1

Potential of Small Hydro Power Plants for Delivering Control Energy in Germany
L. Spitalny, Student Member, IEEE, D. Unger, Student Member, IEEE, J. M. A. Myrzik, Member, IEEE
AbstractA power system that mainly bases on renewable energy sources leads to a higher demand on ancillary services. To ensure the stability of the network, new approaches need to be developed. This paper analyses the potential of small run-of-theriver hydro power plants for participation in the German balancing power market. For this, the necessary technical properties for the units are described as well as the needed additional technical features. The deliverable control energy of small hydro power plants is estimated and evaluated concerning economic and technical aspects. The current German renewable energy act from 2012 simplifies the direct distribution of energy from renewable energy resources. Accordingly, the impact of the provision of control energy is investigated. Also, a combination with other renewable energy sources like photovoltaic or wind energy to a virtual power plant is considered as well. Index Termssmall hydro power plants; frequency control; primary-,secondary and tertiary control reserve; renewable energy sources; balancing power market
Ta,av Ta tprod Annual operation time Number of hours per year Duration of providing control reserve

I.
50HERTZ AMPRION EEG ENBW PCR SCR TCR TENNET TSO P f

NOMENCLATURE

turbine g E husable KT LCR P Pav Pins Pturbine pEEG pDR pER pM pMP Qwater RCR

50Hertz Transmission GmbH Amprion GmbH German renewable energy act EnBW Transportnetze AG Primary control reserve Secondary control reserve Tertiary control reserve Tennet TSO GmbH Transmission System Operator Difference of the electric power Deviation of Frequency Density of water Droop characteristic of the electrical network Efficiency of the turbine Gravity Contributed control energy Height of fall Coefficient of the electrical the network Probability of call Power Average amount of available power Installed power Power of the turbine Fixed feed-in tariff from EEG Demand rate Energy rate Market premium Management Premium Water flow Revenue

___________________________________ This paper presents selected results of a research study, which is funded by the Federal Environment Agency. L. Spitalny, D. Unger, and J.M.A. Myrzik are with the Institute of Energy Systems, Energy Efficiency and Energy Economics, TU Dortmund University, D-44221 Dortmund, Germany (E-Mail: lukas.spitalny@tu-dortmund.de, dennis.unger@tu-dortmund.de, johanna.myrzik@tu-dortmund.de)

MALL hydro power plants as well as solar and wind energy systems can contribute to meet the ambitious climate change objectives. The power generation from run-ofthe-river power plants is free of carbon dioxide emissions and one of the oldest environmental friendly technologies. Furthermore, hydro-power plants have a positive economic benefit for the plant operator. After high investment costs for the plant construction the very low operating costs induce high cost efficiency. Hence, with lower installed power the cost efficiency, especially for small hydro power plants, decreases. In order to operate these units economically, they are supported by the German renewable energy act (EEG) [1]. For small run-of-the-river hydro power plants with an installed capacity smaller than 500 kW, an increase of the units is expected. Due to repowering existing and developing new locations, a growth rate of more than 50 % is probable, which means an additional capacity of more than 200 MW. [2] Beside the benefits of this renewable energy source, disadvantages for the ecological system in the rivers are unavoidable. The locations of the plants restrict the path for fish and the transport of sediments. Hence, to enforce the growth of the number of small hydro power plants, the manufacturers and operators argue with the possibility for the contribution to ancillary services. Beside the opportunity for contributing to the voltage stability the possibility of delivering control energy is one of the main arguments that are presented. Although, power generation by hydro power plants is an established technology, there is little experience with delivering control energy. Until now, this has not been considered for units in the lower power range of smaller than 500 kW because the units are only operated for delivering base load power. Therefore, this paper determines the potentials of contributing control energy by small hydro power plants in general. At first, an overview of the balancing power market in Germany is provided in section III. The potential of providing control energy are determined in section IV. The operational mode of small hydro power plants is described at first. Then, the suitability of reaching the minimum lot size and the economic impacts are determined. A combination with photovoltaic- and wind energy generators is discussed in section V. Finally, the results are discussed and the conclusions are drawn in section VI.

