Exploring benefits from DR for Pump-Controlled Open Canal Systems under uncertainty (PCOCS)

In this TKI Water Technology funded project, we explore how water infrastructure in the Dutch delta can contribute to the energy transition with novel models of ‘demand response services’ and robust control of pumping infrastructure. The research explores computationally efficient robust control approaches for water infrastructure to participate in demand response; pumping stations could then be active on flexible energy markets, and grid balancing mechanisms. Uncertainties in system modelling, inflows and markets are accounted for in a way that is implementable in practice. The research will also give insights into what energy market conditions will be favourable for DR participation and the potential gains in cost saving, CO₂ emission reductions and grid balancing contributions will be quantified. A framework for exploiting opportunities in the energy transition will be created for energy use at pumping stations.

Ties van der Heijden - PhD Candidate at TU Delft

Since October 2019, Ties van der Heijden has been conducting his PhD research. Ties investigates the balance capacity that the Dutch water system can have in reducing the imbalance on the electricity grid. By cleverly adjusting the demand for energy, you help balance supply and demand through ‘demand response services’. Ties examines the available energy market and balance mechanisms, what are expected to do in the coming years, and how the water system (with all its uncertainties) can have the most positive impact on the energy transition. Specifically, he researches how availability of renewable energy can be taken into account in control of a water systems by studying electricity markets, currently and in the future, with the help of deep neural networks. We also research optimal control for water systems in order to take local constraints and objectives into regard, together with energy availability.

Project Partners

HKV, Contact Person: Durk Klopstra, Senior Consultant Water Management, Executive Director.

Rijkswaterstaat, Contact Person: Vincent Beijk, Senior Adviseur Waterverdeling.

Participating Waterboards

Research Outputs

van der Heijden, Ties, Dorien Lugt, Ronald van Nooijen, Peter Palensky, and Edo Abraham. “Multi-market demand response from pump-controlled open canal systems: an economic MPC approach to pump-scheduling.” Journal of Hydroinformatics 24, no. 4 (2022): 838-855.

Van Der Heijden, Ties, Jesus Lago, Peter Palensky, and Edo Abraham. “Electricity price forecasting in European Day Ahead Markets: a greedy consideration of market integration.” IEEE Access 9 (2021): 119954-119966.

Van Der Heijden, Ties, Peter Palensky, and Edo Abraham. “Probabilistic DAM price forecasting using a combined Quantile Regression Deep Neural Network with less-crossing quantiles.” In IECON 2021–47th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, pp. 1-6. IEEE, 2021.

van der Heijden T, Lugt D, van Nooyen R, Palensky P and Abraham E (2019), “Demand response from pumping infrastructure in the Dutch Delta”, In International Conference on Applied Energy., August, 2019.

van der Heijden T, Klopstra D and Abraham E (2019), “Optimising water system operations, blue storage and the green energy transition”, TU Delft DeltaLinks.

van der Heijden T, Lugt D, van Nooyen R, Palensky P and Abraham E (2019), “Energy markets and sustainable water management: pumping and demand response in the Dutch delta.”, In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts.

For more details please also refer to Publications.