With the EnicoEMS (Energy Management System) service, Enico’s energy storage is integrated into Fingrid’s reserve market, enabling revenue generation.
Interest in Fingrid’s reserve markets and the additional earnings from them is growing. Naturally, this has led to the emergence of various service providers in the market, some offering only software for controlling energy storage systems.
To start, you need an energy storage system along with its optimized control automation. In addition, a trading service that communicates with the transmission system operator’s reserve market platform is required, as well as an optimization application that forecasts revenues from various market venues. When all these components—energy storage, control automation, trading service, and optimization—are combined into a single solution, it provides the best overall value for the customer. This integrated approach ensures seamless operation, optimizing reserve market revenue and maximizing the energy storage system’s lifespan.
Where does the revenue from the reserve markets come from, and how can one access it?
The 50 Hz frequency is a critical measure of the balance between electricity production and consumption in the electricity grid. Production and consumption must be equal, so the frequency needs to be balanced. The demand for frequency regulation in the grid is rising due to the continuous growth of weather-dependent energy production and the rapid electrification of consumption, such as the increasing use of electric vehicles and their charging.
As the transmission system operator, Fingrid is responsible for maintaining the grid frequency. To ensure the grid stability, it requires flexible resources like energy storage systems to correct demand peaks in production or consumption. Fingrid is willing to pay the owners of these resources for their services.
To participate in Fingrid’s reserve market, an energy storage system requires a trading platform. Enico provides this intelligence with its EnicoEMS service. The service has been tested with Fingrid and is generally included in every energy storage system we manufacture. Our solutions are therefore immediately integratable into all of Fingrid’s reserve market venues, creating new earning potential for our customers.
Frequency regulation market
The frequency regulation market consists of several reserve products, some of which require a rapid response time of less than a second (FFR and FCR-D), while others allow for slower power delivery (mFRR, FCR-N, and aFRR). The advantage of energy storage systems is that they can perform both upward and downward frequency regulation very quickly, allowing them to be used for multiple reserve products simultaneously. This enables earnings from multiple market venues at the same time, optimizing the entire market’s revenue potential.
Flexible additional earnings with an energy storage
The capacity and functionality of an energy storage system can be offered to Fingrid’s reserve market, where it delivers one or more reserve products. This means the energy storage system is freed from the customer’s own needs and made available to the reserve market. The customer is required to have free available capacity from their electricity connection to participate in the market.
Our trading service, EnicoEMS, understands our energy storage systems down to the “cell level” as it fully communicates with the automation of our energy storage. This ensures that the Enico’s energy storage is optimized through EnicoEMS for the reserve market, taking into account, for example, battery aging and overall system security. The communication works seamlessly between the Energy Storage, Trading Service, and Fingrid.
We handle the entire process for the customer
Enico’s energy storage systems are productized and pre-tested solutions ready from the factory.
Enico ensures testing and Fingrid-approved readiness for trading on behalf of the customer. We notify the network operator of the energy storage system’s grid connection and perform tests such as FCR-N, FCR-D, and FFR, which typically take one business day. Afterward, results are reported, and an application is sent to Fingrid. Currently, Fingrid’s analysis of test results takes about 2–4 weeks. Once everything is ready, we will notify you of the system’s readiness for trading.
Enico is an approved trading party for the reserve market and a direct partner with Fingrid. The agreement for the customer’s energy storage system’s participation in the reserve market, as well as its reserve market trading, is made between Enico and the customer. This means that Enico is fully equipped to engage in technical discussions and start trading quickly and reliably on your behalf.
The EMS system automatically makes bids to Fingrid’s multiple market venues based on the optimization model and then creates a daily schedule according to the accepted bids. This way, the price and earnings are formed daily.
We credit the earnings from the reserve market to the customer based on actual performance, and the customer can monitor the market performance in our EnicoEMS system. Market revenue tracking is real-time and highly engaging, especially when there is no effort required from the customer!
What can you earn with the Enico energy storage + EnicoEMS trading combination system?
Depending on the size of the energy storage system, the payback period is approximately 3-4 years with current reserve market revenues. The investment immediately generates positive cash flow when financed through leasing.
This is a blog by Aleksi Partanen, Enico’s Automation Design Manager, who is responsible for the development of Enico’s automation systems.