DELTA - Business Models for the Participation of Small and Medium-Sized Consumers in the Flexibility Markets through Demand Response

Project partner

• Centre for Research and Technology Hellas – CERTH (Project Coordinator)
• HIT Hypertech Innovations LTD
• ARCHI ILEKTRISMOU KUPROU
• University of Cyprus
• KiWi Power Ltd
• JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE (JRC) - EUROPEAN COMMISSION
• UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE MADRID
• NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET (NTNU)
• CARR COMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANTS

Project description

The increasingly volatile supply of electricity due to the increased use of wind power and PV increasingly requires short-term interventions in the grid in order to maintain its stability. This is achieved either by adjusting the generation capacity of flexible power plants or by temporarily switching larger loads (demand response, DR). Since the share of volatile energy from wind and PV will continue to increase in the coming years, it is foreseeable that the demand for grid control, including DR, will also increase significantly in the coming years. DR is currently focusing on large-scale consumers with several 100 kW.

The EU research project DELTA with the participation of e7, on the other hand, is investigating the integration of small and medium-sized consumers. Its aim is to significantly simplify the aggregation of small and medium loads through automation. This is done by artificial intelligence methods, whereby loads are fully automatically combined and aggregated in the so-called DELTA Virtual Node. This will create flexible services that will enable cost-effective participation in the flexibility markets.

Specific software solutions and hardware components will be developed to facilitate the access of small and medium-sized consumers to the flexibility markets. In addition, the technical solutions to be developed will be tested in two concrete pilot projects in Great Britain and Cyprus.

Although there are still many barriers to the exploitation of the DR potential of small and medium-sized consumers in the current market environment, it is foreseeable that the further development of the electricity market in Europe will offer new opportunities. To this end, e7 is developing marketable, innovative business models within the framework of Delta.