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25.11.2019 15:38
Electricity Market

The independent aggregator pilot in the balancing energy market will be expanded

Fingrid plans to expand the independent aggregator operating model pilot in the balancing energy market in order to gain additional experience. The goal of allowing independent aggregators is to make it easier to participate in the balancing energy market and enable new business models. The aim is to start the pilot in early 2020; it will be open to all interested participants.

Fingrid plans to expand the independent aggregator pilot in the balancing energy market that started in 2017. When reserve providers are allowed to collect or aggregate decentralised flexible resources out of the balances of other electricity market participants, it makes new kinds of business models possible and it becomes easier for new participants or resources to enter the reserve market.

The pilots implemented with Helen and Voltalis, which have been in progress for a couple of years, have not yielded much results yet. Flexibility offered by actors outside the traditional open delivery chain requires significant updates to the IT systems, data exchange on the electricity market and the reserve agreements to ensure that the operating models are impartial and effective. Fingrid sees expanding the pilot as an opportunity to test the scalability of the pilot solutions trialled during 2019 before making actual changes to the agreements.

In Finland, the plan is to open the pilot to all balancing service providers interested in the subject. Participation requires balance responsibility and signing the pilot agreement. Starting the pilot also requires approval by the authorities. We will provide more information on the start of the pilot later.

Independent aggregators offer the owners of flexible resources choices in providing flexibility services, and they make it possible for actors to specialise in a specific technology, for example. In accordance with the policies of the Clean Energy package of the EU and the Finnish smart grid working group, the operation of independent aggregators must be made possible in all electricity marketplaces. Amendments to the legislation are currently being discussed in the smart grid forum of the Energy Authority. Fingrid is participating in the discussion, and when the legislation has been specified, it will make changes to the reserve agreements of the balancing energy market. Amendments to the legislation will be made during 2020.

Read more about the previous aggregation pilots in the balancing energy market 

Additional information:

Heidi Uimonen, Fingrid, Electricity Market Specialist, tel. +358 30 395 4143

Otso-Ville Rinne, Fingrid, Specialist, System Operation Development, tel. +358 30 395 4142

Aggregation means combining smaller electricity production, consumption and storage sites that are capable of balancing into larger packages that can be offered on different electricity marketplaces. The aggregation of different resources is already permitted in all electricity marketplaces in Finland.

Independent aggregator refers to an operator that combines flexible resources outside the conventional electricity delivery chain; in other words, an operator that is not the electricity supplier or balance responsible party for the sites. In Finland, independent aggregator activities are already permitted in frequency-controlled reserves (FCR-N and FCR-D).

Chain of open deliveries of electricity refers to the basic structure of the electricity market, where the different electricity operators have mutual agreements on the management of the electricity balance; in other words, the procurement and delivery of electricity. For example, an electricity supplier that delivers electricity to a small-scale electricity consumer must have a balance responsible party for any errors in the electricity balance. Fingrid balances the electricity balances of the balance responsible parties.