The ongoing transformation of the electrical system and the future evolution of electricity markets require a revision of market simulation tools to make them more capable of accurately representing the new resources and various forms of flexibility that may emerge within them, thanks to regulatory developments. Moreover, the interactions between energy markets and electricity services markets, for which specific simulation tools were created in past years, require greater integration of these tools to facilitate the preparation and exchange of input/output information, making their use in a cascading manner more seamless.

Regarding the revision of simulation tools, the report describes the enhancement and reorganization of certain functionalities of the sMTSIM power system simulator, particularly focusing on the modeling of demand flexibility (Demand Side Response), the assignment of overgeneration to individual geographic market zones, the modeling of energy exchanges between market zones, and the management of spillovers from hydroelectric plants.

For the integration of simulation tools, the report outlines the functional requirements identified for the development of a new input/output data architecture common to both the sMTSIM power system simulator and the RUC dispatch market simulator. The use of this architecture will ease the work of both developers/maintainers and users of the two simulators: the former can focus more on the modeling aspects, significantly reducing the efforts involved in handling input/output data management, while the latter, while still able to use the previously employed data transfer methods, can also benefit from new methods that will facilitate their data preparation work through relational databases or cloud computing services.