II.

INTRODUCTION

III.

BALANCING POWER MARKET IN GERMANY

To ensure the operation of the transmission system, ancillary services are needed. In addition to keeping the voltage in the prescribed limits, the frequency target needs to be kept from straying from its value. A mismatch of generated electricity and the demand influences the frequency. Load fluctuations, power plant failures, and volatile power generation by renewable energy sources impinge upon the frequency. If the demand is higher than the feed-in of electricity, the difference of the electric power P leads to a decrease of the frequency f. The strength of the deviation is described by the coefficient KT that depends on the droop characteristic of the electrical network. Equation (1) shows the interdependency of these parameters. [3] (1) P/f = 1/ = KT To equalize an unexpected mismatch in power, control reserve is needed. Balancing power can be contributed by technical units like pumped-storage power plants and thermal power plants that hold a part of their power available or by dispatchable loads. Holding the frequency in balance is one of the main responsibilities of the transmission system operator (TSO). The German electricity transport system is divided and controlled by four TSOs: Tennet TSO GmbH (TENNET), Amprion GmbH (AMPRION), EnBW Transportnetze AG (ENBW) and 50Hertz Transmission GmbH (50HERTZ). The German TSO procures control reserve jointly on a common internet platform, where the needed amount of control reserve is tendered. Operators of technical units can participate as bidders at the tender auction. Balancing power can be distinguished in three types: the primary, secondary and tertiary or minute reserve. Primary control reserve (PCR) is provided jointly in the synchronous area to counteract the frequency deviation. It is activated automatically and decentralized by the contributing units within seconds. The tendering period is one week. A minimum lot size of 1 MW has to be reached. Units have to provide positive and negative power as well. Secondary control reserve (SCR) is needed to return the frequency towards its target value. It is activated automatically by the TSO in whose control area the incident occurred. The minimum lot size is 5 MW. Thereby, positive or negative power has to be contributed. Similar to the primary control, SCR is tendered once a week. For longer disturbances tertiary control reserve (TCR) is needed. It is activated manually by the TSO by means of a telephone call. The minimum lot size accounts for 15 MW. It is tendered daily. The following table summarizes the three qualities of control reserve.
TABLE I QUALITIES OF CONTROL RESERVE [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], Qualities of control reserve
Primary Control Secondary Control Tertiary Control

Operators of technical units, have to pass the prequalification procedure before taking part in the tender. Beside the requirements above, additional conditions according to the referred literature have to be complied with. IV. POTENTIAL FOR THE CONTRIBUTION OF CONTROL ENERGY

To evaluate the potential of small hydro power plants for delivering control energy, the operational mode of the units is analyzed at first. According to their low power range of smaller than 500 kW the accessibility of the minimum lot size needs to be determined. Finally the economic impact will be considered. A. Operational Mode of Small Hydro Power Plants For the estimation of the available power, the operational mode of small hydro power plants is shown. As a renewable energy source (RES), the generation of electricity depends on the amount of available water from the river. The usable power of the turbine Pturbine can be calculated by the following equation: Pturbine = turbine g Qwater husable (2) The usable power depends on the mechanical and electrical efficiency of the turbine turbine, the density of water , the gravity g, the flow of the water Qwater, and the usable height of fall husable. Varying the generated power can only be done by a modification of one of the parameters above. As natural constants and g and as a machine parameter turbine cannot be varied. Hence, a variation of the power output depends on Qwater and husable. The water flow through the turbine can be changed by the turbine set. The grade of the variation depends mainly on the installed turbine. A high level of varying the water flow is possible when both, the rotor blades and the guide vanes can be adjusted. This is the case for Kaplan turbines. Using a Francis turbine, only the guide vanes can be adjusted. The usable height of fall can be varied to a certain extent by using a mechanical weir. With the weir the water level of the upper water can be varied. To a certain extend this can be used as a water reservoir and as energy storage for a short duration [13]. In order to keep the installation costs as low as possible, it is probable that these possibilities of varying water flow and heights are not available to small hydro power plants in general. According to the control energy market in Germany and the operational mode of small hydro power plants, the following conclusions can be drawn. For the contribution of positive control energy, the units remain in stand-by mode. Only in the case of activating control energy, the units feed-in power. Thus, the contribution of renewable energy will decrease for the whole period of not feeding power into the grid. Compared to the current electricity mix in Germany, with a high proportion of fossil fuel energy generation, this is ecologically not reasonable. This applies especially for the contribution of primary control reserve. The contribution of negative control energy requires a disconnection of the units from the grid. Consequently, the power feedin of renewable energy decreases as well. On the other hand, the units are only disconnected in the case of contributing control energy. According to a probability of call for negative

