Citation for the May Hicks Awards 2024
The OR Society is delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 May Hicks prize for Best Post-graduate Project.
The winner, Scott Jenkins (University of Edinburgh), received £1000. The runners up were Saumya Singh (University of Southampton) and Tom Murarik (University of Edinburgh) who received £250 each.
Thanks go to the Universities who submitted their student projects. It was pleasing to read about such a range of business problems and how well they are being addressed by OR techniques.
Winner:
Scott Jenkins (University of Edinburgh)
Project ‘Optimal Strategy for Grid-Scale Batteries Participating in Power Markets and Frequency Response Services’
This project focused on developing a data-driven approach to optimise the bidding strategies for grid-scale batteries participating in both wholesale power markets and frequency response services.
Scott developed explainable probabilistic methods to address the core challenge of market uncertainty. These methods provided clear and interpretable results, which allow Flexitricity to not only optimize battery revenue but also effectively communicate strategies to their internal and external customers. Scott's work had three main elements:
- A novel simulation methodology for generating probabilistic auction outcomes.
- A mixed-integer linear optimisation model to determine the optimal strategy for battery utilisation across the day, considering both frequency response auctions and wholesale power markets.
- A pricing methodology was developed to identify the bid prices that maximise expected revenue for Flexitricity in the frequency response auctions.
As renewable resources are brought on to the network, National Grid ESO increasingly look to batteries to balance supply and demand to maintain system stability. By maximising the return on investment for its customers, Flexitricity encourages more storage systems to be developed, allowing more renewable energy to be utilised efficiently.
Scott's work aligns perfectly with Flexitricity's vision to enable Great Britain’s transition to Net Zero through market-leading innovation, leadership, and delivery of flexibility in the energy sector. Scott continues his work in this space as a Data Scientist in Flexitricity’s Data team and continues to adapt his findings and approach to the current market opportunities and design.