In a changing electricity market landscape, where the share of intermittent renewable energy in the energy mix is increasing, system flexibility becomes crucial. As part of the solution, the aggregation of renewable energy can significantly accelerate the integration of intermittent electricity sources, complement demand flexibility and decrease the reliance on renewable energy support schemes. Aggregators of demand and/or generation are therefore expected to have an increasingly important role to play in the future.
This report analyses the potential technical, market, environmental and social benefits of energy aggregation. The focus has been set on the countries in which the consortium is active; the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Cyprus. In depth interviews were carried out by 3E and TUW with aggregators whereas literature was also reviewed.
The EU regulation for aggregators is not sufficiently differentiated. The aggregators are incorporated in the market and accepted as market participants. However, an aggregator-specific regulation does not yet exist and the legal provisions, especially the definition of the “aggregator”, are not up to date with the variety of existing business models. The formal definition of ‘aggregator’ in Art. 2 number 45 of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) is just seen from the load side and does not include the generation side, whereas the definition in practice includes both sides of aggregation.
This report focuses further on identifying the technical, regulatory and legal barriers for the implementation of the business models that exist at a national (for target consortium countries) and European level. These barriers will be studied to establish which specific barriers must be lifted in order to develop the improved BMs.
On Tuesday, September 27th 2016, more than 40 participants attended the 1st Workshop on Business Models for Renewable Energy Aggregators held at 3E headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The event represented a unique opportunity to obtain an overview of the existing framework and business models available in Europe for the aggregation of renewable energy sources and explore the benefits from collaborating with the aggregators.
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