Control range Minimum lot size Tendering period Activation

positive and negative 1 MW weekly decentralised (automatically)

positive and/or negative 5 MW weekly central (automatically)

positive and/or negative 15 MW daily central (manually)

secondary control of 23.1 % and 5.8 % for negative tertiary control, this does not occur very frequently. Concerning a substantial participation of RES in the balancing power market this, however, can be ecologically advisable. In particular, it can be expected that a certain proportion of fossil power plants would be replaced through the participation of RES in the balancing power market. [14], [15], B. Reaching the Minimum Lot Size Apart from the other main requirements, the accessibility of reaching the minimum lot size for the tendering procedure is deemed as the main obstacle. To reach the minimum lot size the operators are allowed to pool the technical units. Thereby, the small hydro power plants can be pooled and provided as an enclosed unit in the balancing power market. The pooling of technical units creates specific requirements for the pool operator. The actual operational status has to be transmitted to the TSO as well as in the event of the control reserve being required, the activation signals needs to be transmitted to the units immediately. Thus, failure-free and redundant communication equipment is necessary. Furthermore, the pool operator has to keep a permanently staffed coordination office. The pool operator is solely responsible for the costs of installing and running this equipment. Fig. 1 shows the general interfaces. The units are connected to the low- or medium voltage distribution grid in the majority of cases. The delivered control energy has to pass first through the distribution grid before it reaches the transmission grid. Accordingly, the requirements for all transport levels, especially for the distribution grid need to be complied with for a bidirectional load flow.

For delivering control energy it is necessary to reach the minimum lot size. According to table 1, the units in the power range taken into consideration cannot meet this requirement at all. Consequently, a pooling of the units is required. Only through merging and a central control can the units participate in the tendering process. For the primary control a pooling of units is only allowed, when they are in the same control zone. For the secondary control a pooling across several zones is only allowed until the minimum lot size. For the tertiary control only units within a control zone can be pooled. Thereby, not all of the units are generating power at the same time. Due to maintenance, disturbances, etc. some units cannot provide control energy. Furthermore, throughout the year the available water flow and water-level varies. Due to the fact that detailed data for each unit is not available, the average amount of available power Pav needs to be estimated. For this, the installed power Pins is weighted with the average of the annual operation time Ta,av = 4,500 h and the number of hours per year Ta = 8,760 h. Pav = Pins Ta,av / Ta (3) With this simplified assumption the average available power for every TSO can be estimated. According to the minimum lot size, the potential for the contribution of control energy is estimated for each TSO. Therefore, the needed share of available power per TSO for reaching this requirement is determined by pooling the units. In principle, small hydro power plants regardless of the amount of installed power can be pooled inside a control area. However, units can be classified according to their power range to obtain homogenous characteristics of the units. In addition, a classification in two more classes is considered. The classification is 0-100 kW, 100-500 kW and 0-500 kW. Table III shows the results of this approach.
TABLE III PERCENTAGE OF THE NEEDED AVERAGE AMOUNT OF AVAILABLE POWER TO REACH THE MINIMUM LOT SIZE
50HERTZ PCR (1 MW) SCR (5 MW) TCR (15 MW) 19 % 96 % 288 % 4% 18 % 55 % 3% 16 % 47 % AMPRION 0-100 kW 8% 39 % 116 % 100-500 kW 4% 18 % 53 % 0-500 kW 5% 12 % 37 % ENBW 5% 25 % 76 % 2% 11 % 32 % 2% 8% 23 % TENNET 3% 13 % 38 % 2% 9% 28 % 1% 5% 16 %

