Ep. 31: Farhan Farrukh, Business Development Manager at NODES - Local Flexibility Markets, DSOs and the Future of the Grid
文字记录
由机器转录整理而成。译文为机器翻译,可能存在错误。
欢迎来到RiDERgy Smart Charge播客。我是Claudio Geyken,RiDERgy的创始人兼首席执行官。这是您的节目,可以了解电动汽车和车队能源管理和智能充电创新的所有内容。
欢迎来到Smart Charge。今天的嘉宾是Farhan Faro。这次对话从Charge BNB开始,这是一个充电桩共享初创公司,从挪威邮编彩票中获得了10万元的资助,用于在Halden进行试点项目。该试点暴露了市场和技术摩擦:施耐德22 kW的设备没有内置连接性,需要昂贵的现场激活,较旧的OCPP版本中充电桩显示为可用但实际使用时失效,邮政车队试点中利益相关者批准延迟导致资金耗尽时项目停滞。凭借一个六人团队,结论很清楚:薄利润和脆弱的
用户体验使共享很难扩展,即使是拥有最先进充电器后端的企业也只是在边缘触及。从那里,我们转向Nodes,一个北欧全球灵活性市场,通过交易而不仅仅是电网升级来解决拥堵问题。Nodes在节点级别对电网进行建模,从街道级低压到城市级中压,每次交易都由位置、价格、数量和时间定义。分配系统运营商可以提前数月预留长期灵活性,并在交付前不久调用短期灵活性。在挪威,上个季度约20欧元每兆瓦时的100兆瓦时
可用性中启动率不足10%,促使建立了新的军队机制,使分配系统运营商和传输系统运营商可以从相同资产中堆叠价值。我们将其与挪威、瑞典、芬兰、比利时和加拿大的真实项目相关联,在希腊、瑞士、西班牙和英国进行研究。该平台运行有适用于电网公司的网络应用程序和适用于聚合商或灵活性服务提供商的API,已连接15000个批准的资产,管道中超过50000个,从电动汽车充电桩和电池到热泵和商业场所。这就是
今天的旅程:从共享试点的惨痛教训到一个将灵活性转化为简单合同、明确激活和可靠结算的市场模式。能源转型面临巨大挑战,配电系统运营商DSO需要面对。这一集对于理解我们如何解决这个问题至关重要。让我们深入探讨。Farhan,很高兴你今天来。你好吗?我很好,谢谢你的邀请。很高兴你能从奥斯陆来,能够来到
柏林的播客工作室真是太好了。太棒了。在我们深入讨论与你工作相关的详细话题之前,请介绍一下自己。是的,首先,再次感谢你的邀请。我叫Farhan Faro。我称自己为全球公民,因为我出生在中东的沙特阿拉伯,但我实际上是巴基斯坦国籍。我的父母在沙特待了几年。所以我在
不同的沙漠环境中长大,经历了不同的文化。然后我回到巴基斯坦,在那里受教育,然后搬到欧洲。就是在那里我认识了你,当时我在比利时攻读能源工程硕士学位。之后我搬到法国,在那里获得了智能电网和建筑的第二个硕士学位,然后我最终
来到了挪威。我现在从事灵活性工作,真正是关于本地灵活性市场,并与能源行业的整个价值链合作,这真的令人兴奋。我想我们会谈论更多关于这方面的内容。是的,当然。谢谢。我们从InnoEnergy社区的日子里认识。我认为我们都对那个项目充满热情,团结可持续能源变革倡导者的愿景,你是一个非常活跃的社区领导者,
你在那里学习了其中一个硕士课程,我也是。所以对于听众来说,这就是背景,我很高兴有你。我认为你是来自InnoEnergy社区的第一批嘉宾之一,我很高兴将来能有更多。正如你将看到的,来自该社区的人们正在从事大量有趣的工作。所以你说你来到欧洲,首先你说全球公民。是什么动力促使你从你的沙特经历和巴基斯坦来到欧洲?
是的,如我告诉你的,我的学士学位来自巴基斯坦,我学了电气工程并主修电力系统。毕业后我在2016年去了沙特,试图看看我是否能回到童年生活的环境并在那里获得工作经验,但当时沙特经济状况不太好,
所以电力方面没有很多项目。然后我回到巴基斯坦,在一家非常小的公司找到了工作,几乎是一个初创企业,他们在做技术工作。他们基本上是大型美国公司通用电气的合作伙伴,在中高压电网站内安装保护和控制系统设备。巴基斯坦政府在2017年开始升级许多这些电气
变电站,所以他们有一份升级它们的合同。在我在那里工作期间,这非常有趣,但涉及大量技术细节,设计电路,真正进入工程方面,这有其自身的乐趣。但有一件事我缺少的是你在新闻和网上听到的新东西:这个能源转型是什么?真正地看
从外面看,从未去过欧洲,从未去过,甚至在那之前都没有访问过。就像欧洲是领导者,回到2017年,如果你问欧洲外的任何年轻人,如果你告诉他们"能源转型"或"可持续能源"以及所有这些关键词,每个年轻人都会说,"哦是的,这是欧洲发生的事情。"所以这是主要的动力,使我成为那个社区或社会的一部分,那是发生了什么的地方,哪个
实际上非常重要。然后我找到了这个与InnoEnergy合作的硕士课程,它不仅结合了能源工程和可持续发展的主题,还结合了创新和创业精神。所以对我来说,那是两个世界最好的结合,进入可持续发展领域,同时也能追求这个我当时的爱好,成为一名企业家。那时候有点天真,甚至不知道什么叫企业家
的真正含义。这是件很酷的事情,但这就是我如何最终来到欧洲,带着这两个热情:能源和可持续发展,以及创新和创业精神。好的,再往后退一步,因为这也是现在很多新闻中的话题,我们在这里那里看到地缘政治紧张局势,比如美国设定的边界,特别是对于那些持H-1B签证从国外来的人。我很想知道
,我认为关于有多少来自巴基斯坦或印度以及其他地区的人实际上生活在沙特或阿拉伯半岛的阿拉伯国家,没有太多的信息。比如人口比例是多少?是什么促使你的父母搬到那里?是的,这是一个非常有趣的问题,因为我这一代人实际上看到了更多的全球社区联系,国家之间的移动要容易得多。但是回到我父母所在的那个时代,你知道,
在20世纪60年代和70年代,当沙特,或者不仅仅是沙特,而是整个中东,经历石油勘探热潮时,那是社会中真正能够让他们雇佣很多技术工人的重要功能。所以我父亲实际上曾经在巴基斯坦公共部门工作。我们有一家经营整个电网以及所有水电站大坝的公共公司。所以他曾经
在该国北部的一个水电站工作,然后沙特人开始雇佣很多技术人员,因为他们确实短缺,他们真的需要很多新的基础设施来维护、开发和运营。这就是很多技术人员从巴基斯坦移民到沙特的原因。但同样的事情,我相信也发生在迪拜或阿联酋,也发生在卡塔尔和科威特
以及所有这些国家,它们彼此紧密相连。他们中的大多数有一个共同点:他们都缺乏熟练劳动力,而那些人口众多但同时也拥有很多熟练劳动力的国家,其人口流向了这些国家。在那里生活和长大,我可以说我的学校也有三个部分。一个是沙特部分,只有阿拉伯学生在那里学习。
然后我们在那所学校的另一层有巴基斯坦部分。所有的巴基斯坦学生都在那里学习,我们遵循的课程也来自巴基斯坦大使馆或政府,教授我们遵循的课程。然后我们在上面还有另一层,是为印度学生设立的。他们有来自印度政府的自己的课程,作为
