Special Session 11
Capacity, Flexibility, and Ancillary Service Markets for Low-Carbon Power Systems
The transition toward low-carbon power systems has made system operation significantly more complex, introducing a range of new and significant challenges for system stability and reliability. The growing integration of distributed energy resources has transformed power flows from unidirectional to highly dynamic patterns, resulting in more pronounced voltage fluctuations and increased difficulty in voltage regulation. At the same time, as renewable energy resources continue to account for a larger share of generation, the retirement and reduced investment in synchronous generators inevitably lead to declining system inertia, weakened frequency regulation capability, reduced supply reliability, and increasing volatility in electricity prices. These emerging operational needs call for the coordinated development of ancillary service markets, capacity markets, and flexibility markets beyond energy markets, to ensure secure and resilient grid operation. This special session aims to provide market regulators and policy makers with insights into the market design of capacity, flexibility, and ancillary services to support low-carbon power system operation. It also seeks to offer decision-support tools to help market participants capture multiple value streams across both energy and these markets. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:1. Design, clearing, and settlement of capacity, flexibility, and ancillary service markets
2. Provision of capacity, flexibility, and ancillary services by aggregators and virtual power plants
3. Joint bidding strategies for multi-market participation
4. Assessment and enhancement of market efficiency, system adequacy and price stability
5. Detection and mitigation of market power
Chairs:
Dr. Zou Yunyang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Yunyang Zou received the B.E. degree and M.E. degree from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China in 2014 and 2017, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2024. He is currently a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University. His research interests include renewable energy integration, energy management, microgrid and multi-energy system operation, and energy economics.
Assoc. Prof. Su Yi, Xiangtan University, China
Su Yi (MIEEE, MIET, MCSEE), full-time associate professor and a master's supervisor at Xiangtan University. He has published over ten SCI/EI papers as the first author/co-author. Currently, he is leading 1 major special funds of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 3 engineering projects of the power grid, with a total budget of over 5 million yuan. He has won the Second Prize of Hunan Province for Electric Power Science. His main research fields include: artificial intelligence ethics and applications, and comprehensive energy system optimization scheduling driven by knowledge and data.
Dr. Yikui Liu, Sichuan University, China
Yikui Liu received the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA, in 2020. He worked in Siemens, USA, as an Energy Market Engineer, during 2020–2021. He worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA, during 2021-2023. He is currently a Research Associate with Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. His research interests include the power market and OPF in distribution systems.
Assist. Prof. Buxin She, Kansas State University, USA
Buxin She received the B.S.E.E and M.S.E.E degrees from Tianjin University, China in 2017 and 2019, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2023, all in electrical engineering. He is currently an Assistant professor at Kansas State University. From 2023 to 2025, he was a (senior) research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), where he leads three projects sponsored by U.S. DOE and PNNL. He serves as the chair of the IEEE Task Force on Virtual Inertia Scheduling and Control for IBR-dominant Power Systems. His research interests include control and stability analysis of IBRs and dynamics-constrained power system planning and operation.
Dr. Xueshen Zhao, Shandong University of Technology, China
Xueshen Zhao is a Lecturer and Master’s Supervisor at Shandong University of Technology, holding a Ph.D. from Tianjin University. He has secured research funding as the Principal Investigator for one Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and one Youth Program of the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation. He has also participated in two projects under the National Key Research and Development Program of China and one General Program of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. His main research focuses on reduced-order modeling, stability analysis, and virtual inertia assessment for DC distribution systems.