| Transmission & distribution
Flexibility markets: a way of managing increasing complexity
The energy industry is facing rapid change. Power flows are becoming increasingly complex, with intermittent supply as more renewables connect to the grid and with increasingly volatile and unpredictable demand. This complexity will only grow as government targets place a burden on power systems to decarbonise (by 2035 in the UK and the US, and a number of major EU countries), but flexibility markets promise a way of managing it
Emilis Srage Product Manager, Electron, UK
Flexibility markets can help system operators and network utilities efficiently manage power flows through the network as industry demands become more complex. The markets manage when and where electricity is generated and consumed, incentivising the turn up and turn down of electricity demand or generation. These markets can deal with the challenges of local constraint and curtailment management – increasingly common as the number of new distributed energy resources (DERs), community energy schemes, and demand response participants grow.
The UK government, in collaboration with Ofgem, has transitioned to a TotEX model and incentivised the use of more flexible arrangements, encouraging system operators to focus on performance objectives through the RIIO price control periods.
This has allowed the growth of an expansive ecosystem of market actors, all competing to provide:
the best experience for flexibility service providers (FSPs); and
the best flexibility solution according to the individual requirements of different system operators.
As the landscape continues to evolve, with more DERs connecting every day, market platforms need to be responsive, adaptive, and interconnected, so that system operators can maximise the benefits, avoid vendor lock-in, and provide an easy way for FSPs to offer their flexibility services into markets. It’s in this context that Electron saw an opportunity to create more value for all market actors with its marketplace software for flexibility and distributed electricity.
Our configurable software-as-a-service platform, ElectronConnect, helps connect millions of distributed energy resources to thousands of co-ordinated markets, in response to these existing industry challenges – and in anticipation of the changing demands of a developing landscape.
An extensible multi-market solution
Electron has developed its extensible and configurable flexibility market platform to sit at the core of the evolving and interoperable flexibility ecosystem.
Through ElectronConnect, system operators can configure different market products and procure flexibility from different DER technology types and network levels – and across different time scales, ie, day-ahead to year-ahead. That means more visibility and more choice for system operators in how they procure flexibility. That multitude of markets can also offer benefits to flexibility service providers. FSPs can “stack revenue” – or offer their services into different markets – incentivising them to participate in flexibility events and earn more. The need for multi-market participation is growing, and Electron’s technology can keep pace, with automated processes and integrations to easily onboard FSPs. That FSP experience is key to the future of flexibility markets.
System operators need access to as many FSP options as possible to unlock the full potential of the network – and recent projects Electron has been involved in demonstrate that barriers can be broken down and modern, flexible markets can be deployed with concrete results. For example, project TraDER, a first-of-its-kind, real-time physical local market.
Figure 1. Project TraDER – a real-time, many-to-many market
Project TraDER This project developed a flexibility market that was able to make more efficient use of the renewable electricity generated by wind farms in Orkney, Scotland.
www.modernpowersystems.com | March 2024 | 25
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