海外公民他们也在遵循那个课程。所以这是一个有趣的经历,在学校的同一场所内你有三个不同的层级。我们有时会和印度孩子们一起玩。我们也会和印度人一起玩板球,和沙特人一起踢足球。所以那是一个有趣的经历。一个有趣的轶事。然后回到欧洲完成你的
学业之后,你做了什么?所以我在法国格勒诺布尔的理工学院完成了我的第二个硕士学位。从那里开始,我开始与我的网络联系,看看在欧洲工作有哪些不同的可能性。我想留在欧洲,在这里建立我的职业生涯并获得一些经验。我有一个朋友也从InnoEnergy毕业了,但比我早一年,
他正在从事欧洲Horizon项目的工作。欧洲委员会每隔几年就会制定一项议程,他们分配了一定数量的资金用于创新、研究以及一些与学术相关的活动。所以我加入了一家叫Smart Innovation Norway的公司,它是一个研究机构,一个私人的,但从事大量的创新研究,所以真的处于技术就绪程度规模的高端,这是
欧洲委员会使用的一个术语,最初来自NASA,用来定义你的产品是在实验室里还是更接近进入市场。所以我的目标是致力于创建新项目,汇集16或17个组织的大量联盟。这包括公司、大学、学术机构、研究机构,有时还有初创公司。我们一起会提出一个新的提案或一个新的创新概念来应对这些已经
由欧洲委员会专家在这些Horizon征询中提出的挑战。所以我会创建这些提案,将其提交给委员会,然后你会得到反馈,无论你是否获得资金。如果你获得资金,那么我工作的第二个角色是进行项目管理。还有,我管理的其中一个项目是作为试点协调员。所以我们
实际上在三个国家部署微网优化解决方案:罗马尼亚、西班牙和挪威。我是所有三个地点的主要试点协调员,所以我必须与提供设备的供应商、一所开发了新的能源消耗优化算法的大学以及现场协调,日常运营现场的现场经理。所以这是一种有趣的多利益相关者参与,但在能源方面。而且还
真正与欧洲资金方案合作,并真正理解,说实话,从欧洲以外来看这相当复杂,但当你开始看到不同的趋势和不同的主题时,你可以开始学习这是如何运作的以及它的好处是什么。我感到缺失的事情之一是这些项目的影响,因为欧洲研究可以进行到一定程度,然后它必须结束,而且
那么它必须进入市场,因为这就是商业利益将推动它进一步发展并为社会创造价值的地方。我想也许这相比商业领域来说只是有点慢。这就是我停止在那里工作并转向下一个职位的原因。下一个职位是在 Nodes 公司担任商务发展经理。
所以在这里,有趣的是,在我上一份工作中,我正在和 Nodes 做一个研发项目,当时我已经看过他们的平台并查看过,非常有趣。这是一个创建新的本地灵活性市场的新概念,我对此有一点了解,但不是很深入,我就联系了那里的一个联系人并问他们:
"嘿,这看起来真的很酷,我更感兴趣的是真正把这些新创新商业化,而你们的平台已经处于可以商业化的阶段。"所以我在2023年加入了这家公司,我们一直在那里工作。好的,在我们深入探讨那个之前,我想有一个情节可能很有趣,Charge B&B 也是,你也可以详细阐述一下,那是关于什么的。
那是关于什么的。这个名字很吸引人。是的,当然。所以当我在挪威的研究机构工作时,挪威真正有趣的一件事,我想大多数听众也会注意到这一点,是挪威有很多电动汽车,对吧?那是我到达那里并开始在那里生活时也感受到的一件事,那
当我需要买车时,就买一辆电动车吧,因为你在挪威。但我面临的最大问题之一是,我住的地方,我租的一个家,房东有一个电动汽车充电器,那是为他自己的车准备的。我无法用任何商业模式在上面充电。我必须充电,而且我必须手动计算我充了多少,这对他来说不太公平,对我来说可能也不太公平。但真的是,我住的地方,有一所学校,走路大约5分钟,他们在那所学校装有8个22千瓦的充电器。学校里,来那里的人从早上充电到下午。学校关闭,充电器就闲置在那里,我每次经过学校时都在看着它们,想:为什么我不能在那里充电?从2020年到2021年,我看了看,在挪威这个小镇有许多这样的充电器。然后我被一个住在荷兰的老朋友联系上了,他从一次黑客马拉松中获得了这个想法:为什么你不做充电的Airbnb呢?然后我
我住的地方,有一所学校,走路大约5分钟,他们在那所学校装有8个22千瓦的充电器。学校里,来那里的人从早上充电到下午。学校关闭,充电器就闲置在那里,我每次经过学校时都在看着它们,想:为什么我不能在那里充电?
从2020年到2021年,我查看了一下,在挪威这个小镇有许多这样的充电器。然后我被一个住在荷兰的老朋友联系上了,他从一次黑客马拉松中获得了这个想法:为什么你不做充电的Airbnb呢?然后我
我告诉他:我其实在挪威也面临这个问题,所以你描述的这个问题对我来说是真实存在的。所以我们携手合作吧。让我们创办一家初创公司,成为我之前跟你谈到的那种企业家。所以我们创办了这家公司,然后我们面临了第一个挑战。这是一个移民方面的挑战:作为在挪威的移民,或者我认为在大多数国家,在你在那里生活了一定年数之前,
你不能独自创建一家公司。这是移民要求,你需要有一个挪威公民参与,或者一个永久居民。所以我不是公民也不是永久居民,所以我们让另一位同事参与进来,他是永久居民,他也带来了对挪威社会的一些经验和对挪威社会的更多了解。
所以我们三个人创办了这家公司。然后我们很快意识到,一旦我们学到了第一个关键词,OCPP,那是什么东西,我们突然撞上了一堵墙,我们三个人都没有真正需要的软件开发技能来开发一个能让充电成为"Airbnb"式模式的平台。那时我联系了另一个在我工作的同一个城镇学习的学生。
他作为全栈开发工程师加入了我们。他也来自巴基斯坦,他来那里是为了学习,他有很多开发全栈应用程序的经验。所以我们变成了4个人。你已经可以开始看到,作为一家初创公司,我们的团队相当庞大,但还没有真正在现实市场中验证了这个问题。这很快就成为了最大的挑战,我们真的在拼命推动市场,而不是等待市场来召唤我们,然后我们开始入驻。所以我们最终确实赢得了欧洲很多比赛。我们从明信片彩票基金会赢得了一个大奖,他们有这个绿色挑战,在5个国家运营,我们被选为挪威最佳绿色初创公司的赢家。所以我们获得了€100,000的资金,然后我们还收到了
来自挪威政府的一些补助来帮助我们真正建立这个概念。最终我们做了一些试点项目。我们与一个叫哈尔登的小镇的当地市政府做了一个试点,哈尔登在挪威的东边。我们在那里与社区共享来自两所学校的充电器。但很快我们看到了许多多供应商系统的挑战。我们有充电器,来自施耐德的双极充电器,22千瓦。首先我们必须查出该地点是否有互联网连接,当时没有启用,所以我们不得不雇用一个当地电工或网络技术人员来打开充电器。他是唯一被授权从公司这样做的人。而且对我们必须上线的每个充电器都有成本,因为这些充电器是由市政府安装的,当他们安装它们时,他们从来没有
要求它们已经启用互联网。所以那是一个挑战。然后当我们开始共享充电器时,我们也看到很多时候,我认为那时是OCPP 1.6,如果我没记错的话,它的通信不是很好。充电器会报告充电状态,但客户告诉我们
