Nord Pool, the European power market, and Equigy, a European crowd balancing platform incorporated by six Transmission System Operators (TSOs), are pleased to announce a partnership to create a new way to trade energy flexibility in the Dutch power market.

Called FlexiSwitch, the aim of the project, which is planned for a phase one launch during the first half of 2023, is to reduce barriers to market entry for small scale flexibility service providers. It seeks to standardise and harmonise the interfaces between smaller flexibility producers and the wider balancing and power markets, by offering a structure that connects them to two markets, in order to make access to trading simpler and more efficient.

The FlexiSwitch project will allow flexibility service providers a new standard interface that enables direct access to balancing and wholesale energy markets. In this way, they can trade easily and have the choice of where to place their flexibility – between ancillary services markets, managed by TSOs and the intraday market. Under the project, flexibility will be routed to Nord Pool’s successful European intraday market and to the existing Dutch aFRR market, built on current rules and technical interfaces. Positioned as an open (non-exclusive) infrastructure to facilitate the market in a neutral way, the project will be extended in later phases to other countries, markets and products, ultimately aiming for a European standard.

Julien Cossé, Chief Strategy Officer at Nord Pool, commented: “With three decades of experience in providing transparent power markets, Nord Pool is founded on the principle of facilitating simple, efficient and secure trading. FlexiSwitch aims to bring smaller scale flexibility producers into the very heart of the trading system, providing access to balancing markets, redispatch services and power exchanges. This is vital if we are to accelerate the necessary ‘green shift’ in power production and consumption towards a future-proof model.

“We are proud to be partnering with Equigy to deliver this solution, starting with a pilot in the Netherlands which will allow us to create a blueprint which we can deploy, in time, across Europe.”

Ersilia Aloia, Chief Financial Officer at Equigy, added: “It has been a longstanding challenge for flexibility providers in the power sector to gain simple, technically secure and standardised access to what can be a complex field for smaller-scale flexibility providers. Equigy is set to play a significant role in accelerating the energy transition in Europe, via the flexibility that could be provided by distributed energy resources. To be successful, such flexibility must be able to easily deliver wherever there is the most value. FlexiSwitch is a means to achieve just that – providing a single interface to two markets. We are delighted to be partnering with Nord Pool in the first step in this important innovation.”

With the transition to ‘green’ energy and the unpredictable nature of renewable power sources, ensuring security of supply while avoiding local grid congestion is a complex problem for Transmission System Operators and Distribution System Operators.

Meanwhile, increasing numbers of distributed energy resources (DERs – for example; heat-pumps, electric vehicle chargers, water heaters and other connected devices) are able to provide much-needed flexibility to the power system. Put together, these DERs can bring significant capacity to balance power networks. The FlexiSwitch project will support DERs and the businesses which aggregate them (known as flexibility service providers – FSPs) to establish a path to access the relevant power markets and give value to their capacity, when and where it is most needed.

Phase one of the partnership will be the development and implementation of a minimum viable product through Equigy and Nord Pool, which will provide one access point to the Dutch intraday trading and aFRR markets. The interface would act as an add-on ‘switchboard’ that allows an easy, harmonised (technical) connectivity to existing interfaces, each with their own formats and rules.

About Nord Pool:

Nord Pool, Europe’s leading power market, delivers efficient, simple and secure trading across Europe. In 2023 the company, which is majority owned by Euronext, celebrates 30 years of powering the market. Nord Pool offers day-ahead and intraday trading, clearing and settlement, and additional services, to customers regardless of size or location. Today 360 businesses from 20 countries trade on Nord Pool’s markets.

Nord Pool operates markets in the Nordic and Baltic regions, Germany, Poland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg and the UK. Nord Pool is a Nominated Electricity Market Operator (NEMO) in 15 European countries, while also servicing power markets in Bulgaria, Croatia and Georgia. In 2022 Nord Pool had a total turnover of 1077.35 TWh traded power.

Nord Pool’s three decades of power market experience built on offering flexibility, transparency, innovation, greater choice and participation to our customers.