Flexity – Enabling end-consumer to contribute in the energy transition

Context

Jan Vandenbroucke

Innovation Project Manager

The energy landscape is fundamentally transforming.

The increasing development of renewable energy, decentralized production and the electrification of energy consumption, such as electric cars and heat pumps, are a big challenge for the overall system and its players. With the energy transition and the digitalization of the sector underway, consumers are calling for energy services that deliver more value and comfort.
This consumer wants and will be led to play an increasingly active role in the functioning of the electrical system.

Flexity aims to investigate the flexibility potential on the household level and test how it can be operated and valorized in the market.

Approach

Flexity unites a key energy and flexibility provider in the Belgian market (ENGIE) with three service providers: tiko, Voltalis and Jedlix. In doing so, Flexity capitalizes on the expertise and knowledge of each of those parties to test whether households are technically capable to deliver flexibility to the market.

The first diagram demonstrates how household flexibility will be operated and valorized in the market. These household assets are operated for a variety of purposes (balancing, time of use, wholesale) and flexibility service providers create an integrated value proposition to the end-consumer.

Flexity will assess and compare the commercial potential of household assets that are:

being optimized based on time of use tariffs,
and/or being valorized on the balancing and wholesale market.

Supplementing the aforementioned, Flexity further brings together CGI, Verv Energy, Fluvius and Elia to test whether data collected centrally from a commercial third party (collected per individual asset through a private device) can be used for settlement purposes.

Reliability and authenticity of this data will be cross-checked with high granular data of the digital meter.

Flexity anticipates on the expected roll-out of the meter and will investigate how this meter can be used in an intelligent way to verify data received from private devices on asset-level.

“In the context of the energy transition, all players must reflect on the future of the electrical grid. Thanks to the collaboration of 8 players, we are currently opening a new dimension for flexibility on household level to make the grid smarter and to serve the interest of society” – Pieter Vanbaelen, project leader at Elia

Description

Generating Flexibility

Consumers share operational control over their assets to a flexibility service provider who operates them without loss in comfort. The customer experience remains effortless, given predefined levels of control.

Valorising flexibility

Service providers create value from flexibility in two different ways. Firstly, consumption is shifted based on Time of Use principles. Secondly, additional value is created via participation in the wholesale or balancing market.

Settlement of flexibility

Grid operators collect high granular data from the digital meter to perform a cross-check with data received from flexibility service providers, to ensure a robust settlement process.