他们根本没有充电。所以这是一个很大的挑战。我们不能真正控制硬件,我们必须依赖充电器供应商,他们有时候真的不太关心这些问题,因为这不是他们的主要业务。他们销售硬件。所以这对我们来说是一个真正的转折点。
我们意识到,市场还没有为平台即服务的模式做好准备。充电器制造商不想开放他们的API。他们想保护他们的知识产权。而且市场上还没有足够的消费需求。所以我们不得不改变我们的方法。我们意识到我们需要关注的不是硬件,而是软件和数据。
他们的车没有充电;它实际上只是停在那里。所以我们在两个系统之间有很多沟通不畅的问题,而且我认为我们这边仍在学习这些协议如何工作,以及如何将它们与充电器集成。所以也有很多真实的交付挑战。最后我们完成了那个试点。它有一些成果,但还不足以让市政府说
"好的,我们要在整个城市推行这个",因为这也需要市政府涉及很多参与者、获得批准和做很多文件工作,这对他们来说很复杂。另一方面,我们也已经在和挪威的一家大型车队运营商Posten谈话,它是国家邮政服务。他们有一些仓库在给他们的货车充电,他们有电动
货车会在晚上在仓库充电。他们会在早上取走邮件或所有的快递,外出工作,然后送货。但当他们在外面工作时,这些充电器就闲置了,这个概念再次是分享这些充电器,就像充电的Airbnb。我们获得了他们管理层的试点批准,但实际上所有的批准来得太晚了,以至于我们
也没有资金了,而且也没有动力了,因为到那时我们是一个相当大的团队,大约6个人,但真的还没有验证产品。每个人都觉得这里有东西,但它真的在进展吗?我们都同意向前迈进,吸取所有的教训。我认为这是我真正欣赏的一件事,当你
有一个失败时,这在美国受到相当重视,也许在欧洲现在就不那么重视了,它确实教会你很多东西。你在这过程中学到了很多东西,可以在以后的生活中使用,无论是从技术角度、团队文化,还是从与客户打交道和实现产品市场匹配的动态来看,这是一个术语,我认为
作为第一次创业的创始人,我们学到得相当晚。但总的来说,这是一次很好的经历,它也帮助了我在目前从事的新角色中。是的,很有趣的故事。感谢分享。只是关于这个的另一件事,你如何回顾这个问题,你想解决的根本问题?如果你看看周围,仍然有那么多充电器没有被共享。这是
业界的一个大话题。你的看法是什么?为什么这不是常见的?为什么没有其他人用同样的第二个charge B&B解决了这个问题?是的,我认为这是一个很好的问题。我真的希望应该有这样的解决方案,但就像你说的,仍然有一个问题需要解决。我上次检查时,英国有一些解决方案能够扩展到一定程度,但这真的是
一个社区方法,对吧?它不像EMSP解决方案或CPO解决方案那样是一个即插即用的解决方案。充电器的这种共享还没有扩展。即使是最大的参与者之一,来自丹麦的Monta,他们在我们做的2022年同时开始,创始人有来自特斯拉前员工的很好经验,他们扩展了这个平台。实际上,他们最初的产品
,这个应用,有这个共享你的充电器的选项。但多年来,我认为他们也看到利润率在另一方面更高,你有这个平台方法来连接不同的系统和不同的位置。所以他们的主要收入部分,我想,是从那里来的。他们仍然,我认为,允许你共享充电器,但它真的不是核心业务。我认为我在这个想法或这个
问题解决中感到的主要问题是利润率,因为如果你做一个收入分享模式,这在充电行业中很常见,那么你在维护这种平台上的利润率非常薄。然后第二个问题是体验,是客户的用户体验。如果充电器坏了,可能不是你的错,但然后客户开始责怪你的应用,然后你开始看到规模没有达到而你已经有点
有坏的新闻。人们在电动车充电世界中不依赖这个,因为每个充电他们的车的人真的想让它被充电。因为如果你曾经有过一次坏的经历,在我们的情况下,当我们做试点时就是这样,如果有人一次充电器没有启动,这不是我们的错,是充电器本身没有反应,客户停止使用我们的应用并退出了
试点计划。我认为这个想法坚持下去真的很重要。所以有人必须找到一个非常好的商业模式,使其能够扩展,并且还要有非常好的用户体验,让它工作。好的,现在展望现在。告诉我们关于Nodes的一切。公司首先试图解决什么问题?是的,绝对。所以问题真的开始于Nodes诞生的概念。让我带你回到一点。所以Nodes实际上是在2016年从一个概念创建的,当时挪威南部的当地电网公司
面临一个大型变压器站的拥塞问题。拥塞,意思是,只是为不了解的观众解释,是你不能通过你的电网供应足够的电力或能量,因为它几乎满了。所以然后他们
聚集了一些专家,想,好的,我们能用什么新方法来解决它,而不是放一个大变压器。他们聚集了很多来自微软的专家和很多其他公司的专家。甚至Nord Pool在那时也参与了,这是批发市场运营商。所以他们一起设计了Nodes的第一个市场设计,这本质上是基于欧洲的清洁能源方案,它已经讨论了聚合器和产消者的这个角色。而且也
本地灵活性市场。所以《清洁能源一揽子计划》,对于听众来说,这是欧盟委员会和议会在2021年决定并通过的一揽子计划,将适用于所有成员国,涉及许多事项、许多法规和指令,其中一项是今年生效的。是的,完全同意,感谢你的澄清。所以这是《清洁能源一揽子计划》中的内容。在较早的草案中,我想大概是2015-2016年的草案,
里面说配电系统运营商DSO可以使用基于市场的系统或解决方案来解决他们的问题。所以这个小团队一起设计了这个市场设计并创建了一个平台。这个平台真的是被设计成一个节点概念的,这就是Nodes这个名字的由来。电网节点是平台中一个非常重要的概念,因为你本质上是在创建你的物理网络在
数字平台上的一个副本。你的电网是从点到点连接的。你有一个低压连接点连到中压,中压连到高压,这就是我们电网的工作方式。所以你可以在Nodes平台上创建一个类似的副本。一个数字孪生,是的,完全正确,你可以叫它数字孪生,也可以叫它简化的电网模型;有不同的术语被用来描述它。但在这种情况下,它真的是关于取你的一条馈线或
你电网的一条线,甚至一个变压器站,然后你可以说,好的,这是我的子节点。我将对这个节点有一些可见性。在这种情况下,一个节点就像一条线,但什么是节点呢?让我们来澄清一下。这是个很好的问题。所以在我们平台上现在,它可以是任何东西。这真的取决于电网
他们想在平台上开发的模型有多详细,无论他们想采用连接每一条线的方法,可能在街道级别,从400伏到高压,或者他们更喜欢也许从中等电压级别开始,覆盖整个城市。所以这真的是可配置的。我们已经看到,我们可以称之为'级别';节点会像另一个级别的同义词,是的,完全正确。所以它可以是电网中非常低的级别,
然后你开始将这个低级别连接起来沿着链向上,真正地逐级向上。这个概念实现的是你可以真正解决非常本地的问题,这正是2016年的问题,当时这个平台还是一个概念验证。所以它确实产生了从电网获得一些灵活性并解决电网的那个拥塞问题的结果。
然后,本质上,只是为了奠定基础和背景。所以根本问题是你所说的,拥塞,这已经被定义了,所以没有足够的容量能流经电网。而且你已经在经历解决方案了,那就是灵活性。也就是说:延迟和推迟某些消费,基本上,或生产,或减少可再生能源的生产。这是两个杠杆,对吧?完全正确。所以,如果我只是总结
