Thesis Work - Future Value of Residential Flexibility: Aggregation and Service Stacking Across Energy Markets

Are you a student looking to apply your knowledge to real-world solutions that support the energy transition? With us, you will have the opportunity to complete your thesis project close to the business, working alongside experienced specialists and tackling challenges where your ideas and perspectives can make a real difference
About the Thesis Work
At Digital Energy Solutions, we develop Vattenfall's digital solutions that make tomorrow’s energy system more efficient, flexible, and secure. Our work spans technologies such as batteries, e-mobility, solar PV, demand response, automation, and secure IT/OT integration, helping accelerate the transition to fossil freedom.
Residential energy assets such as batteries, electric vehicles, solar PV, and heat pumps can provide flexibility to both customers and the electricity system through participation in spot, intraday, and ancillary-service markets. However, the value of these markets changes over time due to variations in prices, competition, system needs, and market design. As a result, market participation strategies need to be flexible and adaptive rather than dependent on a single service or market.
This thesis will investigate how aggregated residential energy assets can be dynamically coordinated across multiple energy markets to maximize long-term value. The work may include:
Historical market analysis
Development of representative asset and household profiles
Future market scenarios
Optimization and/or simulation modelling
Evaluation of different service-stacking strategies
The analysis will consider factors such as asset constraints, customer needs, market commitments, forecast uncertainty, and operational costs.
Research Question
How can an aggregated portfolio of residential energy assets dynamically adapt its service-stacking strategy to create long-term value under changing electricity and ancillary-service market conditions?
Expected Outcome
The thesis is expected to:
Characterize the flexibility potential of aggregated residential assets
Analyse how the value of different markets evolves over time
Develop a framework for multi-asset aggregation and service stacking
Assess the benefits of asset diversity and adaptive market allocation
The results will support future residential flexibility offerings and provide recommendations for scalable, adaptive, and customer-centric energy services.
This assignment is for one Master's student.
We are looking for a student who are about to complete their academic studies and are eager to apply their knowledge in a real-world setting through a thesis project at Vattenfall. You are someone who shares our values and identifies with our principles: Active, Open, Positive and Safety.
Master’s student in Energy Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related field
Fluent in English, written and spoken
Experience with Python and market or time-series data is an advantage
Experience with optimization, simulation, modelling, and/or data analysis
Strong analytical skills and ability to structure complex problems and evaluate trade-offs
Familiarity with spot, intraday, balancing, or ancillary-service markets is beneficial
Interest in electricity markets, energy flexibility, and residential energy assets
Ability to collaborate across disciplines and communicate technical concepts effectively
Scope: Master’s thesis (30 ECTS)

Employment type
Contract

Work arrangement
No