Figure 1. Pooling of small hydro power plants

For the estimation of the fundamental suitability of delivering control energy, the installed power needs to be considered. In 2010 there were 7,040 units with an installed power of 1.87 GW remunerated by the EEG in Germany. 6,488 of these units have a power range smaller than 500 kW. The installed power in this range amounts to at least 0.46 GW. The following table shows the units and the installed power for the four German TSOs.
TABLE II INSTALLED POWER AND NUMBER OF UNITS PER TSO [16],
Number of units 50HERTZ AMPRION 311 846 201 228 512 1074 Installed power [MW] 10.14 25.14 52.62 54.80 62.76 79.94 ENBW 1151 380 1531 38.56 90.73 129.29 TENNET 2871 500 3371 77.22 106.11 183.33

PCR (1 MW) SCR (5 MW) TCR (15 MW) PCR (1 MW) SCR (5 MW) TCR (15 MW)

0-100 kW 100-500 kW Sum 0-100 kW 100-500 kW Sum

It can be seen, that the minimum lot size cannot be reached in every control area anyway. This is the case for tertiary control in the control area of 50HERTZ and AMPRION, where the minimum lot size is higher than the available power. Also, more than three-quarters of the available power is needed in the control area. The minimum lot size for primary and secondary control can be reached in every control area with the exception of 50HERTZ. Approximately, the total average amount of available power for reaching the minimum lot size for the secondary control is needed. It can be seen from this that the attainment of the minimum lot size is not stable. Due to the needed number of units to reach the minimum lot size, a

pooling of units is only reasonable for small hydro power plants from 100 to 500 kW installed power. C. Economic Consideration For the participation in the balancing power market, the economic impact needs to be considered. The amendment of the EEG from January 1st, 2012 enables the opportunity to provide the energy from RES directly. The energy can be offered on the European Energy Exchange, by bilateral supply contracts or on the balancing power market for example. Thereby, units can be either remunerated by the EEG or get their revenues from the direct provision. A direct provision and the remuneration by the EEG at the same time is not allowed. Therefore, the pool operator needs to decide which source of income is more profitable. For this reason, the economic impact of participation in the balancing power market is ascertained. For contributing primary control energy, the units remain in stand-by mode. The available power is remunerated by the balancing power market, but the earnings from the fixed feedin tariffs from EEG pEEG for the energy feed-in are lost. Units, which contribute secondary and tertiary control energy get the demand rate pDR for the provision of the power P for the duration of tprod and the energy rate pER for the contributed control energy E. According to the probability of call LCR this is not a common situation. Hence, earnings are only generated in the case of delivering control energy, but at the whole time the earnings from the EEG get lost. To promote the direct provision of energy from RES, the EEG provides a compensation mechanism in the case of lower energy rates from the direct provision as the fixed feed-in tariffs from the EEG. The market premium pMP compensate the difference from the energy and the fixed feed-in tariffs. It also includes a management premium pM for the costs of the transactions such as communication equipment or personnel cost. From Fig. 2 it can be seen, how the market premium is determined and which values are regarded.
pEEG
remuneration (/kWh)

