A Robust Feasible-Box Method for Response Power Boundary Verification of DER Stakeholders in the Distribution System

The growth of low-voltage distributed energy resources (DERs) enables users to manage their own generation and demand, forming DER stakeholders at single or aggregated metering points. As these stakeholders join multi-level electricity markets, their actions must remain feasible under local distribution system limits. Existing work either jointly optimizes DERs and the utility grid or verifies DER response capabilities before market participation. The first can yield accurate results but require real-time data exchange and heavy coordination, whereas the second produce more conservative response boundaries but allow DER stakeholders to ignore local distribution constraints during market participation, thereby decoupling their operations from the utility grid and reducing the internal departments coordination need of utility grid. This paper proposes a practical response-power-boundary calculation and verification framework. Each stakeholder computes its maximum and minimum response boundaries and submits them to the regional load management center (LMC), which operates under the marketing department of the regional utility grid. The local distribution system operator (DSO) then checks and adjusts these boundaries using a DistFlow-Second-order cone program (SOCP) distribution system model and a maximum robust feasible-box method to ensure operational security. The verified boundaries guarantee feasible distribution power-flow solutions for any admissible DER stakeholders’ response and thus decouple DER stakeholders from local distribution constraints. Simulation results show that the proposed method offers a practical and robust way to manage demand-side DER flexibility under existing organizational structures.