A new swing-contract design for wholesale power markets

"Growing reliance on variable energy resources and greater encouragement of demand-side participation have led to greater volatility and uncertainty in real-time net load (i.e., electric power usage net of non-dispatchable generation). This, in turn, has led to a greater need for the flexible provision of reserve (dispatchable power paths) to ensure net load can be balanced in real-time operations, an essential requirement for reliable transmission grid operations. This greater need for flexible reserve provision has been difficult for current wholesale electric power markets to meet, given the rigidities and conceptual problems inherent in their design."