Provider
In addition to traditional flexible power plants, such as pump storage and cogeneration plants, BKW is turning to potential that has been largely untapped – the flexibilisation of photovoltaic systems. In a cross-company project, BKW has developed a solution that allows pooling, control and, where required, curtailment of PV installations to support systems and the grid. Following successful tests, Swissgrid has pre-qualified BKW and third-party systems for participation in the control energy market.
The significance and economic attractiveness of this flexibility is rising, especially at times of surplus electricity in the grid: the compensation for strategic curtailment is currently attractive. In April, for example, prolonged sunshine and low grid loads meant there was surplus electricity in the Swiss grid on a number of occasions. In this situation, strategic curtailment of PV installations connected through Powerflex actively helped stabilise the supply system.
«Together with BKW we make a significant contribution to the development of a stable overall system by controlling our PV installations in response to price signals.»
This means that system operators who have PV installations with an output of 500 kW or more have the opportunity to take part in the control energy market – with no technical or operational hurdles. BKW takes charge of the entire process, from connecting the installations to controlling, billing and monitoring. All the customer has to do is provide a compatible PV management system – BKW handles the rest.
«PV installations have enormous potential for flexibilisation that we can utilise by pooling them through BKW’s virtual power plant.»
BKW is creating additional value with this scalable connection and aggregation of PV installations; once used to merely generate electricity, they can now become active ancillary service providers. This not only increases their cost-effectiveness, but also turns a challenge into part of the solution.
What is the control energy market exactly?
If there is not enough electricity in the grid, consumption has to be reduced or production increased. If there is too much electricity, the same applies in reverse. As a transmission system operator, Swissgrid is responsible for grid stability. It does not have any of its own installations, so it has to source this flexibility from the control energy market.
