Abstract
The foreseeable increase in the use of electric vehicles (EV) led to the discussion on intermediate entities that could help manage a great number of EV. An aggregation agent for electric vehicles is a commercial middleman between a system operator (SO) and plug-in EV. From the SO perspective, the aggregator is seen as a large source of generation or load, which could provide ancillary services such as spinning and regulating reserve. Generally, these services will be provided in the day-ahead and intraday electricity markets. In addition, the aggregator also participates in the electricity market with supply and demand energy bids. This paper provides a comprehensive bibliographic survey on the aggregator role in the power system operation and electricity market. The scope of the survey covers 59 references divided in journal, conference proceedings, thesis, research papers, and technical reports published after 1994. These papers are put into several technical categories: electricity market and EV technical and economic issues; aggregation agent concept, role and business model; algorithms for EV management as a load/resource. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract
A probabilistic forecast, in contrast to a point forecast, provides to the end-user more and valuable information for decision-making problems such as wind power bidding into the electricity market or setting adequate operating reserve levels in the power system. One important requirement is to have flexible representations of wind power forecast (WPF) uncertainty, in order to facilitate their inclusion in several problems. This paper reports results of using the quantile-copula conditional Kernel density estimator in the WPF problem, and how to select the adequate kernels for modeling the different variables of the problem. The method was compared with splines quantile regression for a real wind farm located in the U.S. Midwest. © 2011 IEEE.

Abstract
In this paper we discuss how probabilistic wind power forecasts can serve as an important tool to efficiently address wind power uncertainty in power system operations. We compare different probabilistic forecasting and scenario reduction methods, and test the resulting forecasts on a stochastic unit commitment model. The results are compared to deterministic unit commitment, where dynamic operating reserve requirements can also be derived from the probabilistic forecasts. In both cases, the use of probabilistic forecasts contributes to improve the system performance in terms of cost and reliability. © 2011 IEEE.

Abstract
Wind power forecasting is becoming an important tool in electricity markets, but the use of these forecasts in market operations and among market participants is still at an early stage. The authors discuss the current use of wind power forecasting in U.S. ISO/RTO markets, and offer recommendations for how to make efficient use of the information in state-of-the-art forecasts. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.

Abstract
This paper reports the application of a new kernel density estimation model based on the Nadaraya-Watson estimator, for the problem of wind power uncertainty forecasting. The new model is described, including the use of kernels specific to the wind power problem. A novel time-adaptive approach is presented. The quality of the new model is benchmarked against a splines quantile regression model currently in use in the industry. The case studies refer to two distinct wind farms in the United States and show that the new model produces better results, evaluated with suitable quality metrics such as calibration, sharpness, and skill score.

Abstract
This paper discusses risk management, contracting, and bidding for a wind power producer. A majority of the wind power in the United States is sold on long-term power purchase agreements, which hedge the wind power producer against future price risks. However, a significant amount is sold as merchant power and therefore is exposed to fluctuations in future electricity prices (day-ahead and real-time) and potential imbalance penalties. Wind power forecasting can serve as a tool to increase the profit and reduce the risk from participating in the wholesale electricity market. We propose a methodology to derive optimal day-ahead bids for a wind power producer under uncertainty in realized wind power and market prices. We also present an initial illustrative case study from a hypothetical wind site in the United States, where we compare the results of different day-ahead bidding strategies. The results show that the optimal day-ahead bid is highly dependent on the expected day-ahead and real-time prices, and also on the risk preferences of the wind power producer. A deviation penalty between day-ahead bid and real-time delivery tends to drive the bids closer to the expected generation for the next day.