Swiss electric companies to establish joint market for flexible service procurement

Eight Swiss electricity companies, including the country’s TSO Swissgrid, are collaborating on a project to establish a joint market for the procurement of ancillary services from flexible, decentralised energy resources by transmission and distribution system operators.

The participating companies, including Azienda Elettrica di Massagno (AEM), CKW, ewz, Groupe E, Primeo Energie, Romande Energie, St.Galler Stadtwerke (sgsw), and Swissgrid, are focused on exploring how batteries and similar resources can be utilised to maintain grid stability.

The project, initiated to address this question, is working towards developing a comprehensive concept and market design.

The ultimate goal is to enhance the scalability and efficiency of coordination among transmission system operators, distribution system operators and ancillary services providers.

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A follow-up trial

The announcement comes on the heels of a pilot project from Swissgrid and energy supplier ewz launched in December 2022 and completed in March 2023 to establish coordination between transmission and distribution system operators for the integration of decentralised energy resources.

The project, coordinated alongside joint venture Equigy (consisting of Swissgrid, TenneT and Terna as shareholders) utilised a simple, rule-based coordination mechanism suitable for small-scale demonstration.

The concept was based on a ‘traffic light model’, defining any necessary data exchange between transmission system operators, distribution system operators and aggregators.

The concept was tested with a battery connected to the ewz distribution network, controlled by ewz as an aggregator to provide local congestion management services and tertiary reserve power for Swissgrid.

To advance these efforts, the eight companies are launching phase B of the project, aiming to develop an advanced coordination mechanism and the design of a market dedicated to transmission and distribution system services. The conceptual phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

The project announcement comes in as the number of flexible energy resources in the grid increased due to the energy transition.

Their integration into grid management processes will thus expand the market for grid and ancillary services and support grid stability at all levels.