Czech households begin contributing to electricity grid stability

Czech households have started earning money by providing balancing services to the domestic electricity grid. Delta Green has launched a platform that households with solar panels and a battery can join. In response to the needs of the grid, they consume or supply electricity over short time intervals. The company says this could save them thousands of korunas a year on energy bills. The transmission system operator ČEPS can then use these balancing services. The companies told the Czech News Agency today.

Until now, industrial sources had participated in balancing the grid in Czechia. Households are now joining them. In recent weeks, Czech energy company Delta Green, together with ČEPS and Nano Energies, certified a one-megawatt aggregation unit made up exclusively of households. Through an aggregator, they will supply or consume electricity as needed, in line with defined parameters. On average, this should happen several times a day for a few minutes at a time. The companies say it will not disrupt households’ normal routines.

„Flexible electricity consumption is a new concept and approach for 99 percent of people. Initial uncertainty quickly fades once people realise that the service does not limit their everyday activities in any way and, on the contrary, brings financial benefits. Creating a platform where people can transparently see in real time what is happening to their electricity and why was also one of the biggest challenges we had to overcome,“ explained Delta Green co-owner Jan Hicl.

According to him, participating households can make significant savings on energy. „A family of four in a house pays around 35.000 korunas a year for energy. With us, their costs can now fall by up to a third. They can save up to a thousand korunas a month on electricity,“ Hicl noted.

„Aggregators are becoming an increasingly important group of providers of balancing services, which are essential for the reliable and secure operation of the electricity system,“ said Martin Kašák, head of the Energy Market Section at ČEPS.

„The involvement of households further expands the potential for aggregating flexibility and could therefore increase competition in the balancing services market, putting downward pressure on prices,“ he added.

Balancing services are important for maintaining the stability of the electricity grid. They are provided, among others, by so-called flexibility aggregators. These are entities that harness flexibility from a large number of generators or consumers and convert it into standard products, which they offer on various electricity or balancing services markets.