Sympower and Dutch grid operator TenneT will examine the possibilities of using distributed electrical assets to help balance the grid in a sustainable way. The pilot will start in January 2019 and will run for a period of two years during which a number of Sympower’s partners will provide flexibility through their controllable energy loads to one of TenneT’s balancing markets, called ‘automated Frequency Restoration Reserves’ (aFRR or ‘control power’).

 

At the moment, aFRR is mainly provided by conventional power plants, but the future of the energy landscape is changing and new solutions are needed. TenneT initiated the pilot to involve market players such as Sympower in investigating how distributed energy loads such as flexible industrial generation and consumption loads can supply aFRR in particular, and what the implications are for the market specifications and the technology currently used.

 

Sympower is working together with a number of its partners in this pilot project, including HVC, a waste processing company and renewable energy supplier with facilities throughout the Netherlands. This partner, among others, will participate in the aFRR pilot with their current flexible industrial generation and consumption loads.

 

“At HVC, sustainability is our core business. Being involved in a project like this enables us on top of being a green energy supplier, to make our operational processes play a part in shaping the energy transition.”

Maarten de Wit – Energy Assets Manager at HVC.

 

Sympower CEO Simon Bushell, adds

 

“Together with its partners, Sympower will continue to showcase that distributed load balancing and other forms of frequency reserves can provide higher quality and more sustainable ancillary services than traditional supply balancing. At Sympower, we are convinced that this pilot will act as a catalyst for change in the way the current aFRR system operates.”

Simon Bushell

 

Read the full publication on the TenneT website here.