Nodes平台所做的事情:它促进电网公司和灵活性服务提供商之间的交易,其概念是你自上而下地购买灵活性,所以真的是从电网,然后你从资产销售灵活性。可以是电动汽车充电,可以是电池,可以是热泵,各种资产,所以没有限制。真正的目标是你是一个发电或消费资产。你要么
增加你的发电或减少你的发电,所以我们称之为上调和下调,然后需求方面相反。所以如果你在消费电力,你可以增加你的电力消费或减少,这就是灵活性所在,对吧?你解释的内容。所以我们在这个平台上做的是,作为一个配电网公司,首先,他们可以真正创建一个本地市场。所以这就是为什么我们称之为本地灵活性市场,其中这个电网公司可以说:
"好的,我在这个变压器处面临一个问题。我本质上有两个选择:一个,装更多的铜,装一个大变压器;或者另一个选择是我可以使用我的电网内已经存在的东西,那就是这些新的分布式能源资源。"这是另一个术语,DER,现在被大量使用,意思是人们家中或建筑物上的太阳能光伏,或电池,热泵,电动汽车充电,所有这些都在DER这个术语中。所以
电网公司本质上可以做这两个功能,这就是我们所看到的。他们可能计划在接下来的五年内升级那个变压器,因为你不能只是一天内建成它。这需要时间,要经历所有的许可要求、文件、获得设备、招标,所有这些。与此同时,我们看到有很多公司开发商业模式,他们实际上可以实现这种灵活性。所以再一次,需求上升或
下降,或发电上升或下降。他们把这看作一个收入流。所以这就是我们称之为灵活性服务提供商的地方。他们的功能本质上是他们是聚合商,聚合商是另一个术语,完全正确。还有虚拟电厂,因为这也是一个常见的术语,你这样称呼他们吗?所以这就是为什么我们把他们都称为灵活性服务提供商。所以它可以是虚拟电厂,它
可以是聚合商,可以是电池运营商,甚至可以是CPO,充电点运营商。所以它可以是不同的角色。所以我们把他们分类为市场中的卖方,或称他们为灵活性服务提供商,或简称FSP,然后另一方我们有买方,那些通常是电网公司。所以我们真的是从本地级别开始,我们从DSO开始验证这个概念
在挪威南部与DSO合作。然后规模扩大到也包括TSO,我们实际上看到了不同的概念出现,DSO和TSO可以使用同一平台购买灵活性,并且也可以从同一资产购买灵活性。这也很重要,因为最后物理规律不变。电力从一个地方流向另一个地方,另一个方向是电池
可能重新注入电网。然后你有一个电池可能同时被传输级和配电级需要。所以这也是我们在最近芬兰市场推出时看到的,Fingrid和DSO Helen,Helen Sähköverkko,都在同一平台上交易并竞争同一资产。所以谁有需求谁就会支付最高金额,这也是我们看到的。所以
你需要说服利益相关者,主要是灵活性服务提供商,我们称之为FSPs,使其比补偿更高效。对于公用事业或特别是DSOs来说,这主要是一个商业案例:你必须计算,作为DSO,与铜和变压器相比你能节省多少钱,以及你能从这个额外的灵活性来源赚多少钱?可能会有一些蚕食或其他FSP通过参与可能会失去的价值。
在那个市场中,或者也许只是价值堆栈。你能详细说明这两点吗?绝对可以。本质上,该平台允许市场在买家、电网公司和FSPs、卖家之间有四个共同参数。即位置、价格、数量和时间。所以有了这四个参数,他们实际上是在使用该平台相互交易灵活性。所以作为第一点,我们需要使市场能够
很好的公司加入平台。他们目前是Nodes的主要客户,因为他们的工作是向所有客户供应电力,他们开始认为这在未来几年是一个大挑战。一些国家已经面临这个挑战。例如,在荷兰,电网非常拥挤,你可能需要等待多年才能在高速公路上安装一个重型充电站
。他们有这个需求。这就是为什么我们的首要目标是首先让电网公司上船,这样他们在平台上创建电网节点,他们看到需要灵活性的区域。所以这真的是一张地图,你放一个信号说好吧,这个区域是我要开放市场的地方,一个我将需要服务的本地灵活性市场。然后我们转向另一边。所以一旦DSO决定
在哪里购买灵活性,我们就可以开始在我们的网站Nodesmarket.com上提供这个。如果你去Nodes平台,你会看到可见区域的地图。我们本质上是在邀请所有这些FSPs开始加入市场,他们在地图上看到他们有资产的位置。如我所描述的,资产可以是任何类型的分布式能源或发电资源。然后
一旦他们开始在平台上注册,电网公司和Nodes本质上开始设计市场规则,因为这些市场,如我们知道的其他市场,批发市场或输电系统运营商市场,都有一些你参与的规则。所以这些配电级市场也有一些规则。这是我们经验的来源,因为我们现在已经和很多不同的电网公司这样做了八九年。所以
我们为他们带来了一套非常简化的规则,电网公司会告诉我们,好的,这个市场上的最小竞标规模,你建议什么?我们会建议他们:在我们的平台上,你可以小至1千瓦,然后可以聚合到几兆瓦。所以电网公司可能会说好的,1可以,或者他们可能会说,不,我更喜欢50,因为我有某些运营台的需求。这意味着50
应该是最小规模。好的,我们可以做到。然后第二点是:作为电网公司,你想解决什么?无论你想推迟投资,所以延迟电网投资,那么你可能想推出预留合同。所以你想推出长期灵活性,我们称之为长期合同,DSO或电网公司说我将购买灵活性
用于容量并为自己预留它,即为电网公司。我将向灵活性提供商支付可用性费用,因为他们为我提供服务,他们使这个资产可用。这是作为基本价格支付给FSP的金额,这通常较低,因为它是容量价格。然后DSO决定第二个问题,他们可能有
N-1问题,或随着交付时间的临近可能出现的实时拥塞问题。所以长期灵活性预留发生在可能几个月前。例如,在挪威或瑞典,电网公司为冬季预留灵活性,因为那是电网真正受压的时候。他们为三个月或也许四个月预留这个,长期灵活性合同。然后当你更接近实时或接近交付时间时,
电网公司将开始交易短期灵活性,这主要是能源或激活部分。所以你有容量合同,然后你有能源合同的激活。短期灵活性是你实际发生竞争的地方,所以你可以有很多灵活性服务提供商进来提供他们的灵活性,电网公司从他们的运营台看,他们有自己的工具,这通常是他们进行的负载流分析,
他们就会发现,好的,在这个位置我会面临一个N-1问题。然后他们可以在市场上购买,D-1是前一天的意思。N-1意味着你失去了电网的一个关键部分,这意味着你从两个变压器供电,比如说,其中一个变压器出现了故障、问题,然后你只能依赖
另一个。如果那个也出故障,那么该地区就会停电。所以这是一个真正的关键情况。为了给听众提供背景,欧洲法律实际上规定电网公司不能为了随意断电而断电,在其他一些国家这可能会发生而没有处罚,但在欧洲处罚真的非常非常严厉。所以对他们来说,要么如我所说的那样建设电网
他们可能已经在进行中,但仍然从FSB获得一些服务,然后支付他们一笔不菲的费用。那这个不菲的费用是多少呢?这也是你最初提出的问题。我们看到不同国家和不同DSO之间的价格差异很大。原因是这真的取决于电网的状况是什么
