Balancing electricity in Austria

To meet Austria’s Mission 2030 target of covering 100% of total electricity consumption (national energy balance) from renewables, it will be critical to integrate and coordinate decentralised grid flexibility options in order to make efficient use of the rising share of renewable energy sources in the electricity market. This calls for an innovative solution that will give all market actors access to flexibility options while accounting for power grid restrictions at all levels.

APG is responsible for ensuring that demand and supply are balanced in the Austrian power grid at all times. Since 2012, APG has been meeting this responsibility exclusively through the energy balancing market. 

Up until now, smaller power generating modules and demand units did not typically have a direct link to the wholesale electricity markets. A newly developed flexibility platform will benefit these decentralised units enormously in light of the increasing trend toward decentral, renewable electricity generation and intelligent demand-side facilities. This will open up new possibilities for flexibility services to meet future challenges in the power grid. 

To support implementation, APG joined Equigy, a European crowd balancing platform (CBP), as one of the founding members. APG worked with the platform developers to adapt the Equigy CBP software to the Austrian market. The software solution has meanwhile been rolled out in Austria. The CBP will facilitate supplier participation in the balancing services market, enabling suppliers to connect small-scale flexibility assets such as photovoltaic systems, batteries, heat pumps, electric cars, etc.