Novel Incentive Scheme to Motivate Flexible Customers for Phase Balancing

Phase imbalance is a significant and widespread problem in low voltage (LV, 415V) networks. This paper develops a novel incentive scheme that encourages flexible customers to engage in phase balancing. On the technical side, this incentive scheme is based on a centralized control algorithm utilizing the inherent flexibility of customers' AC/DC converters to achieve phase balancing at the substation side of LV networks. On the incentive side, first, this paper calculates the benefits from phase balancing. It then defines a rebalancing contribution index that quantifies the flexible customer's contribution to addressing the predominant imbalance-induced consequence, e.g., capacity wastes, and energy losses. According to the contribution indices and the benefits, the incentive scheme rewards flexible customers correspondingly and guides them to prioritize the predominant consequence of phase imbalance. Case studies demonstrate that: 1) the remunerations paid to the flexible customers primarily depends on their contributions to addressing the predominant imbalance-induced consequences for the network in question; 2) the incentive scheme does not discriminate against smalllmedium-sized flexible customers who are dedicated to phase balancing, thus promoting inclusiveness.