one of the most crucial ancillary services: Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR). Through this participation, they can generate new revenue opportunities and contribute to the stability of the electricity grid.
In this thesis, we explore mathematical models and heuristics for the planning and coordination of cellular network systems aiming to provide FCR-D ancillary services. By exploiting the spare battery capacity associated with their multiple cellular base stations, communications service providers (CSPs) emerge as a potential players in this market. We compare different mathematical models and heuristics applied to the Swedish frequency market, considering a large CSP with one thousand cellular base stations. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed models in terms of transparency of participation, profit and associated costs. Furthermore, we validate the technical and economic feasibility of frequency regulation provided by cellular network systems, thus revealing a potential new source of revenue for CSPs.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science > Computer Science and Software Engineering |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Dias, Leonardo |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M. Sc. |
| Program: | Computer Science |
| Date: | 5 June 2025 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Jaumard, Brigitte |
| Keywords: | Ancillary services, balancing markets, battery degradation, cellular base station, frequency control, optimization. |
| ID Code: | 995689 |
| Deposited By: | Leonardo Pereira Dias |
| Deposited On: | 04 Nov 2025 15:40 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Nov 2025 15:40 |
References:
[1] G. Rancilio, A. Rossi, D. Falabretti, A. Galliani, and M. Merlo, “Ancillary services markets in europe: Evolution and regulatory trade-offs,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 154, p. 111850, 2022.[2] A. Khodadadi, L. Herre, P. Shinde, R. Eriksson, L. Söder, and M. Amelin, “Nordic balancing markets: Overview of market rules,” in 17th IEEE International Conference on the European Energy Market (EEM), 2020, pp. 1–6.
[3] U. Akram, M. Nadarajah, R. Shah, and F. Milano, “A review on rapid responsive energy storage technologies for frequency regulation in modern power systems,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 120, p. 109626, 2020.
[4] I. Alaperä, P. Manner, J. Salmelin, and H. Antila, “Usage of telecommunication base station batteries in demand response for frequency containment disturbance reserve: Motivation, background and pilot results,” in IEEE International Telecommunications Energy Conference (INTELEC), 2017, pp. 223–228.
[5] P. Yong, N. Zhang, Y. Liu, Q. Hou, Y. Li, and C. Kang, “Exploring the cellular base station dispatch potential towards power system frequency regulation,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 820–823, 2021.
[6] A. M. Pirbazari, “Ancillary services definitions, markets and practices in the world,” in IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition: Latin America (T&D-LA), 2010, pp. 32–36.
[7] A. Mallick, A. Mishra, A. R. Hota, and P. Bajpai, “Distributed coordination of multimicrogrids in active distribution networks for provisioning ancillary services,” IEEE Systems Journal, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 1492–1503, 2024.
[8] A. Teixeira, F. Kupzog, H. Sandberg, and K. H. Johansson, “Cyber-secure and resilient architectures for industrial control systems,” Smart Grid Security, pp. 149–183, 2015.
[9] A. M. Ersdal, L. Imsland, K. Uhlen, D. Fabozzi, and N. F. Thornhill, “Model predictive load–frequency control taking into account imbalance uncertainty,” Control Engineering Practice, vol. 53, pp. 139–150, 2016.
[10] Svenska Kraftnät, “Guidance on the provision of reserves,” https://www.svk.se/siteassets/english/stakeholder-portal/provision-of-ancillary-services/guidance-on-the-provision-of-reserves-240503_-pdf-guiden.pdf, 2024, Accessed: Jan. 21, 2024.
[11] D. Zhu and Y.-J. A. Zhang, “Optimal coordinated control of multiple battery energy storage systems for primary frequency regulation,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 555–565, 2018.
[12] Svenska Kraftnät, “Information on ancillary services,” https://www.svk.se/en/stakeholders-portal/electricity-market/provision-of-ancillary-services/information-on-different-ancillary-services/, 2025, Accessed: Jan. 20, 2025.
[13] K. Jacqué, L. Koltermann, J. Figgener, S. Zurmühlen, and D. U. Sauer, “The influence of frequency containment reserve on the operational data and the state of health of the hybrid stationary large-scale storage system,” Energies, vol. 15, no. 4, p. 1342, 2022.
[14] Svenska kraftnät, “Mimer – primary regulation statistics,” 2022, Accessed: Sep. 24, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://mimer.svk.se/PrimaryRegulation/PrimaryRegulationIndex
[15] S. K. G. Peesapati, M. Olsson, M. Masoudi, S. Andersson, and C. Cavdar, “An analytical energy performance evaluation methodology for 5G base stations,” in 17th IEEE International Conference onWireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob),
2021, pp. 169–174.
[16] L. Timilsina, P. R. Badr, P. H. Hoang, G. Ozkan, B. Papari, and C. S. Edrington, “Battery degradation in electric and hybrid electric vehicles: A survey study,” IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 42 431–42 462, 2023.
