A Key Player on the Domestic Market
The Demand Response market is taking shape in Italy. When the results of grid operator Terna’s auction were published in September 2018, it emerged that Enel X had been awarded 51 MW, bringing its total to 119 MW and making it Italy’s leading Demand Response aggregator. The dispatching services pilot project promoted by the grid operator Terna had already seen Enel X assigned over 50 MW of industrial and commercial customer-derived flexibility at previous auctions. Enel X thus remains one of the leading players on the energy innovation scene with its own flexibility services. The rise of renewables and the growth in global demand for energy on the one hand, and digitalization and the electrification of consumption on the other, are transforming and decentralizing the energy market. The ability to consume and generate energy shrewdly and flexibly now offers businesses a new tool to improve their competitiveness. Demand Response (DR) programs can help companies create new revenue streams, program their energy consumption, and save on energy costs.
Enel X’s Diversified Portfolio to Support the Grid
During the latest fixed-term resource provision program reserved for owners of virtual consumption units authorized to participate in the dispatching services market (Aggregate Virtual Consumption Units - UVACs), Terna provided a quantity of virtual resources totaling 500 MW for the period spanning June 18-September 30, 2018. Through its diversified portfolio of contracted clients (UVACs), Enel X, which has now been assigned 119 MW in total, will provide Terna with the capacity required to meet the grid operator’s needs whenever there is a request from the latter.
Enel X leadership at home and abroad
Already an established world leader in Demand Response through its US subsidiary EnerNOC, Enel X is similarly at the forefront of the Italian market. The recently assigned 51 MWs are actually the first to bear the name of the Enel Group’s new energy services and technologically advanced solutions unit. From now on, Italian businesses will also be able to contribute to the energy market, as part of an approach that favors conscious consumption and efficiency, following the guidelines of the core concept of innovability: sustainability and innovation. Another feature worth acknowledging is the process of order management and plant control/monitoring, which uses one of the most evolved smart platforms in the sector. The latter maximizes the value of customer aggregates by leveraging their differing characteristics and availability. The management of such a diversified portfolio of clients, which varies in both size and sector, is one of the key strengths of Enel X’s proposal.
A new opportunity for consumers
The disruption that has shaken up the electricity sector and the consequent technological and digital revolution that has invaded it offer new opportunities for consumers, who can now actively participate in the energy market by becoming potential suppliers. In fact, thanks to Demand Response programmes, consumers can also agree to reduce their energy use when required, helping to stabilize the grid and earning money for providing the service. These topics were discussed last March during the conference organized at the Milan Polytechnic Institute Energy@home, a non-profit association that aims to create a collaborative network for the design of Smart Home services within an efficient and synergic ecosystem.
The round table set out to present the study “Participation in the flexible demand market for dispatching services”, carried out by PoliMI and RSE (Energy System Research), established to examine the potential and benefits of participating in the Demand Response market. The study is the result of a cycle of monthly workshops held with partners at the Energy@home Association, followed by the creation of a demonstration platform on Energy Aggregation, available via open source, that enabled some simulations of the exchange of data and of managing the response to the demand. The round table at the Polytechnic Institute was chaired by the Director of Energy@home, Fabio Bellifemine, who presented the study on new market scenarios together with Massimo Gallanti, Director of the Department of Energy Systems Development at RSE.
Experts from the Polytechnic Institute and RSE took part in the discussion, together with several players in the energy sector, including Daniele Andreoli, Head of Optimisation and Flexibility Solutions at Enel X.
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