THE WORLD IS CHANGING –
FOR GOOD, AND FOR THE BETTER

Flexible energy and demand response are crucial factors in balancing national electricity grids

Transitioning to green and variable energy sources makes energy predictions way more complex. The need for demand response as well as flexible energy production will grow tenfold by 2030. Global electricity stability requires significant new initiatives to face this challenge by providing more flexibility to the grids in addition to flexible energy production – The Energy Coop Exchange is one of those initiatives.

Need of Energy Flexibility is urgent

Green transition is driving towards clean energy. The prevalent methods to generate clean energy, being wind and solar power, are very variable in nature. This makes production estimates almost impossible to get right.

Electrification of end-uses and the growth of variable renewables is changing how electricity systems operate on all time scales. Need for demand response is expected multiply from 1% to over 20% of total flexibility by 2030 (IEA). For reference, batteries are expected to account for 6%, highlighting the importance of demand response in grid stability.

Buildings are estimated to provide 50% of demand response availability, equivalent to approximately 260GW during peak demands (IEA). This implies a global need to connect 260GW of loads from the built environment for demand response, as well as develop a solution for its wide utilization. For reference, 260GW equals the total electricity generation capacity of Germany in 2022 (reference). The challenge to connect loads from buildings equal to the capacity of the 6th largest country’s electricity generation is massive challenge that needs to be solved to be able to connect sufficient amounts of renewable energy to reach Net Zero Emission goals. Energy Coop offers a solution to these challenges.

Higher renewable penetration will change the Finnish wholesale power price
dynamics. The number of hours with high but also low to zero prices compared to today will
increase significantly thereby raising the annual average real wholesale power price by about 86% in 2050 compared to today (Sitra).

For more details, please contact bjorn(at)truman.cloud

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