Strengthening Local Energy Supply Companies

The roll-out of smart meters and the linking-up of decentral units with flexible consumption patterns (virtual power plants) do offer dispatchable flexibility, which help absorb the stochastic feed-in from the photovoltaics within the local grid. Further, such virtual power plants allows for offering system services on the distribution network level. In cooperation with the local utility (Stadtwerke of St.Gallen), the ior/cf-HSG has quantified the financial income potential of flexibility. In addition, it has been estimated how much capacity is needed, so that the local utility is able to compensate the financial shortage in case of a full market liberalization.