现在的情况,对吧?我们看到挪威上赛季的可用合约几乎超过100兆瓦,100兆瓦时的可用合约被DSO购买。所以这不是输电,这是配电,非常本地化,但他们仍然预留了几乎100兆瓦时的预留。这是每个区块1小时,所以是兆瓦时,他们每兆瓦时支付大约20欧元来预留。所以那是一小笔钱。但是
去年我们的团队也进行了分析,发现DSO实际上在购买更多的预留。他们试图保护他们的电网,但他们只激活了不到10%的这些合约。所以即将到来的冬季,我们推出了一个名为带武装的Long Flex的新产品。这意味着如果FSB向DSO提供灵活性,比如说以每兆瓦时20欧元的价格,他们会获得那个。这是有保证的收入
但如果DSO不需要你,你就不会被武装。比如说DSO在夏天为冬天采购你,从11月到2月,比如说在挪威,他们每兆瓦时支付20欧元给你。然后当11月到来时,他们再做一次负荷流分析,发现实际上不是一个严冬,或者也许他们可以应对因为他们已经在电网中有了容量。他们实际上会释放你的资产,所以它
就不会被武装,然后你可以将你的资产价值堆叠到输电系统运营商市场。这个时间表的设置方式是DSO在夏天进行Long Flex合约。然后D减2,即交付前2天,挪威的输电系统运营商市场,MFRR市场,以及其他的,FCR等等,开放。所以那么,如果灵活性服务提供商没有
获得这个武装信号,灵活性服务提供商就可以参与输电级别市场。我认为这现在在挪威很受欢迎,在很多参与者中,我们也开始在我们运营的其他市场中看到这些讨论了。所以这里的目标本质上是真正实现价值堆叠并开放一个新市场,因为DSO实际上并不是在从FSP购买,对吧?所以那里
没有附加价格。但现在有了这个,你实际上可以从DSO进行价值堆叠然后到TSO,在DSO内你已经有了多个市场,对吧?这就是你会获得这里所有收入流的完整规模的地方。你能给出与从该产品中获益的DSO相关的一些数字吗?就收益而言?我想与你提供的相比,相对于他们了解的建设更多电缆和变压器并不容易量化价值主张。
是的,这实际上是一个非常重要的问题,实际上有两件事涉及到这一点。一个是为电网公司进行成本效益分析,灵活性的价值是什么。现在还有另一个方面也非常重要:公司今天是如何获得报酬的,因为只是为了回顾,他们是受管制的实体,对吧?他们的大部分收入本质上是通过他们的电缆向最终客户传输电力,最终客户使用电力。最终客户支付电网租赁或电网费用,这样他们就能获得收入回报。他们不能在上面获得巨大利润,因为他们是受管制的实体。他们有社会职能,需要履行这一职能。我们运营的大多数国家的现行监管都有一个资本支出模式。所以这些公司在电网中投入的投资越多,以向最终消费者供电
他们获得的回报就越多。所以那里的激励确实是在地下放置更多铜材,这也是一个大话题。完全同意,这在我与电网公司的大多数讨论中都是一个大问题,他们看到对他们没有激励。然而,我们现在看到了欧盟层面的讨论。
正在讨论一个政策变化,我们稍后会回到这一点,但在国家监管机构、NRA也在真正推动电网公司考虑运营支出以及作为关键部分。我们看到最成熟的本地灵活性市场在英国,因为该模式已被那里的监管机构采用,采用总支出方法,所以是总的资本支出加运营支出的计算,然后是电网
我们看到最成熟的本地灵活性市场在英国,因为该模式已被那里的监管机构采用,采用总支出方法,所以是总的,资本支出加运营支出被计算,然后电网
公司基本上会获得这笔钱。随着监管的这种改变,电网公司将有很大的动力不仅要考虑地下埋更多的铜,还要考虑其他服务,比如灵活性。现在是另一个方面,在电网中投资的价值。Smart Energy Group做过一项研究,这是一个总部在布鲁塞尔的需求响应游说团体,他们估计在接下来的5到6年内,欧洲电网需要进行大约6000亿欧元的投资
其中大部分投资,超过3000亿欧元,将用于电网的配电层级。他们的估计是,如果从这3000亿欧元中你能投资至少100亿欧元用于灵活性,你就已经能从电网中获得价值数十亿欧元的效率收益,因为这样你也会让电网能够对本地存在的需求和发电做出更敏捷的反应
这是个很大的数字。我是说,在接下来的5到6年里,你会看到这是关键的促成因素之一。这就是为什么几天前我在芬兰,欧盟委员会的一位代表提出他们也在进行DSO需求评估方法论的常见标准化工作,委员会
也会推出关于如何评估灵活性和电网投资的通用方法论。这种方法论可能也会为欧洲许多还没把灵活性纳入议程的电网公司提供帮助。这真的很重要,我们相信未来会有更多监管出台,但同时我们运营的市场,数据正在被
生成。所以有两件事会结合在一起,真正让那些还没开始这个旅程的电网公司相信这一点。那么有没有,我认为你已经在不同的地区活跃,你对监管格局的看法如何?你已经提到英国对这类灵活性市场非常友好和有利。有没有一些国家,即使你想运营,也根本无法进入,或者你如何看待地理条件?是的,
NREs目前在欧洲和北美的加拿大运营。我们把我们拥有的市场和举措分为两个基本类别。一类是商业类,我们获得客户来采购我们的平台,通常是公开采购或公开加私人采购我们的平台。所以我们目前的核心市场是挪威、瑞典、芬兰、比利时,
在欧洲我们已经有了商业市场,在加拿大我们也有一个灵活性举措,这与市场略有不同,因为他们仍然开始把灵活性视为一种工具。这是我们在加拿大安大略地区进行的夏季灵活性举措。除此之外,我们还在进行第二类工作,就是我们做的研究和市场设计研究,以及将在该国发挥作用的市场设计方法论。
我们在那里与希腊的输电和配电运营商合作,也与该国意大利一侧的DSO在瑞士合作,还有在西班牙也在进行。所以这三个是欧洲一侧我们在研究方面合作的。然后我们在英国也有一个项目,一个社区DSO项目,实际上两个能源社区
通过Nords平台向电网公司供应灵活性,这也一直在研究领域。所以这是我们一直在使用的两种模式,我们现在已经开始看到我们平台的公开采购大幅增加。我们已经看到在其他国家,我现在还不能说出名字,因为我们在进行中,但已经在欧洲我们看到其他国家DSO或TSO正在采购我们的平台,或两者都有。还有一件有趣的事情,就是TSO和DSO正在携手推出一个市场。然后在德国我们一直在努力推进这个想法。我们在德国与一些DSO进行了一些欧洲研究项目,但没有跨越那个门槛。我认为最大的挑战之一也一直是监管方面,
DSO一直在使用基于成本的重新调度,而不是基于市场的。但是我们看到最终基于市场的重新调度的价值实际上可以为输电系统运营商也解锁真正的价值,因为那样输电系统运营商,你知道,在德国有多个,也能够访问低压电网中的灵活性。我认为最大的挑战之一一直是电网公司
害怕他们的电网会被违反,如果有人从电网的高层级来激活电网中的灵活性,这就会创建可靠性问题。这是一个合理的顾虑,说实话,因为如果你有一家高压公司或电网公司在本地层级没有可观测性,他们可能会激活过多的灵活性,这可能会为本地配电造成可靠性问题。所以我们实际上在启用
平台中的一个新模块,已经在芬兰和希腊使用,叫做TSO-DSO协调模块。发生的是本地配电公司,当他们创建这个本地灵活性市场时,已经可以按电网节点创建约束,创建限制,所以当电网的更高层级来购买来自同一资产的灵活性时,如果你还记得我们最初的想法,你有相同的
