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8.11.2017 12:00
Press Releases, Current News, Electricity Market

Smart power system must be financially attractive to consumers and industry actors

A smart power system is bringing new solutions to the developing electricity market. Through the smartness of the power system, it will be possible to increase the ability of the power system to balance electricity production and consumption at all times, and in this way to enable the increasing utilisation of wind and solar energy. In order to achieve this, the smart power system must be financially attractive, both to industry actors and to consumers. The smart power system of the future will be built on modern digital solutions.

The increasing utilisation of wind and solar energy will only be possible if the power system can balance electricity production and consumption at all times. In the near future, new energy services offered to consumers will play a significant role as a balancer of the power system. Through demand response making use of home automation, it will be possible to reduce electricity consumption when production is low, and to use more electricity when there is more power available. When consumers are actively involved in the market, they can reduce their electricity bills by adapting their electricity consumption to the price level prevailing at any given moment.
 
The market must be built to entice consumers to get involved in it. Developing technology and automation are lowering the threshold for the consumer to participate in the flexible electricity market. If they so wish, consumers can also use new kinds of service, where service providers can transmit electricity saved based on consumption site response for the needs of the power market.
- “In the final analysis, customer will decide whether or not a smart power system is created in Finland. Things that interest customers are financial savings created and making everyday life easier for themselves and, to an increasing extent, an influential factor is also the environmental perspective,” emphasises Fingrid’s Senior Vice President, Market , Asta Sihvonen-Punkka.  
In Finland, the industry has started to implement a smart power system on a broad front. It is understood that decisions aiming at the future and affecting the whole of society must be made together. A concrete example of this is Smart Grid Working Group of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, in which the industry and authorities are broadly represented. The working group is proposing a large number of reforms to take the smart power system forward. Finland is also getting Datahub, a centralised information exchange solution that promotes the operations of the retail market.
 
In the opinion of Asta Sihvonen-Punkka, development prospects are quite bright.
- “The large-scale implementation of a smart power system requires functional rules, which encourage consumers and market actors to get involved in development. The creation of such rules requires policy decisions. Once an effective framework is in place, bold consumers and companies will be required to try out new operating practices,” says Sihvonen-Punkka.
New business through digital ecosystems
 
It is expected that digitalisation will bring a change to the energy sector, and enable a new way of doing competitive business utilising new technological innovations. Digital solutions are being exploited in the open distribution of information, and its utilisation, business models and marketing. Digitalisation may create for the industry ecosystems in which companies working together can create synergies amongst each other. In January 2017, Fingrid opened a free-of-charge data service, in an attempt to improve electricity market efficiency by openly offering the information it has gathered for the use of citizens and different actors in society. Digitalisation will enable an improvement in the productivity of operations in the energy sector, as well as access to new electricity services.
- “Finnish energy companies should understand and exploit the opportunities comprehensively created by digitalisation. Digitalisation creates opportunities for the creation of new business and earnings models, and for the expansion of the range of services. I believe that quite soon the application of artificial intelligence to different kinds of analytical and diagnostic tasks will increase,” says Kari Suominen Senior Vice President ICT at Fingrid.
The continuity of business is increasingly dependent on the efficiency of data systems, which requires constant vigilance and comprehensive data security solutions to prevent cyber threats.
 
Topical energy issues at a seminar and webcast at 1.00 pm on 8 November
 
Today Fingrid is organising the topical Fingrid Current seminar.

The seminar programme starts at 1.00 pm, and can be viewed live over the internet on here.

Send your questions or comments to www.viestiseina.fi/fingrid or text to 12154. At the beginning of your message, type the word Fingrid [space]. You can also use the Twitter hashtag #FingridCurrent 
 
There is also a link to the event at http://www.fingrid.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/tapahtumat/seminaarit/2017/
 
Further information:
Senior Vice President, Electricity Market Development, Asta Sihvonen-Punkka, tel. +358 (0)30 395 5235 (electricity market issues)
Senior Vice President ICT Kari Suominen, tel. +358 (0)30 395 4134 (ICT projects)

Keywords:
Digital ecosystem: Digital ecosystem:  connects producers and consumers of electricity, transmission networks, new technologies and service providers with each other through digital services, such as new balance- or demand response services.

Demand response: The transfer of electricity consumption guided by price. The use of electricity decreases temporarily when the price on the electricity market is high.