WG 9: Flexibility Markets
Working Group (WG) 9 covers all aspects of market design for power system flexibility. This includes the entire spectrum of market timescales, ranging from long-term investment signals to second-by-second balancing and response. The scope of WG 9 also extends to the entire physical system, including large centralised generation and sources of flexibility behind the meter within domestic settings and interfaces.
WG 9 considers all the sources of value that flexibility could potentially capture, going beyond MWh to include physical grid characteristics, such as voltage control, repeatability, inertia and locational constraint alleviation. It also considers various market aspects that extend beyond trading rules, including consumer support and the understanding and verification of obligations related to grid stability.
Objectives
To enrich and disseminate participant’s understanding of the flexibility market design
To create and curate an evidence base that everyone can draw upon to support decision-making in the flexibility market
To further the debate on the best practices for market design
Tasks
Flexibility-aware distribution network planning
Lead: Austria and Switzerland (supported by Belgium, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and the UK)
This task explores strategies for incorporating flexible resources into long-term network reinforcement distribution planning, including the potential implementation of local flexibility markets. The advantages and challenges of these approaches will be evaluated and compared. Expected outputs include:
- A fact sheet on the possibilities of considering flexible resources in distribution grid planning
- A fact sheet providing an overview of possible flexibility concepts for distribution grid planners
- A fact sheet or comparison table of local flexibility markets and network reinforcement solutions
- A knowledge exchange webinar
Price signals and tariffs for consumer flexibility
Lead: Ireland (supported by all WG 9 countries)
This task examines the role of price signals and tariffs in supporting the flexible operation of grids and how they encourage consumer flexibility. A key feature of flexible grids is the ability to enable consumers to adjust their energy consumption through actions such as turning it up or down or shifting it.
Consumer flexibility is often categorised as either explicit or implicit, and consumers are increasingly engaging with new tariffs and services from suppliers and aggregators, as well as responding to temporary calls for action. This task began with a stakeholder workshop at ExCo30 in Dublin and will culminate in a short paper on the current state of play regarding flexible tariffs for consumers, with an international focus.
Operational and long-term planning
Lead: Spain (supported by Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland)
The aim of this task is to identify the location of flexibility markets (i.e. markets in which flexibility is bought or sold) within the overall electricity market landscape and to review and present the emerging options for coordinating these markets.
The objectives include reviewing and improving market-based coordination among system operators to increase the accessibility of wholesale electricity markets, particularly for small local resources.
The task also aims to review tools and platforms developed to facilitate the coordination and standardisation of flexibility markets. It will produce the following outputs:
- A short report on different coordination mechanisms for flexibility markets
- A knowledge-sharing webinar
The published outputs of Working Group 9 can be accessed here:
Working Group Manager (UK)
Rosie Madge
Energy Systems Catapult