The German balancing power market has changed recently. New conditions and market players lead to changing prices on the market. General statements about prices referring to historical data cannot be made and would not display current coherences. Nevertheless, for the calculation sensible input data is needed. Table IV shows the relevant market data that is taken into account. For the different types of control energy the probability of call, the demand rate and the energy rate was determined. The market premium was calculated corresponding to Eq. 4. Thereby the market premium is only paid, if the energy rate is lower than the fixed feed-in tariffs from the EEG. As shown in Table IV, the values differ for the different types of control energy. Hence, only the provision of power is charged, the probability of call is not a matter of concern to primary control. Furthermore, it can be seen that positive control energy is being remunerated more highly than negative control energy. This is due to the fact that the provision of positive control energy is technically more challenging. For negative control energy a disconnection from the grid is sufficient.
TABLE IV CONDITIONS OF THE BALANCING POWER MARKET IN GERMANY [15]
Control energy quality PCR Negative SCR Positive SCR Negative TCR Positive TCR Probability of call [%] LCR 23.1 10 5.8 1.2 Demand rate [/MW] pDR 23.15 6.85 5.15 4.52 1.01 Energy rate [/MWh] pER 0 17.34 135.24 75.56 435.62 Market premium [/MWh] pMP 0 112.36 0 54.14 0

pMP

pER

pM

The annual revenue is estimated for a pool of small hydro power plants with the smallest possible offer according to the minimum lot size for each quality of control reserve (see Table I). Especially for secondary control reserve a pooling across the control areas is only allowed for this limit. Thus, for primary control reserve a pool of 1 MW, for secondary control reserve a pool of 5 MW and for tertiary control reserve a pool of 15 MW is adopted. It is assumed that the units provide control energy for the annual operation time Ta,av = 4,500 h. The feed-in tariff from EEG pEEG accounts for 126.7 /MWh. Fig. 3 shows the results of the calculation.
10,000,000 8,000,000 6,000,000 4,000,000 2,000,000 0

Figure 2. Determination of the market premium

According to the EEG the management premium will be gradually reduced per year until 2015 and accounts for 3 /MWh for 2012 [1]. The market premium can be calculated by the following formula: (4) pMP = pEEG - pER + pM The market premium covers only energy that is actually fed-in. With the following equation the revenue RCR for the control reserve can be calculated. RCR = P tprod pDR + LCR E (pMP + pER) E pEEG (5)

annual losses ()

PCR 465,975

SCR2,022,509

SCR+ 2,430,585

TCR7,739,375

TCR+ 8,131,223

Figure 3. Annual loss per small hydro power plant pool

It can be seen that the provision of control energy is economically not feasible. The annual loss for every hydro power plant pool amounts to least half a million Euros. This is due to the fact that the units need to be held in stand-by to a large

Figure 4. Energy feed-in the control area of 50HERTZ [17]

extent. Since, the probability of call has not a high value, the units deliver control energy rarely. This can be clearly seen in the case of the tertiary control reserve. Only in the case of actually delivering control energy, the units generate revenues. Over the whole period of non-activating the control reserve the loss of the EEG remuneration leads to costs of opportunity. Even the demand rate for the provision of the power cannot compensate the loss of the EEG remuneration. V. COMBINATION WITH OTHER RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

of wind and solar energy a sufficient forecast over the whole tendering period is not given [18]. According to the economic consideration of small hydro power plants the same market conditions can be expected. The stand-by operation mode results in the loss of the EEG-revenues that cannot be compensated by the revenues from the balancing power market. Hence, the combination of small hydro power plants with other renewable energy sources does not result in advantages. VI. CONCLUSIONS The contribution of control energy of small hydro power plants is under the current conditions not feasible. As long as the power supply is mainly based on fossil energy resources, a stand by operation mode for primary control or positive secondary and tertiary control energy is ecologically not feasible. Because suitable energy storage devices are currently not available, a stand by operation mode would result in a squandering of renewable energy resources. Only when a high amount of renewable energy sources for the power supply is reached, the disconnection of units from the grid is then ecologically viable. The units have to be upgraded with automatic mechanical weir and turbine control systems. Also, failurefree and redundant communication equipment is needed. For the costs of installing and running this equipment, the operator is solely responsible. Due to the installed and average of the available power the contribution of all qualities of control energy is not possible for every TSO. Especially in control areas with a small installed power the minimum lot size cannot be reached safely. Referring to the economical consideration, delivering control energy is not economically feasible. The current adaptation of the EEG induces a simplification of the direct provision energy from renewable energy sources. Therefore, the market premium compensates difference in prices from the fixed feed-in tariff to the reachable prices in the market. The market premium is only paid if the energy is fed in and not for units that stay in stand-by mode. Accordingly, a high value of the earnings from the EEG is lost. The market premium is incapable of achieving a flexibilisation of energy from RES. If the market premium is paid over the period of providing energy also the economic drawbacks are minimized. The combination with other renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar energy does not affect the contribution positively. The forecast cannot be done precisely for the tendering period of one week. Therefore, a shortening of the tendering period is needed. A daily tendering would simplify the contribution of control energy by renewable energy resources.

