Danish transmission system operator Energinet is ready to create local and delimited flexibility markets in the parts of Denmark where a large number of wind turbines or solar panels can at times make more electricity than the electricity grid can absorb.
The plan follows a successful pilot project on the island of Lolland, in which Dansk Energi, the electricity grid company Cerius, Centrica and HOFOR have also participated.
Energinet said the island can produce more electricity than can be used locally.
Energinet engineer in the flexibility and system services department Thomas Dalgas Fechtenburg said it therefore made sense for a local market to create competition to deliver the cheapest bids to turn down production.
The alternative would be for Energinet to order electricity producers to switch off without competition to deliver the cheapest bids.
In 2020, Energinet made a ‘capacity map’ showing where production from wind and solar in some areas, such as Lolland, far exceeds the local consumption, and that in some of the hours of the year there may be problems with transporting the electricity away.
Paying for local down-regulation can in some situations be cheaper than expanding the electricity grid, said Energinet.
But, said Fechtenburg, local flexibility markets should, as a general rule, be seen as an operating solution until the electricity grid has been expanded to be able to accommodate the green power at all hours.
However, because it is often possible to set up a solar park, for example, much faster than it takes to expand the electricity grid, it makes good sense to expand the Lolland project to other parts of the country, the company said.
In the pilot project, the local flexibility market was activated 11 times in six months, and most often approximately 50MW at a time.
The largest down-regulation corresponded to about 10% of the island’s total production in the hour in question, and on average this corresponds to 200% of consumption in Lolland, Energinet said.
It added that the down-time on Lolland did not create any problems for either the overall or subordinate electricity network or the supply.
However, larger amounts of local activations are expected in the future, which is why it must be evaluated on an ongoing basis how many MW can be regulated, the company said.
Energinet has notified the Danish energy regulator Forsyningstilsynet about the new market approach and expects to be able to use it elsewhere in the country during the year.