Czech EDC to expand services this year with new functions for energy storage and grid management

The Electricity Data Centre (EDC), which operates the electricity-sharing system in Czechia, will expand its services this year with new functions for energy storage, technical flexibility aggregation and a so-called grid traffic light for smart grid management. It plans to launch them from 1 August. The services are intended to make the use of renewable sources more efficient and increase the reliability of system operation, EDC told ČTK today.

"For us, 2025 was marked by establishing electricity sharing in public awareness as a reliable and functional service of modern energy. At the same time, we managed to strengthen our staffing and begin preparing new functionalities for 2026. They are now in the testing phase, and we expect to launch them from 1 August, as required by the Lex RES III amendment to the Energy Act and the National Recovery Plan," said EDC chairman Petr Kusý.

The first new feature will be an electricity storage service. The centre will register consumption and delivery points, most commonly battery storage facilities, while also processing the related data. According to the centre, the function will be particularly suitable for owners of solar power plants with batteries or industrial companies with large storage facilities.

At the same time, the centre will also launch a service supporting the aggregation of technical flexibility. This is used to make energy use more efficient for balancing voltage in the electricity system and will be intended for providers of so-called balancing services and balancing energy.

The third new service will be the so-called grid traffic light, a mechanism for smart grid management. "It will provide system operators and other market participants with real-time information on grid capacities and constraints when providing balancing services," Kusý said.

According to energy sector representatives, the expansion of functions is the result of the transformation of the domestic energy sector, with tens of thousands of new small-scale sources with limited output controllability connecting to the system every year. "At the same time, the closure of several coal power plants, which play a crucial role in ensuring system balance, has already been announced. New functions such as energy aggregation and storage can take over this role. However, a condition for their use is smart management based on ongoing data," said Josef Kotrba, executive director of the Czech Energy Association.

The Electricity Data Centre has operated since mid-2024 and is the main control centre for the functioning of community energy in Czechia. It registers participants and provides, for example, evaluations of electricity sharing among active customers, receiving metering data from distribution system operators.

After a year and a half of electricity sharing, 37,252 participants have signed up for it in Czechia. They have formed 21,718 so-called sharing groups. The total volume of shared electricity since the service was launched in August 2024 has reached 63.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh), which according to the centre corresponds to the annual consumption of a smaller town with 15,000 to 20,000 households.