Flexibility market starts development in Lithuania
Lithuania’s largest distribution system operator (DSO) Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius (ESO) is investigating the development of a local flexibility market.
The initiative in partnership with the UK software platform developer Piclo is designed to explore local flexibility service procurement and the role of these services in the operation of the country’s decarbonising energy market.
In the first step, market participants are being encouraged to register details of their assets on Piclo’s PicloFlex marketplace, in order to develop an understanding of whether future flexibility requirements could be fulfilled.
As part of the project, Piclo is engaging its ecosystem of internationally focused flexibility service providers, as well as working alongside ESO to target those already based in Lithuania.
Have you read?
UK smart energy IT developer Piclo receives VC support
Horizon Europe: Five flexibility projects
“As a forward-looking DSO, we are pleased to be partnering with Piclo to explore the potential for flexibility services to improve efficiencies in the operation and development of Lithuania’s distribution system,” commented Ina Vaitiekutė, Innovation Expert at ESO.
“Our work together will help us to prepare a concept for flexibility services and we invite the market to actively participate in the development of this concept at this crucial moment for the energy sector.”
The project will run until 30 September 2022, after which the next steps will be evaluated.
It forms part of a €1.9 billion (almost $2 billion) investment ESO plans to improve the reliability and resilience of the network and digitalisation by 2030. Core programmes are focussed on increasing network efficiency and facilitating market transformation and the customer experience.
Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius serves 1.8 million customers with electricity and gas throughout Lithuania.
The project follows a similar one run by Piclo in Northern Ireland with Northern Ireland Electricity Networks in 2021. In that trial 40MW, 35GWh of network flexibility services were sought across 17 flexibility trial zones.
Piclo Flex is used for flexibility procurement by the majority of UK network operators and has registered more than 300 flexibility providers with over 12GW of flexibility in more than 1,200 competitions.
