Share Your Energy shows how flexibility aggregation is changing the Czech market – the absolute majority of small sources will be involved within three years at the latest

Twenty speakers, almost seven hundred registered attendees and this year’s dominant issue in the Czech and Slovak energy sector – flexibility aggregation. As in years past, the third edition of the Share Your Energy conference was hosted by Stanislav Chvála, CEO of Nano Energies. “Flexibility is the number-one issue this year. At Share Your Energy, we promised to provide practical guidance to anyone who wants to earn money when they use energy. And we managed to do that. The flexibility-aggregation train is picking up speed and we have extended a hand to those who still want to jump on board,” says Chvála.

“You can find flexibility wherever cold or heat energy is accumulated. Freezers, ovens and even buildings. Buildings have an accumulation capability, so if we reduce air-conditioning output for a short period of time, the users won’t even notice,” says Stanislav Chvála, explaining what sources of flexibility may look like. The conference speakers agreed that the usual paradigm is also beginning to change. Whereas in the recent past, electricity production was adapted to consumption, in the future the model will be reversed and consumption will start to be adapted to electricity production.

According to the speakers, the absolute majority of small sources such as co-generation units and biogas plants will be involved in the provision of auxiliary services within three years. Their output will be controlled remotely by a flexibility aggregator according to the requirements of the transmission-grid operator. For example, co-generation units, which typically produce heat and electricity, can reduce their output in winter and, conversely, increase it in summer, when heat production is not needed. 

Speakers from abroad – Rob Sherwood of Shell, Jon Ferris of Delta-EE and Pieter Vanbaelen of Elia – asserted that in Western Europe, the entry of flexibility aggregators has aided the decline of fossil fuels. Flexibility in those countries has helped to keep electricity systems stable, even as the share of renewable sources increases. Demand for aggregated flexibility will also increase in the Czech Republic. Legislative changes adopted earlier this year have steered the energy markets in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the right direction, i.e. towards opening up the auxiliary-services market.

“Flexibility aggregators are opening up completely new possibilities. Through flexible management, we can increase revenues for customers by up to tens of percent. In addition to that, experience from western markets shows that flexibility aggregators are replacing fossil-fuel or nuclear power plants and enabling the transition to a digital and sustainable energy industry,” Chvála concludes. Nano Energies became certified to provide auxiliary services in June this year. The entire Digital Energy Services division is focused on flexibility aggregation and also offers a free analysis to those who are interested in knowing what savings and revenues they can achieve thanks to flexibility.