Paula Martinez Urios (TU/e) investigated novel methodologies to quantify the gains of participating in local energy communities. With the ‘levelized income from flexibility’ (LIFF) indicator, it is possible to quantify the benefit of ‘using the right energy at the right time’. Traditionally, we either have indicators that specify the amount of flexibility that is available from assets and/or indicators that quantify the financial benefit. Both types of indicators require complex modelling for specific devices and specific markets which makes them difficult to interpret or offers a single-sided conclusion for a specific case. LIFF can help TROEF to resolve this. This novel approach helps TROEF to identify the value of participating in energy communities. This work provides input for the digital twins and simulation models.
Flexibility and Local Flexibility Markets (LFMs) appear at a time when consumers follow the
electricity market prices more than ever before.Becoming a more active consumer or prosumer can bring active management as a part of the
solution to the grid constraints. However, many are the barriers that LFMs need to break in order to reach
the mass market that would bring the liquidity that system operators need.
The idea of this work was to create a simple tool that helps to quantify the gains of participating in different LFMs and comparing this to the environomical benefits only doing load shifting, while considering the electricity tariff contracted by the consumer/ prosumer. The Levelised Income From Flexibility (LIFF) is a new proposal that aims to serve as reference to compare different markets or projects at high level, from the conception stage. With the low revenues coming from participating in such markets as one entry barrier for the innovations in the field, a simple and universal tool can help to illustrate the current detachment betweenthe costs of grid reinforcement or deferraland the alternative cost of a robust demand side management mechanism.Such mechanism would also call for the need of more available data regarding historical flexibility activation prices that can allow the forecast of future revenues coming from LFMs and attract liquidity. Increasing market liquidity in LFMs is key to increase competition and ensure that market buyers can rely on the LFMs to solve technical grid constraints. In order to improve accessibility to the market and transparency, it is important that historical flexibility activation prices are public -as many other relevant electricity prices (day-ahead, intraday)- and can be shown in webpages such as the Transparency Platform from ENTSO-e, together with prices from other electricity markets. Today, the lack of available information and clarity on possible revenues coming from LFMs in Europe prevents possible flexibility service providers from entering the market and the creation of new LFMs.