一个合理的顾虑,说实话,因为如果你有一家高压公司或电网公司在本地层级没有可观测性,他们可能会激活过多的灵活性,这可能会为本地配电造成可靠性问题。所以我们实际上在启用平台中的一个新模块,已经在芬兰和希腊使用,叫做TSO-DSO协调模块。发生的是本地配电公司,当他们创建这个本地灵活性市场时,已经可以按电网节点创建约束,创建限制,所以当电网的更高层级来购买来自同一资产的灵活性时,如果你还记得我们最初的想法,你有相同的
电池或同一充电器,但现在被用于高压服务,那么低压电网公司就可以设置这些约束。这允许初期的一些网格问题恐惧不再存在,因为我们平台的激活组件。我们在背后有一个算法,所以这个算法会警告电网的高层、输电公司说你不能这样做,因为这会造成可靠性问题。我认为这是
可能在德国也能够推动市场开放的东西,因为这里有很多配电运营商,我猜大约800家,这在整个欧洲是非常独特的。但如果你开始看到这种情况发生,可能会有很多挑战可以通过低压或中压电网解决,同时也会在输电层面为整个国家供应平衡。这是我们绝对想要测试的东西。是的,我知道这是
你谈论的约束,当我们谈论系统灵活性或系统友好性时也是一个大话题,确实在电缆层面必须有一些约束,不仅在区域层面而且在整体系统层面,这样所有这些不同市场的价值堆叠才能正确地协作,因为没有这些约束,确实会有利益相关者理所当然地担心产能过剩。那么设置这样一个市场需要什么呢?所以如果
我是一个配电运营商,是否还有其他元素会阻止你被激活,比如缺少电表?我想象。是的,这确实是一个很有趣的问题。所以无论我们在哪里工作以及我们如何启用这个市场,我之前向你解释了这是一个长期灵活性,所以你预留一些东西,然后短期灵活性,你激活一些东西,我们还有第三个叫做最大使用量的产品,这是一种虚拟保险丝合同,这是
一个更简单的方式来从电网释放更多容量。但基本上要释放这种灵活性,或者在电网公司、买方和卖方之间交付它,必须有一种方式来验证它,对吧?所以无论你是否真的交付了你说要交付的千瓦或兆瓦,这就是我们有一个节点计量中心的地方,所以这是一个平台,本质上是上传你的电表数据,这些数据通常
来自智能电表。这是一个真正至关重要的硬件组件,必须存在,因为你真的需要数据的分辨率被上传到平台上。15分钟。是的,所以通常我们看到15分钟。我认为这也是在欧洲推出的电表的标准分辨率。所以我们看到当你的智能电表渗透率上升时,你已经可以开始获得
更多不同级别的灵活性,在更细粒度的级别,真的甚至从住宅部门开始。但要开始,我认为电网公司只需要一种意愿,电网公司的某个人说,好的,让我们试试。让我们打开可能一个地区,就一个地区在中压级别。那没问题。低于此的任何人都可以来提供灵活性,因为根据我们的经验,我们实际上看到当电网公司打开这些地区
并且我们开始接触灵活性服务提供商来注册他们的资产时,有时它是一种对他们地区资产的揭示,他们真的不知道是灵活的,因为他们可能几年前做过一项研究并发现,哦,我们可能只有550兆瓦的灵活性。但真实数据或真实资产进入你的可见性只有在你创建一个真实地区并创建激励的时候。你真的在给予激励
我们正在开放一个市场,来注册资产。对于你作为电网公司来说,没有义务购买你的灵活性。这只是一个信号,你正在打开某个东西,让我们连接。然后当资产被注册,电表点被上传后,这是我们看到的地方,如果你在电网的所有级别没有更高的智能电表渗透率,你可能会从更大的资产开始。你可能会从一个新连接的电池开始,这个电池可能在一个智能电表点,或者你可能首先连接一个大型工业,或者一个大型运动场馆,例如,因为我们已经看到所有类型的灵活性进来,这可能只是开始你的旅程。随着你更多地渗透智能电表,你将开始看到更多的住宅灵活性和商业灵活性进入你的市场。也许这是一个愚蠢的问题,但我的理解也是配电运营商,特别是
在德国,在大多数电网中,中压和低压都没有很多智能电表。那么他们实际上如何量化他们的灵活性需求,然后能够首先打开这个市场呢?是的,基本上他们可以通过两种方式进行评估。他们可以通过智能电表数据并通过它进行研究,这在德国大多数电网公司都不可用。然后另一方面是他们可能通过他们的SCADA系统或配电管理系统,DMS。这是他们本质上会有这些系统由这个领域的大公司安装的地方,比如西门子、施耐德、通用电气,以及进来的新公司,所以他们实际上会连接到电网公司的本地运营和控制系统,这在传统上,你知道,一直是一个非常简单的SCADA系统
只是从他们的变电站获取数据。但现在,随着我们看到在这个领域有很多创新发生,我们有更现代的系统,其中进来的数据,他们实际上可以做出准确的预测。他们可以在电网的不同级别预测何时会出现过载,所以他们已经可以用电网一侧的那些类型的工具做需求评估。而且很多
在德国,中压和低压都没有很多智能电表。他们实际上如何量化他们的灵活性需求,然后能够首先打开这个市场呢?是的,本质上他们可以通过两种方式进行评估。他们可以通过智能电表数据并通过它进行研究,这在德国大多数电网公司都不可用。然后另一方面是他们可能通过他们的SCADA系统或配电管理系统,DMS。这是他们本质上会有这些系统由这个领域的大公司安装的地方,比如西门子、施耐德、通用电气,以及进来的新公司,所以他们实际上会连接到电网公司的本地运营和控制系统,这在传统上,你知道,一直是一个非常简单的SCADA系统,只是从他们的变电站获取数据。但现在,随着我们看到在这个领域有很多创新发生,我们有更现代的系统,其中进来的数据,他们实际上可以做出准确的预测。他们可以在电网的不同级别预测何时会出现过载,所以他们已经可以用电网一侧的那些类型的工具做需求评估。而且很多
在德国,中压和低压都没有很多智能电表。他们实际上如何量化他们的灵活性需求,然后能够首先打开这个市场呢?是的,本质上他们可以通过两种方式进行评估。他们可以通过智能电表数据并通过它进行研究,这在德国大多数电网公司都不可用。然后另一方面是他们可能通过他们的SCADA系统或配电管理系统,DMS。这是他们本质上会有这些系统由这个领域的大公司安装的地方,比如西门子、施耐德、通用电气,以及进来的新公司,所以他们实际上会连接到电网公司的本地运营和控制系统,这在传统上,你知道,一直是一个非常简单的SCADA系统,只是从他们的变电站获取数据。但现在,随着我们看到在这个领域有很多创新发生,我们有更现代的系统,其中进来的数据,他们实际上可以做出准确的预测。他们可以在电网的不同级别预测何时会出现过载,所以他们已经可以用电网一侧的那些类型的工具做需求评估。而且很多
电网公司已经拥有这样的系统,要么部署不完全,可能有这些模块中的一些,也许不是100%完全部署,但可能达到了50%,而这仍然能让他们对即将出现的问题有很好的了解。要记住,如果他们停电,会面临巨额罚款,这不是他们需要的。所以他们已经在投资这些工具,以便真正了解我们在电网容量方面的情况。
在红色区域。这可能已经帮助他们开始这段旅程。我理解这是在变电站级别,例如在德国,但由于与其他国家相比智能电表没有那么多,你在可见性方面无法做得更深入。完全同意。所以在更深层次方面确实有挑战,但我们在德国有一个合作伙伴Smite,他们实际上已经通过在低压馈线上安装传感设备解锁了
