New business opportunities on local flexibility markets for DSOs
At the expert panel forum "New Applications in a New Electricity World”, Dr. Christoph Gutschi, Senior Project Manager at CyberGrid presented solutions for DSOs on how to improve Flexibility Provision when interacting with Distribution Grid Operations.E-control, the Austrian energy regulator and host of the event, invited experts from the European energy industry to discuss the most recent technological developments for a greener and more sustainable energy supply.[caption id="attachment_10274" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
Christoph Gutschi presenting business opportunities for DSO[/caption]In his presentation, Christoph Gutschi addressed the challenges with local flexibility markets for DSOs. He also suggested alternative approaches such as the use of traffic light systems to maintain control of balance service providers in the grid, as highlighted in CyberGrid's work on the InteGrid H2020 project. Furthermore, he stressed that reduced connection fees could be offered to new flexible customers.Because the energy transition requires infrastructure that is supportive of renewable energies, existing energy assets should be enhanced and used in a more efficient way. Christoph Gutschi's presentation proposed market strategies on how to explore the opportunities of extended use of existing infrastructure and how to achieve added value for DSO infrastructure through monitoring and switching services as well as data hub services.
"Smart technologies like CyberGrid's flexibility aggregation platform give rise to new business models to be offered by DSOs while they can also use their investment in infrastructure more efficiently." Christoph Gutschi
Finally, he encouraged the audience to rethink peak load charges by highlighting CyberGrid's experience in the H2020 Magnitude project. The Magnitude project has shown that the current schemes of network tariffs and RES support discourage the provision of flexibility services by the commercial and industrial sectors due to risks of increasing peak load charges. Amongst other aims, Magnitude is designed to develop technical solutions, market design and business models for multi-energy systems, to increase flexibility provision for supporting renewable integration.