[17] J. Guo, J. Yang, Z. Lin, C. Serrano, and A. M. Cortes, “Impact analysis of V2G services on EV battery degradation-a review,” IEEE Milan PowerTech, pp. 1–6, 2019.
[18] A. F. Penaranda, D. Romero-Quete, and C. A. Cortés, “Grid-scale battery energy storage for arbitrage purposes: A colombian case,” Batteries, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 59, 2021.
[19] T. Thien, D. Schweer, D. vom Stein, A. Moser, and D. U. Sauer, “Real-world operating strategy and sensitivity analysis of frequency containment reserve provision with battery energy storage systems in the german market,” Journal of Energy Storage, vol. 13, pp. 143–163,
2017.
[20] J. Marchgraber, W. Gawlik, and G. Wailzer, “Reducing SoC-management and losses of battery energy storage systems during provision of frequency containment reserve,” Journal of Energy Storage, vol. 27, p. 101107, 2020.
[21] P. Astero and C. Evens, “Optimum operation of battery storage system in frequency containment reserves markets,” IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 4906–4915, 2020.
[22] G. He, Q. Chen, C. Kang, P. Pinson, and Q. Xia, “Optimal bidding strategy of battery storage in power markets considering performance-based regulation and battery cycle life,” IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 2359–2367, 2015.
[23] B. Tepe, J. Figgener, S. Englberger, D. U. Sauer, A. Jossen, and H. Hesse, “Optimal pool composition of commercial electric vehicles in V2G fleet operation of various electricity markets,” Applied energy, vol. 308, p. 118351, 2022.
[24] S. Hashemi, N. B. Arias, P. B. Andersen, B. Christensen, and C. Træholt, “Frequency regulation provision using cross-brand bidirectional V2G-enabled electric vehicles,” in IEEE International Conference on Smart Energy Grid Engineering (SEGE), 2018, pp. 249–254.
[25] N. B. Arias, S. Hashemi, P. B. Andersen, C. Træholt, and R. Romero, “Assessment of economic benefits for EV owners participating in the primary frequency regulation markets,” International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 120, p. 105985, 2020.
[26] I. Alaperä, S. Honkapuro, and J. Paananen, “Data centers as a source of dynamic flexibility in smart girds,” Applied Energy, vol. 229, pp. 69–79, 2018.
[27] Y. Fu, X. Han, K. Baker, andW. Zuo, “Assessments of data centers for provision of frequency regulation,” Applied Energy, vol. 277, p. 115621, 2020.
[28] G. Angenendt, S. Zurmühlen, J. Figgener, K.-P. Kairies, and D. U. Sauer, “Providing frequency control reserve with photovoltaic battery energy storage systems and power-to-heat coupling,” Energy, vol. 194, p. 116923, 2020.
[29] H. A. H. Hassan, D. Renga, M. Meo, and L. Nuaymi, “A novel energy model for renewable energy-enabled cellular networks providing ancillary services to the smart grid,” IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 381–396, 2019.
[30] X. Ma, Y. Duan, X. Meng, Q. Zhu, Z. Wang, and S. Zhu, “Optimal configuration for photovoltaic storage system capacity in 5G base station microgrids,” Global Energy Interconnection, vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 465–475, 2021.
[31] A. Höglund, J. Pettersson, E. Sanders, H. Hallberg, and N. Nõgisto, “Innovative energy sharing,” Ericsson Research, Tech. Rep., 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.ericsson.com/491462/assets/local/reports-papers/white-papers/innovative-energy-sharing.pdf
[32] L. Dias, B. Jaumard, and L. Eleftheriadis, “Taking advantage of spare battery capacity in cellular networks to provide grid frequency regulation,” Energies, vol. 17, no. 15, p. 3775, 2024.
[33] N. Piovesan, D. López-Pérez, A. De Domenico, X. Geng, H. Bao, and M. Debbah, “Machine learning and analytical power consumption models for 5G base stations,” IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 60, no. 10, pp. 56–62, 2022.
[34] E. Kraft, D. Keles, and W. Fichtner, “Modeling of frequency containment reserve prices with econometrics and artificial intelligence,” Journal of Forecasting, vol. 39, no. 8, pp. 1179–1197, 2020.
[35] C. Giovanelli, S. Sierla, R. Ichise, and V. Vyatkin, “Exploiting artificial neural networks for the prediction of ancillary energy market prices,” Energies, vol. 11, no. 7, p. 1906, 2018.
[36] Fingrid, “Fingrid Open Data Portal - Frequency (Historical Data),” 2024, Accessed: Feb. 07, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://data.fingrid.fi/en/datasets/339
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.
Repository Staff Only: item control page
Download Statistics
Download Statistics