Markets in Belgium

A market where the local grid company, end-consumers and other service providers work together to utilize the grid more efficiently. The grid company will buy flexibility.

An FSP is a company that sells flexibility. This could be the end-consumer himself or an aggregator representing the end-consumer. It could be the end-consumer’s energy retailer that acts as the aggregator, but it does not have to be.

As a private end-consumer, you need to participate through an aggregator, where the aggregator acts as your FSP.

As a company end-consumer, you can be your own FSP or use an aggregator that acts as your FSP.

You can sell flexibility by lowering your consumption or increasing production during congested hours. This is called activation. You can also, in advance, sell your ability to do the same if a need should arise. This is called reservation.

By selling flexibility, you can earn money while at the same time contributing to the green shift by helping to relieve a congested power grid.

It shouldn’t be difficult to participate. You need a controllable load of at least 1 kW. You can group one or more loads within a zone into a portfolio. Upon activation, it is the combined portfolio that needs to deliver what is sold. It is up to you to decide which assets/loads you use to deliver the volume that you have sold.

The buying and selling of flexibility happens in NODES’ Trading Platform. Here, both activation and reservation contracts are traded.

Activation contracts (Shortflex) are traded continuously, where either the buyer or seller puts in orders. If two orders are matched, it becomes a trade. It is then expected that the seller activates according to his sell order. To ensure that the seller delivers what he has sold, NODES compares meter data against a baseline (prognosis). The payment is reduced if delivery is less than what was sold.

Reservation contracts (Longflex) are offered by the grid company well in advance of the delivery period. Sellers can respond to these tenders and also make counteroffers and/or add restrictions. The buyer decides if he can accept the proposition. Delivery of a Longflex contract is done by putting out sell orders is the Shortflex market. The buyer can buy (activate) them if he needs to.