Aggregators need regulatory support – report

A clear definition of the aggregators role should established in countries’ regulatory frameworks, an ISGAN discussion document indicates.

Aggregators can facilitate the flexibilities of distributed resources as an intermediary, providing services to different power system participants.

However, this poses new challenges for monitoring, controlling and coordinating customers’ and other market player’s needs, including the necessary TSO-DSO-customer coordination.

For example, accessing the flexibility is often not harmonised and lacks coordination with the grid operator.

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In some cases, distributed resources are bound to the proprietary software of the energy product manufacturers, which complicates the access for aggregators and grid operators.

Instead, interoperable solutions with standardised communication protocols could enable plug-and-play solutions and also freedom of choice for the customers to access competitive services, the ISGAN report states.

EU regulation

The report, ‘Aggregators in Digitalised Power Systems‘, continues that EU regulation has identified the independent aggregator, who is not affiliated to the customer’s supplier.

However, while aggregator services exist with several business models based on existing regulatory frameworks in most EU countries, the independent aggregator has not been fully implemented yet and each would need to implement its own national regulatory framework to support independent aggregator implementation.

Policy instruments are essential to accelerate aggregator implementation, especially small entrants to lower market barriers and enhance customer engagement during an early stage of deployment, the report adds.

Coordination approaches have to be established among aggregators, customers and grid operators with the focus on harmonised and interoperable solutions.

Moreover, innovative approaches can be tested in demonstration and R&D projects with temporary regulatory changes and experiments, such as regulatory sandboxes, which can help to address the technical and non-technical challenges and support needed for the real deployment.

Policymakers need to ensure that the regulatory framework supports fair competitiveness, transparency and freedom of choice for customers toward system values as a whole, the report concludes.