TenneT and VEMW have published a joint plan on the large-scale roll-out of flexible electricity consumption by industry. The plan not only highlights the need for flexibility, but also demonstrates the opportunities that flexibility offers industry and how companies can capitalise on them.
TenneT (high-voltage grid operator in the Netherlands and Germany) and VEMW (knowledge centre and advocate of business energy and water users) call on all stakeholders to take action to unlock the potential of industrial demand-side management.
Flexible electricity use
Maarten Abbenhuis, COO of TenneT: "Due to the energy transition, the share of solar and wind energy in the energy supply will grow strongly. Unlike today's coal and gas power plants, these are weather-dependent sources. This reduces the ability to control electricity production and makes flexible use of electricity valuable and necessary. It is important to increase security of supply, especially for large industrial customers. After all, we want the delivery of electricity to always be possible when needed, even when the wind is less windy or the sun shines less."
Industrial flexibility
Hans Grünfeld, managing director VEMW: "Electricity supply and demand must always be balanced for secure supply. Industrial flexibility can make an important contribution to this and this potential must be fully exploited. But besides this need from a stable system perspective, industrial flexibility also offers opportunities to reduce companies' energy bills by responding to fluctuating electricity prices on the spot, imbalance and reserve markets."
Action desired for unlocking
Cashing in on the flexibility potential of large-scale consumers will require a serious effort from companies. This will require close cooperation with grid operators and the government. Insight into potentials and revenue models is needed. Moreover, a number of barriers still need to be removed. Offering industrial flexibility is relatively new, requires investment and can be complicated for some companies. Current spot market price spreads are sometimes still insufficient to justify investments in flexibility and more certainty is therefore desirable. Also, it is not always clear whether sufficient grid capacity will be available for further electrification. Finally, the current grid tariff structure includes barriers for earning models of industrial flexibility. In their plan, TenneT and VEMW call for joint action by grid operators, industry and government to firmly embed industrial flexibility on all sustainability agendas.
The action plan ‘Industrial flexibility is a key building block for a reliable and affordable grid’ can be read here.
Image: TenneT
