Romania’s electricity transmission system has recorded a first: an aggregated reserve provider group made up exclusively of controllable electricity consumption sites has been activated in the balancing market, with no generation or storage units included.
Transelectrica, Romania’s transmission and system operator, announced that the group was activated today, September 1, between 12:00 and 12:30, following a dispatch order issued by the National Energy Dispatch Centre (DEN).
The activation took place on the manually activated Frequency Restoration Reserve (mFRR) in the upward direction. A consumption site delivered 3 MW of balancing reserve by temporarily reducing its electricity consumption.
The group was assembled by Flexumers, the first Romanian company to provide flexibility and balancing services through Demand Response models. It had previously passed the technical qualification tests coordinated by DEN.
This is the first time in Romania’s National Power System that demand, rather than generation, has actually provided balancing energy following a dispatch order.
Aggregating consumers opens access to the balancing market
Current regulations set a minimum threshold of 1 MW for participation in Romania’s Balancing Market and System Services Market, regardless of the type of reserve provided.
Until now, this threshold effectively prevented consumers whose individual flexible capacity was below 1 MW from participating directly. Aggregation allows multiple consumption sites to be combined into a single group that exceeds the threshold and can undergo technical qualification.
With the qualification and activation of a reserve provider group consisting entirely of consumption sites, consumers now have an operational route into the Balancing Market and System Services Market. This creates an opportunity to earn revenue both for making flexibility available and for the energy actually modulated, without investing in generation assets.
Demand response becomes an operational balancing resource
Demand Response is a mechanism through which electricity consumers voluntarily contribute to balancing the National Power System by responding to dispatch instructions with a temporary, pre-agreed change in their electricity consumption.
The response is voluntary, predetermined and contractual, and can be verified against a consumption baseline. Participants are compensated both for making reserve capacity available and for the energy actually delivered through modulation.
For the transmission and system operator, demand-side reserves can provide a rapidly available source of flexibility without requiring new capital investment in generation capacity and without directly producing additional carbon dioxide emissions.
“The first activation of a group made up entirely of controllable consumption sites confirms that demand can respond to dispatch instructions with the same technical rigor required of any dispatchable unit — this time not merely in testing, but in the actual operation of the Balancing Market,” said Virgiliu Ivan, Director of the National Energy Dispatch Centre at Transelectrica.
“This was made possible by the colleagues at the National Energy Dispatch Centre, the TELETRANS teams and the teams within Transelectrica and ANRE whose work turned a regulatory framework into a real resource. It is an additional source of flexibility, rapidly available and requiring no new investment in generation capacity, and an important step towards maintaining system security.”
Flexumers Managing Director Marius Chiriac said the activation demonstrates that consumption flexibility can be used as a dispatchable resource under the operational standards of Romania’s National Power System.
“Consumers that individually do not reach the participation threshold now have, through aggregation, effective access to the Balancing Market — creating a source of revenue from flexibility they already have within their operations,” Chiriac said. “We thank Transelectrica, particularly the National Energy Dispatch Centre and TELETRANS, for the technical cooperation that made this result possible.”
Milestone in Romania’s energy-market reform
The qualification and activation also operationalize commitments undertaken by Romania under Component 6 – Energy of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), as part of the reform of the electricity market.
The reform involved transposing EU Directive 2019/944 into Romania’s Electricity and Natural Gas Law No. 123/2012, including provisions for aggregation, independent aggregators and demand response. These primary-law changes were followed by secondary legislation issued by Romania’s energy regulator, ANRE, covering technical qualification and participation in the Balancing Market.
The transition from a legislative framework to the first actual market activation of a group composed exclusively of consumption sites marks a significant step in making the reform operational.