一项技术。他们实际上能够从低压电网也带来可观测性,令人惊讶的是他们最大的市场是德国,他们实际上有几个客户已经部署了低压可观测设备和相关软件。所以我认为在那一方面有很多控制和可见性。我认为挑战一直在于向基于市场的灵活性的动力不足。这可能也是因为过去有一些试验不太成功,那时可能没有足够的流动性,可能也没有很多新的聚合器公司真正勇敢地构建那些技术和商业模式。所以这有,我在这里是在推测,但据我从德国市场听到的信息,那些试验没有取得
很大的成功,这导致没有采用基于市场的灵活性方法。谈到具体项目,你特别为哪些感到自豪?我会说我为所有项目感到自豪。但我们最大的市场是挪威,这始于一家配电系统运营商,如我所说,在2016年、2018年和2022年,扩展到挪威22家最大的配电系统运营商,现在实际上覆盖了8家最大的配电系统运营商,所以
扩展到几乎挪威三分之二的计量点。所以这是在节点灵活性市场中被覆盖的非常大的区域。然后在哥德堡,这也非常有趣,因为这是一个灵活性开放的非常小的区域,但那里的电网公司与莫尔德(Mölndal)的当地电网公司一起,所以这些是两个小镇,哥德堡和莫尔德,这两家电网公司已经
运行市场四个季节,四年了。所以每个冬季他们都运行一个市场,他们已经能够在这些小区域中吸引超过30个灵活性服务提供商。他们有来自电动汽车充电器、连接到重型充电的电池的真正有趣的灵活性,还有一个与沃尔沃合作的V2G试验。由于在哥德堡的存在,他们正在启用来自配电系统运营商的价格信号,同时也允许商业公司
测试新技术并真正验证他们是否有商业案例。如果明天,比方说,沃尔沃为所有客户推出V2G,电网公司愿意为此支付这么多,那么就存在他们可以启用的商业案例。所以有真正有趣的本地参与者为该市场做出了贡献。最近,在芬兰,我们推出了第一个输配协调市场,其中Fingrid和Helen如我提到的一样,在相同的市场区域中采购,这非常独特,因为以前从未做过。输电系统运营商总是拥有他们的平衡市场,从不想让配电系统运营商参与他们的市场,因为在输电系统运营商级别规模更大。但这个试验真正是关于本地解决拥塞,以及在连接到输电网的连接点。这在我们两天前举办的芬兰灵活性日非常有趣,输电系统运营商Fingrid提到连接队列
几乎是70吉瓦正在Fingrid网络上请求,在接下来的五年左右,他们必须交付这些。这是一个很大的增长。这70吉瓦是被要求的容量,还有太瓦时的能量他们必须在接下来的5到10年内交付。所以你可以想象那里发生的电气化和事物的规模。所以如果
他们没有真正从这些本地灵活性市场获得数据并与本地配电协调,如果他们在五年后才开始,他们可能就太晚了。所以这真的很有趣。我还会快速提到另一个,比利时的Fluvius,因为他们采用了真正回答你所问问题的方法,比如灵活性的价值是什么。他们采用了真正定义六个核心参数并真正从社会
价值的灵活性来看的方法。所以他们真正参与制造这个市场,使其实际上为整个社会实现真正的大价值。我就在这里停下,但多年来还有其他有趣的举措。让我们也谈论配电系统运营商间协调。我认为这也是你解决的话题,因为这不是,是的,它不仅从低到高,还
水平向上。所以这是什么,因为概念是相同的,对吧?如果低压电网公司,本地配电系统运营商,在他们的级别有一些约束,但他们可能有一个区域配电系统运营商在他们上面,他们对本地配电系统运营商没有可见性,也不知道谁连接到那里、他们有多少灵活性等等。所以我们实际上在Euroflex,挪威灵活性市场中,
拥有这样的协调。这是一个非常有趣的用例。但这在北欧已经得到解决,因为你有这些非常强大的、有组织的电力市场,还有这些强大的配电系统运营商组织。但在其他地方,例如在中欧或南欧,这仍然是一个挑战。并且你可以想象,如果一个本地配电系统运营商启用灵活性市场,但区域配电系统运营商没有
看不到那个灵活性。那么你可以想象会出现问题,因为区域配电系统运营商可能会在某处有拥塞,他们甚至不知道本地灵活性市场可以帮助他们解决这个问题。所以这是协调和沟通的重要性,我认为这在许多地方仍然需要改进。
实际上是两个DSO,LV和Nordgisneth,他们正在进行DSO到DSO的协调,使用Norse平台的子-父网格节点概念架构,其中本地配电公司邀请连接到其电网层级的灵活性提供商来注册资产。智能电表数据也连接到那里,然后如果本地配电公司不需要灵活性,就在更高的网格节点进行聚合,然后
提供给区域DSO。所以区域DSO能够访问本地DSO的灵活性,但如果本地DSO自己需要它,他们也可以直接使用,并且如果他们在采购这些更高容量时有问题,也可以定义约束。我们在斯德哥尔摩还做过另一个例子。几年前我们做过一个项目,其中
两个区域DSO在彼此的区域内购买灵活性。他们所做的是也与输电系统运营商进行协调,当一个DSO在另一个的区域内购买时,输电系统运营商将能够在TSO层级创建更高的临时容量订阅限制。所以到TSO的连接费用,他们会自动增加那里的价值,并为
另一个区域的另一个自动减少,然后反之亦然。这也很有趣,因为这样的话,在TSO上游,他们已经支付了相同的金额,但如果他们没有进行协调,任何在上行方向激活更多或增加到传输限制的人都必须向输电系统运营商支付额外费用。这对他们来说又是一个非常具体的业务案例,主要在瑞典,因为监管
是这样的。本地DSO必须在每年超过其峰值容量时向区域DSO支付一些费用,所以他们每年有一个定义的峰值限制。然后区域DSO必须支付到输电系统运营商。所以已经存在一个业务案例,如果你只是通过购买灵活性来保持你的峰值低于这个水平,作为一个配电公司你已经在节省。我认为这也是
我从德国DSO听到的,他们如果超过峰值限制也必须向上游支付。所以已经存在一个业务案例,你已经看到你的峰值在增加,因为越来越多的人在电气化,越来越多的连接被完成。所以你已经可以有一些灵活性合同。这就是我们的最大使用合同真正有趣的地方,因为那样的话你是在说,好的,我有
一个10MW的连接,但我的峰值,作为电池运营商或作为电动汽车充电站,也许是7MW。所以另外的3个,我可以租回给电网公司,电网公司可以使用它来降低上游成本,或者为排队等待的新客户发放新的电网连接。这对一些配电公司来说也是一些东西。那让我们从产品角度多谈一下。我
怎样可以想象这个产品被这些FSP和公用事业公司使用?它主要是API优先的,还是有网络应用?是的,好问题。所以它既可以作为网络应用提供,也可以作为API提供,因为我们在这里与两个不同的利益相关者合作。我们有电网公司,他们多年来一直习惯于在网络应用或应用程序上工作
这些年来。所以他们的员工真的接受过培训,他们有能力在用户界面上使用网络应用。这就是为什么用户界面是应用程序的主要焦点之一。但我要说,我们实际上非常有能力,我会这样说,这些年来为灵活性服务提供商开发API,因为我们在挪威进行的早期试验之一,主要动机是将住宅灵活性带入市场。
