Local Flexibility at DSO Level and the Multi-service Business Case of Energy Storage

The EASE Task Force on Multi-services Business Cases for Energy Storage has prepared a report looking at the key role of energy storage as a Local Flexibility provider. This paper gives an overview of existing short-term local flexibility schemes in Europe today including Active-network management (ANM) and other flexibility services and their implications on the business case for energy storage. However, flexibility markets in operation today are not compatible with the provision of multiple services, hindering the business case of energy storage. This report highlights possible options for their evolution and key market design questions. Such flexibility services must be designed and tendered in such a way that they allow for a level playing field for various flexibility options. An adequate Flexibility market design would enable the monetisation of flexibility provided by storage when acting as both demand and generation, allowing it to be stackable with other services.

EASE makes the following recommendations for the design of flexibility options:

1. Monitor the implementation of article 32 of EU 2019/944 across Europe.
2. Development of Standardised Flexibility Services markets based on capacity payments. Ideally these markets should enable contracting peak demand, congestion, voltage and stability products and should be compatible with zero carbon ambitions. Contractual frameworks should provide revenue certainty for solutions that require the development of physical assets. This would promote investability.
3. Development of harmonised common principles to be integrated in assessment methodologies used to compare the cost and benefits of various Network options, e.g. ANM (grid flexibilities, flexibility connection), Flexibility Services and Network Reinforcement. Promote collaboration with key stakeholders in an open and transparent way.
4. Enabling the trading of curtailment in the case of flexible connections and foster the creation of platforms to exchange energy in case of network congestion.