With our changing energy system new ways of providing flexibility are emerging. Unconventional flexibility needs to compensate the variability in supply and demand while maintaining the balance. Regulators have to understand the emerging challenges and their implications and shall be equipped with expertise in order to facilitate and enable new technologies and innovation.

With this eye opening educational workshop ERRA will introduce the need for flexibility and the possible types of services while explaining existing challenges and barriers and the way forward.

Major issues to be discussed

• System integration of intermittent renewable generators,
  
• Network and system regulation challenges,
  
• Flexible generation,
  
• Balancing, balance circles,  
  
• Generation and demand forecasting,
  
• Different sources of flexibility
  
• Demand response,
  
• Storage technology for different purposes,
  
• Different regulatory measures supporting technologies ensuring flexibility
  

Background

The increasing ratio of intermittent renewable capacities (solar and wind) on the national and regional markets creates new system-regulation challenges.  The need and the value of flexibility increases in the electricity system. The new generation portfolio and the renewable influenced commodity (energy) prices squeeze out flexible (gas fired) power plant units. In this present and foreseen situation system operators should mobilize all possible sources and actions in order to keep the system balance and to ensure system regulation.

More predictable load forecast of generators (including intermittent renewable) and demand forecast together with incentives keeping the balance between load/demand forecast and actual load/demand are important elements of smooth system regulation. The well constructed balance circles together with the adequate rules and incentives could incorporate rigid and flexible generators; end-users, virtual power plants, aggregators, storage facilities and flexible consumers through active demand side response programs. The new possibilities offered by digital solutions could involve not only the large end-users, but the small ones, the electrical appliances, the public buildings and future smart cities into the different segments of flexibility markets.

The TSOs are working on the preparation of standard products (reserve capacity and regulating power in different time-horizons and for different purposes) in the transparent system operation, on the cross-border balancing possibilities, and on the probability based harmonised system-load forecasting methods.

The massively increasing number of electric vehicles (EV) create further challenges for distribution network operators (DSO) and for system operators (TSO). The new charging infrastructure needs massive network development and the charging behaviour of EVs could create system imbalances and congestion problems in the distribution system. On the other hand the EV batteries, as element of distributed storage system could assist the system-operation, if technical conditions and incentives available.

Regulators should take into consideration these tendencies, new challenges, possibilities and changing consumer expectations while creating new network tariff structure and the necessary incentives. The regulator could also facilitate new technologies and innovative solutions through enabling regulatory attitude.

TUITION FEE:
ERRA Full Members: € 650
ERRA Associate Members: € 755
Non-Member Regulators: € 860
Non-Members: € 1070

More information:
https://erranet.org/training/system_flexibility_challenge_2019/
ERRA Educational Workshop: The System Flexibility Challenge PDF (411 KB)