According to a stand-alone delivery of control energy a combination with other RES to a virtual power plant is conceivable. A virtual power plant based on RES is a network of several power generation units, electrical storage and dispatchable loads that are controlled by one central managing unit. In the following it is examined, if the combination with photovoltaic- and wind energy systems can compensate for the disadvantages of the stand-alone provision of control energy. A working control and managing system, a good controllability of the units and a secure communication system is important for a joint contribution of control energy are. Furthermore, a precise forecast of the provided power is important. According to the tendering period of one week for primary and secondary control energy a weekly forecast is needed. For tertiary control energy a daily forecast is needed. To evaluate the feasibility of combining the units to a virtual power plant for delivering control energy, historical feed-in data is taken as a basis. Fig. 3 shows the energy feed-in of hydro, wind and photovoltaic power systems in the control zone of 50HERTZ [17]. It can be seen that the feed-in of photovoltaic and wind energy differ very strongly during a week and also a day the feed in varies. Only hydro power shows a constant feed-in. The dependence of the photovoltaic feed-in to the solar irradiation can be seen. The power fluctuation amounts to 10 to 50 MW. A combination with photovoltaic energy systems is only suitable in the case of broad daylight. This is only in the case of tertiary control reserve with six time slices over the day. The feed-in of wind energy varies the most. Temporary slump of performance amounts for over 5000 MW over a short period. This missing energy should be compensated by sufficiently sized electrical storage systems. It can be inferred that the main problem of the utilization of RES for frequency control is the inadequate possibility of the forecast. For the whole period of providing control reserve the retrievable energy needs to be known precisely. In the case

It has been shown that for the contribution of control energy by small hydro power plants by themselves, several challenges have to be answered. First, the technical properties of the existing units and their possibility of varying the power have to be registered. Furthermore, systems concepts with integrated electrical storage systems need to be developed. This would increase the grade of flexibility of the units and counteract the disadvantages of a stand-by operation mode. Therefore, central control concepts need to be developed. This would be applicable to wind and solar energy sources. VII. REFERENCES
[1] Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz EEG (engl.: German Renewable Energies Act) of 22.12.2011. [2] Bundesministerium fr Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, Potentialermittlung fr den Ausbau der Wasserkraftnutzung in Deutschland als Grundlage fr die Entwicklung einer geeigneten Ausbaustrategie (engl.: determination of the potential for the expansion of the use of small hydro power plants in Germany for developing a suitable expansion strategy), Aachen, September 2010. [3] H. Happoldt, O. Oeding, Elektrische Kraftwerke und Netze (engl.: electrical power plants and grids), 5th. ed. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer, 1978. [4] VDN, TransmissionCode 2007: Netz- und Systemregeln der deutschen bertragungsnetzbetreiber, Berlin, August 2007. [5] VDN, TransmissionCode 2003: Anhang D 1: Unterlagen zur Prqualifikation fr die Erbringung von Primrregelleistung fr die NB, Berlin, August 2003. [6] VDN, TransmissionCode 2007 Anhang D2 Teil 1: Unterlagen zur Prqualifikation von Anbietern zur Erbringung von Sekundrregelleistung fr die NB, Berlin, November 2009. [7] VDN, TransmissionCode 2007: Anhang D 2: Ergnzungen zum Teil 1: Unterlagen zur Prqualifikation von Anbietern zur Erbringung von Sekundrregelleistung fr die NB, Berlin, November 2009. [8] VDN, TransmissionCode 2007: Anhang D2 Teil Anbieteranforderungen SRL-Poolkonzept, Berlin, November 2009. 2:

