Report

Market and Flexibility

There are major changes afoot in the electrical power grid, driven by a surge in the (variable) production of solar and wind energy, in combination with growing use of technologies with substantial power requirements and a specific demand pattern, such as electric transport and electric heat pumps. The consequences of these developments will be felt in three segments of the electricity system:

  1. Power supply (commodity)
  2. Balancing (imbalance)
  3. Grid congestion (transmission capacity).

To accommodate these new developments will require versatile strategies and technologies to match supply and demand – in a word, ‘flexibility’. Given the challenges ahead, we need to know how much flexibility is available now and in the future and whether this flexibility can sufficiently penetrate the various segments of the electricity market.

This publication, the main report of the project ‘Market and Flexibility: market structure for operationalizing flexibility options’, reviews the project’s key results. There is also a background report providing a broader review and more detailed elaboration of the analyses and results.

The project was motivated by an earlier analysis conducted for the thinktank ‘Structural changes in the energy market’, which looks ahead to likely developments in the electricity system through to 2030.

Authors