Scheduling Flexible Demand in Cloud Computing Spot Markets

in Business and Information Systems Engineering (2020), 62(1), 25--39

The rapid standardization and specialization of cloud computing services have led to the development of cloud spot markets on which cloud service providers and customers can trade in near real-time ... [more ▼]

The rapid standardization and specialization of cloud computing services have led to the development of cloud spot markets on which cloud service providers and customers can trade in near real-time. Frequent changes in demand and supply give rise to spot prices that vary throughout the day. Cloud customers often have temporal flexibility to execute their jobs before a specific deadline. In this paper, the authors apply real options analysis (ROA), which is an established valuation method designed to capture the flexibility of action under uncertainty. They adapt and compare multiple discrete-time approaches that enable cloud customers to quantify and exploit the monetary value of their short-term temporal flexibility. The paper contributes to the field by guaranteeing cloud job execution of variable-time requests in a single cloud spot market, whereas existing multi-market strategies may not fulfill requests when outbid. In a broad simulation of scenarios for the use of Amazon EC2 spot instances, the developed approaches exploit the existing savings potential up to 40 percent – a considerable extent. Moreover, the results demonstrate that ROA, which explicitly considers time-of-day-specific spot price patterns, outperforms traditional option pricing models and expectation optimization. [less ▲]

Initial conditions for the marketing of demand flexibility: status quo analysis and meta study. 2 version

Report (2019)

The present work is part of the research project "Synchronized and energy-adaptive production technology for the flexible alignment of industrial processes to a fluctuating energy supply (SynErgie ... [more ▼]

The present work is part of the research project "Synchronized and energy-adaptive production technology for the flexible alignment of industrial processes to a fluctuating energy supply (SynErgie)" funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. As one of the "Kopernikus projects for the energy transition", the SynErgie research project aims to enable energy-intensive industries in Germany to adapt their electricity demand to the increasingly fluctuating electricity supply. In the past, electricity systems were usually designed so that the generation side of the market was adapted to the temporal behavior of consumption. However, due to the increased expansion of volatile renewable energies, power generation is subject to uncontrollable, weather-dependent fluctuations, which is why making the overall system more flexible is becoming increasingly important. Because the producer side can only offer the required flexibility in the form of a reduction in feed-in, there is a so-called flexibility gap. As became clear on December 14, 2018 and January 10, 2019, this flexibility gap is already pushing the power system to its limits of stability. Only through the use of many compensation mechanisms or With options for flexibility, the security of supply could just be maintained on these days. The industrial processes considered in SynErgie represent a subset of potential flexibility options and can contribute to load adjustment to fluctuating generation as well as to the provision of system services and relief of the grids. In a liberalized, competitive electricity market, the market and regulatory framework conditions are of great relevance with regard to the development of the potential for flexibility in demand. This study therefore first describes the basics of the electricity market design and the constituent legal framework. Current discussions about the basic price system (unit price system vs. zonal system vs. nodal system) are not dealt with. The processing of these discussions as well as the specific analysis of the effects of the price system on demand flexibility is the content of the work packages of the Cluster IV “Market and Electricity System” pending in SynErgie II. The present study therefore rather works on potential obstacles to the participation of flexible demand processes and always refers to the application to industrial processes. The analysis forms the basis for future work in Cluster IV and provides cross-cluster information about the status quo of market structures and regulatory framework conditions. In addition to the systematic processing of the market framework, the scientific literature and already published studies on the subject of demand flexibility (demand side management and demand response) are analyzed and summarized in a meta study. The analysis forms the basis for future work in Cluster IV and provides cross-cluster information about the status quo of market structures and regulatory framework conditions. In addition to the systematic processing of the market framework, the scientific literature and already published studies on the subject of demand flexibility (demand side management and demand response) are analyzed and summarized in a meta study. The analysis forms the basis for future work in Cluster IV and provides cross-cluster information about the status quo of market structures and regulatory framework conditions. In addition to the systematic processing of the market framework, the scientific literature and already published studies on the subject of demand flexibility (demand side management and demand response) are analyzed and summarized in a meta study. [less ▲]

Providing Utility to Utilities : the Value of Information Systems Enabled Flexibility in Electricity Consumption

in Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2016), 17(8), 537--563

Toward Real Options Analysis of IS-Enabled Flexibility in Electricity Demand

in 35th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) (2014)