Volue Software Helps Balance Danish Energy Supply

"We are implementing Volue’s Ancitra software to gear up our services", says Kasper Lind Christensen, Head of Portfolio Management at EWII.

In Denmark, wind and solar energy account for more than half of the nation’s power generation. Such high influx of intermittent energy presents a constant challenge to the balance between power production and power consumption.

The self-owned energy- and infrastructure company EWII is a major distributor of energy in the Danish market. It is also an active supplier of balancing services to the Danish TSO, Energinet.

According to Lind Christensen, EWII has been relying on Volue software for some years for handling bids and activating assets.

Automated bidding support

In practice, balancing services are traded by companies that deliver power to the national grid on short notice to counter an imbalance. If for instance the wind stops blowing, other energy sources must be available almost instantly and suppliers of this balancing energy are paid to provide this service.

Traditionally, transactions have been made more or less manually based on bids and offers. However, the need for faster delivery of system services, requires more automation and digitisation of transactions. The Ancitra software offers several automated functions that allows EWII to take part in system balancing markets, such as FCR, aFRR and mFRR.

"In order to take on a national role, we need to be active in all existing balancing markets. Volue's Ancitra system enables us to gain better control of trades, so that we can contribute to a more efficient business model", says Lind Christensen.

The planned 2024 EU introduction of common standards for trade in balancing services, means that EWII will also gain access to markets in other countries via the Ancitra platform.

Direct interface with the TSOs

Ancitra provides automated bidding support for balancing market participants. The solution covers the balancing capacity markets and the energy activation markets and has a direct interface with the TSOs for sending bids and process results. It allows for bidding in the energy activation market every 15 minutes, that is 96 times per day.

Wince Wong, Product Manager at Volue, is pleased that EWII chose Ancitra. She says the need for balancing services is on the rise in the EU and will continue increasing in coming years. Players that have adopted the best technology required to participate in this market will profit from it, according to Wong.

"Balancing services are in demand as more unregulated green energy, such as wind and solar, come into the market. At the same time, electricity consumption increases sharply, which creates bottlenecks in the electricity grid. We need more trading of flexible power to balance the grid if production or consumption deviate,” says Wong.

As the energy markets become more and more complex and connected, Volue continues to develop Ancitra. According to Wong, the software is an important tool for improved utilization of green energy and power grids.