[17] 50Hertz Transmission GmbH, Verffentlichung EEG-Daten - Verlauf EEG-Stromeinspeisung (data of the energy feed-in of units refunded by the EEG), November 2011, [Online]. Available: http://www.50hertztransmission.net/de/167.htm [18] Markus Speckmann, Regelleistung durch erneuerbare Energien: Herausforderungen und Lsungsanstze (engl.: control reserve by renewable energy sources: challanges and possible solutions), ETPKonferenz Virtuelle Kraftwerke und Regelenergie" November 2011.

VIII. BIOGRAPHES
Lukas Spitalny was born in Heydebreck, Poland, in 1983. He received the Master degree in Industrial Engineering (focus on Power and Management) from the University of Duisburg-Essen in December 2009. In 2010 he became a research associate at TU Dortmund University. Currently, he is working on his Ph. D. degree on distributed generation and energy efficiency at the Institute of Energy Systems, Energy Efficiency and Energy Economics. Dennis Unger was born in Lnen, Germany, in 1985. He received the Diploma degree in Electrical Engineering and Management from TU Dortmund University, Germany in 2009. In 2010 he became a research associate at TU Dortmund University. Currently, he is working on his Ph.D. degree in the field of energy management by virtual power plants and virtual energy storages at the Institute of Energy Systems, Energy Efficiency and Energy Economics. Johanna M.A. Myrzik was born in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1966. She received her Diploma degree in Electrical Engineering from the Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany in 1992. From 1993 to 1995 she worked as a researcher at the Institute for Solar Energy Supply Technology (ISET e.V.) in Kassel, Germany. In 1995 Mrs Myrzik joined the Kassel University, where she finished her PhD thesis in the field of solar inverter topologies in 2000. From 2000, Mrs Myrzik joined the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. In 2002 and in 2008 she became an assistant professor and an associate professor respectively. Since September 2009 she is a full professor at the TU Dortmund University. Her fields of interests are: energy efficiency, renewable energy, distributed generation, Power Quality and power electronics.

[9] VDN, TransmissionCode 2007. Anhang D3: Minutenreserveleistung, Berlin, August 2007. [10] Bundesnetzagentur, Beschluss BK6-06-012: Festlegung zu Verfahren zur Ausschreibung von Regelenergie in Gestalt der Minutenreserve (engl.: definition of the balancing power tendering procedure for tertiary control reserve), Bonn, 2011. [11] Bundesnetzagentur, Beschluss BK6-10-097: Festlegung zu Verfahren zur Ausschreibung von Regelenergie in Gestalt der Primrregelung (engl.: definition of the balancing power tendering procedure for primary control reserve), Bonn, 2011. [12] Bundesnetzagentur, Beschluss BK6-10-098: Verfahren zur Ausschreibung von Regelenergie in Gestalt der Sekundrregelung (engl.: definition of the balancing power tendering procedure for secondary control reserve), Bonn, 2011. [13] Emil Mosonyi Jrgen Giesecke, Wasserkraftanlagen: Planung, Bau und Betrieb (engl.: hydro power plants: planning, construction and operation), 4th ed. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, 2005. [14] Dr. Christoph Maurer, Auswirkungen der Teilnahme von EEG-Anlagen aus der festen Einspeisevergtung auf die Regelenergiemrkte (engl.: impact of the participation of EEG-plants with fixed feed-in tariff on the balancing power market), CONSENTEC, Aachen, 05.07.2011. [15] EU-Project: Grid for vehicles (G4V), Research Report No. D2.3: Costbenefit-analysis and recommendations for business models, TU Dortmund University, 12.08.2011, [Online]. Available: http://www.g4v.eu/ [16] Informationsplattform der deutschen bertragungsnetzbetreiber ,Anlagenstammdaten zum 31.12.2010 Gesamtdeutschland (engl.: data of installed and by the EEG refunded units in Germany), [Online]. Available: http://www.eeg-kwk.net