Volue : takes a new step into developing flexibility solutions in Europe

Volue, a leader in technologies and services that enable success in the energy transition, has announced its management of a groundbreaking project to develop a joint Finnish marketplace for procurement of flexible resources by electricity transmission and distribution networks.

In a neutral consulting expert capacity, Volue will coordinate the project and oversee the delivery of the new marketplace for Fingrid and Helen Sähköverkot. In addition, Volue will run a national development project with the National Electricity Research Pool of Finland, inviting all distribution networks and flexibility providers to participate together with the transmission operator in national workshops. This will create the future national market practices and procedures for joint flexibility procurement by transmission and distribution networks.

The marketplace project's primary objective is to open a trading platform and develop a functional setup where electricity market participants can sell various flexibilities needed for the management of both distribution and transmission networks. The goal is to maximise the availability of networks for renewable energy and the electrification of our society while maintaining a free and open market mechanism. Through the national development project, the industry aims to find joint solutions for networks tailored to Finland's market conditions, ultimately creating the foundation for permanent national joint flexibility market operations.

Jan Segerstam, Vice President of Business Development & Strategy at Volue, commented: "The future energy system is changing the way networks need to be managed in order to facilitate both new loads like charging and new distributed energy production like solar and wind. Current electricity marketplaces primarily focus on maintaining national or regional power balances and on supporting overall network frequency. Without flexibility from new marketplaces, networks will be underutilised or overinvested and network management won't be able to cope with the rapid changes in electricity flows.

"The demand for flexibility is rising, while the balance of load and production resources in networks are changing as traditional production plants are decommissioned or repurposed. Consequently, there is a clear need to establish a common market specifically for managing transmission across both transmission and distribution networks. Volue's role in this project is pivotal, as we are exposed to all levels of networks, production and load resources as well as energy storage through our solutions, and can provide neutral expert facilitation to accelerate the green transition. I look forward to collaborating with our customers as we work to develop flexibility solutions across Europe."