Flexibility market projects

Fingrid develops electricity markets to consider the flexibility needs of the electricity system. Flexibility market refers to the trading of flexibility from the resources connected to electricity networks as part of the management of the electricity system, for example in terms of frequency, transmission, and voltage management. As stated by the Clean Energy Package (CEP), these flexibility services should be procured with transparent, non-discriminatory, and market-based procedures.

Fingrid has developed flexibility market solutions in the INTERRFACE (2019–2022) and OneNet (2020–2024) projects under the EU's Horizon 2020 research program. In the INTERRFACE project, Fingrid focused on cooperation between transmission and distribution networks and the development needs of power system transmission management and frequency management. The OneNet project expanded this work with the development of the optimization of the procurement of flexibility and taking into account the procurement of flexibility also for longer-term needs, for example before the completion of network investments.

There are many development needs related to the flexibility markets, for which the projects tried to find solutions. These include, for example, forecasting the need for flexibility, visualization, information exchange, modelling, coordination, trading and settlement. The above-mentioned functionalities are needed when, in the near future, transmission and distribution networks increasingly need market-based flexibility to support the electricity system and network infrastructure in the most efficient way possible.

At the beginning of 2024, the development took the next step when Fingrid started a development project with distribution network companies, the aim of which is to test a flexibility market platform in practice. As a result of planning at the beginning of the year, tendering for the platform was launched together with Helen Sähköverkko in the summer of 2024. The goal is to start the procurement trials of flexibility services in the coming winter. In the project named Marketplace Solution for DSO-TSO Congestion Management, Fingrid and Helen Sähköverkko are testing the procurement of flexibility from the same platform for their own needs. In distribution networks, flexibility needs are very local, while Fingrid manages transmissions at the national level. The project aims to point the way towards a wider national flexibility market and to prepare for the requirements of the future Network Code on Demand Response.