ENGIE is among the first mover on demand-side flexibility management, offering consumers and customers the opportunity to leverage their flexibility, whether through load shedding, consumption shifting, or ancillary services.
Electricity grids must be balanced at all times. The amount of energy fed into the grid must be exactly equal to the amount consumed, as energy cannot be stored on the grid. The transition to renewable energies, such as wind and solar, is now a reality, as illustrated below by the evolution of the Danish energy mix, with a clear shift from coal to wind.
More generally speaking, shifting from dispatchable towards non-dispatchable and volatile generation assets limits the ability to adapt the production to consumption. While we already use consumption forecasts and adapt production accordingly, we now need to forecast both consumption and generation and adapt not only production but also consumption.
The penetration of solar PV poses a specific challenge at the end of afternoon, when solar production quickly decreases while consumption increases rapidly, leading to a sharp increase in the need for dispatchable generation. Demand-side flexibility, which can modify the load profile, can then be used to mitigate the impact of this phenomenon.
These grid tensions affect electricity prices: market prices are higher during peak hours and lower, or even negative, during periods of overproduction. This creates economic incentives to consume when prices are low and to avoid consumption during periods of high prices, thus enabling demand-side flexibility to facilitate grid balancing.
Peak Hours: avoiding peak-hour consumption by shifting it to periods of less stress on the grid. For instance, smart buildings can anticipate heating their premises during off-peak hours and exploit their thermal inertia to stop consumption during peak hours while maintaining an acceptable level of comfort.
Grid Services: demand-side flexibility can be used to provide services to TSOs to balance the grid (ancillary services). For instance managing EV charging service by temporarily limiting the charging rate can help stabilize the grid.
Local Congestion: demand-side flexibility can also address local infrastructure congestion by reducing consumption when needed to avoid exceeding infrastructure capacity. This is particularly important because electrification increases electricity demand at a faster rate than infrastructure development can absorb.
ENGIE is among the first mover on demand-side flexibility management, offering industrial and tertiary consumers, and even residential customers, the opportunity to leverage their flexibility, whether through load shedding, consumption shifting, or ancillary services. ENGIE also operates the largest flexibility pool thanks to its on-street EV charging stations in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
Adapting to evolving flexibility needs, new offers and developments are currently being developed accordingly.
Thanks to Matthieu Besson, Department manager at ENGIE Research for this enlightening introduction to demand-side flexibility.
