Solutions & Use Cases
Flexibility Provision
Flexible loads in buildings can support the grid – if their flexibility is visible and can be scheduled. EEBUS defines how power demand forecasts and power envelopes are exchanged between grid, market actors and the devices behind the grid connection point (GCP).
What is Flexibility Provision
Flexibility describes how far a heat pump, an EV or a battery storage can shift or adapt its operation – earlier or later, faster or slower – within the boundaries the end user has set. This solution describes how this flexibility becomes usable for the energy system.
Two scenarios build on it. In the first, an energy service provider pools flexibility across many buildings and offers it as balancing power. In the second, the distribution system operator (DSO) manages capacity in the low-voltage grid before congestion arises. Both rest on the same exchange: forecast, power envelope, realisation.
Inside the building, the energy management system (EMS) – the device that implements the Customer Energy Management (CEM) role – ensures that the devices operate as agreed, within the physical and grid-initiated limits at the grid connection point.
Example: aggregated end devices
An energy service provider pools single devices into a larger power pool and operates them in a grid-supportive way.
The transmission system operator (TSO) identifies a risk of cross-regional congestion and commissions an energy service provider (ESP), for example an aggregator, to balance power deficits and surpluses in advance. The ESP requests the power demand forecast from the asset – for example through check-in mechanisms – and sends back a power envelope; the asset adjusts its consumption or feed-in accordingly. The schedule also goes to the EMS, which factors it into the energy management of the whole building. Should congestion become imminent at local level, the DSO can set a power limit at the grid connection point. That limit remains the outer boundary.
Transmission system operator
Identifies the risk of grid congestion and commissions an energy service provider to balance power deficits and surpluses in advance, so that grid stability is maintained.
Energy service provider
Receives the cross-regional balancing order from the TSO and aggregates the contracted flexible loads accordingly. It requests the power demand forecast of the building and returns an adjusted power envelope that reflects grid-supportive operation of the flexible load.
Energy management system
Where an EMS is present, it can be asked to send the building's power demand forecast to the asset, for example the EV charger. It receives the asset's power envelope and enables its realisation within the physical or grid-initiated power limitation at the grid connection point.
Controllable devices
Request the building's power demand forecast from the EMS and forward it to the contracted ESP. They receive an adjusted power envelope and align their consumption or feed-in with it.
Example: adaptive grid operation
The DSO allocates capacity at the grid connection point before congestion arises.
Instead of reacting to an overload, the DSO allocates capacity ranges – power envelopes – for the entire premise at the grid connection point, and so prevents foreseeable congestion scenarios in the low-voltage grid. A power demand forecast of the building, received beforehand, makes the envelope more precise. Inside the building, the EMS adjusts the energy flows of the connected devices within the boundaries of the envelope.
Distribution system operator
Identifies the risk of grid congestion and allocates the available capacity within its low-voltage grid by sending a power envelope to the building's grid connection point and on to the EMS – directly or via an energy service provider.
Energy management system
Collects the power envelopes and forecasts of the connected devices, sends the building's power demand forecast to the DSO – directly or via an ESP – and receives the adjusted power envelope in return. It then operates and manages the connected devices within that envelope.
Controllable devices
Send their own power envelope to the EMS and receive an adjusted envelope in return.
Home appliances
Receive a start signal from the EMS and begin the wash cycle at the moment that fits the envelope.
A power envelope is a range, not a fixed value: it defines over time how much power the installation may draw from or feed into the grid. Within that range, the end user’s preferences continue to govern how the devices operate.
Next Step
Implementing Flexibility Provision?
From the first prototype to the certified product: the EEBUS Specifications, the EEBUS Tester and EEBUS Certification take you through every step.