而如果你在与一个也许是聚合商的能源零售商合作,他们说他们知道他们能启用多少灵活性,但他们不能手动做这件事。他们会聚合1000个家庭并为你提供灵活性。那你真的需要API,对吧?你不能一个一个地点击。是的,荒谬。是的,完全正确。所以这就是为什么API已经在这些年中被开发出来,这是一个非常有趣的混合,因为
一方面买家也许在使用应用程序,另一方面灵活性服务提供商在使用API进行交易,但这不是必须的,所以你不需要做API。你可以已经只是通过使用UI来开始,但我们已经看到随着成熟,灵活性服务提供商更喜欢API。那你特别感兴趣的监管趋势有哪些?我认为你已经暗示了一些,但是,是的,
其中一个我真正感兴趣的是欧盟需求响应网络代码,它将在明年推出,然后在年后最终确定,这将是欧洲所有成员国都必须查看和以不同形式采纳的东西。但是,需求响应的网络代码,我们一直在为其做出贡献的主要动机之一是
为配电启用本地灵活性市场。因为,正如我们在开始时很早就讨论的,《清洁能源一揽子计划》并没有真正强制规定或明确说明DSO应该使用这个。它说如果你真的想,你可以使用它,但这不是必须的。所以这是我会真的很高兴看到他们是否在最终措辞中真的把它放进去,即这是应该首先使用的东西,因为如果
你先使用它,然后你会看到它不起作用,那么你可以转向你的其他解决方案,通过灵活的连接协议或动态电网电价来断开连接,还有很多其他工具,这些工具其实都不错,因为每个电网公司可能根据他们的电网需求有不同的需要。所以这是我真正兴奋的地方,当它推出时以及市场如何形成的方式。但我也很有兴趣
看看围绕气候变化的整个前景,我们之前提到了地缘政治层面,美国现在有了不同的关注,但加拿大正在向前迈出大步。安大略能源委员会已经在研究灵活性;他们真正在研究成本效益分析,这是一种分析电网公司需要什么的方式
在他们投资电网之前。与此相关,他们有一项新的法规叫做非电线替代方案、NWAs,这也是他们想要真正推动灵活性的东西。所以在不同的地区有很多事情在发生,但我会说这两个确实很有趣,因为一旦从气候变化讨论转变为某个地区的非气候变化
讨论,那么资本就开始流向其他国家,那些以气候为重点的组织会想在那里投资。这也是为什么我已经看到并正在与不同的灵活性提供商交流,他们看到大量资本流入欧洲,也流入德国,其中正在建设电池,并且正在进行许多大项目,现在像几十兆瓦或数百兆瓦这样的项目。在英国已经是这样,我认为在德国
也有很多项目正在进行中。所以这也是我真正兴奋的地方,这将帮助灵活性,因为会有更多资本被部署,更多资产被启用,然后你需要的是市场。你需要多个市场来获得投资回报,这就是一些东西。以及你如何,你刚才暗示过,你如何相对于其他形式的DSO灵活性来定位自己,比如动态
电价?我们这里在德国有这项新的法律,EnWG §14a,能源法第14a段,它试图通过更多的动态电价来解决拥堵。这种方法相比于市场是否更糟,或者以什么方式?是的,所以我会说他们其实是共存的,坦白说,所以它不应该是非此即彼的。我认为这在挪威已经相当清楚,我们也有分步式
电网电价。所以它已经存在,随着我们的智能电表推出,你已经可以拥有这个了。在挪威,如果我支付我的电费账单,我超过了我平均值的某个峰值,我认为在一个月或一个时间段内取3个平均值,然后如果我的峰值超过那个,我就在下一个级别。所以我的电价会上升。所以这
就像一个分步式电价,尽管市场已经在被使用。所以在我看来,我认为两者可以共存,而且应该,因为如果你考虑每个人在晚上插入他们的电动车的情况,并且你可能有一个非常高值的动态电网电价,那么每个人都会停止这样做。那么电网租赁可能会被降低,但已经为他们安排了时间的聚合商
会蒙受巨大损失,他们可能已经与他们的能源供应商在平衡负责方达成了一个头寸,所以他们可能会在那里亏钱。所以就是没有一个适合所有人的解决方案,因为如果你同时拥有两者,你可能会因为每个人因为更高的电网租赁而停止充电而从一个领域失去一些收入,但另一方面你可能从灵活性市场获得一些东西。所以
我认为两者都存在是有可能的,而且应该这样。是的,非常有趣,也有点复杂。我认为从数学、优化的角度来看,试图同时优化很多不同的东西和市场,至少从我所做的分析来看,变得相当复杂。非线性、多标准、多元问题不是最容易解决的。绝对地,你可以为所有的
电网建模,但现实总是会不同。我认为这就是现实,至少对于基于市场的机制来说。当然,这听起来像是一个非常精密的方法来试图解决拥堵,相比于电价也许,或者拥有两者似乎像是一个瑞士军刀的方法,来解决这个重要问题,这可能是一个能源转型可能会非常受危害的地方,以及
你所说的,有不同种类的灵活性:即将推出的电池,当然还有已经被部署的电动车等,以及可能被削减的发电,这显然不是最好的。所以你认为哪种灵活性来源对DSO产生最大的潜力?是的,所以我认为绝对,在我们在平台上看到的数据中,我们已经有超过10000或15000个资产
被批准,意思是他们不在等待被注册。他们实际上已经被配电网公司批准,所以他们可以开始交易并可以提供灵活性。如果我也加上未被批准的、待决的、或那些仍需连接的,那么它会远超50000或也许超过100000。所以有很多更多的资产在管道中等待加入。我们已经看到电动车充电
或smart charging相当容易提供作为灵活性,所以我认为这现在确实有效,从灵活性服务提供商的角度,他们确实可以很好地规划它,对于最终消费者与他们的应用或无论他们有什么解决方案。然后电网公司最后,他们只是需要那个峰值期间更低,所以当电网拥堵时,他们可以降低
某些东西,这真的效果很好。根据我最后的了解,如果我没记错的话,大约有将近10000个资产来自15000个资产是电动车充电。这也包括了许多住宅充电盒,但也可能有一些是电动车本身,因为你也可以从车上设置电量状态。所以这是一个混合的情况。然后
我们看到很多参与者已经开始行动,特别是在电池这一侧,电池在提供灵活性方面真的很可靠,而价值堆叠在多个市场中这真的是现在电池应该做的事情。所以我们看到,仅作为灵活性资源部署的电池相当可靠,它们也可以供应给DSO,但现在也可以供应给TSO,通过
我解释的这个概念,长期灵活性增强概念。最近我们也看到电池与挪威高速公路上的重型电动车充电一起部署,电池的主要功能是在人们为度假旅行时为电动车充电站提供额外的电力。这是一年中很短的时间段,但全年其余时间这个电池只是静置,它是已投资其中的客户的资源。所以现在
我们看到很多技术聚合商拥有聪明的算法和不同的机制,能够在DSO市场中通过创建这个虚拟保险丝合同来利用该电池,最大使用量,所以他们从配电公司DSO那里获得一些收入,然后在他们设定的峰值以下,他们也能够在TSO市场中利用它。所以真的是为那些资产获得两全其美的结果
但仍然主要功能得以实现,例如在挪威夏季,人们去小屋并停在这些重型充电站时,电池也能完成其工作。所以这也很有意思。然后我们也看到许多需求响应资产进来。其中一些也被聚合了。所以其中一些可能是温室
直接提供需求响应。我们在挪威也有一些鱼场加入了市场。然后你也可能有一些住宅灵活性,这些也被聚合了。所以你可能在家里有电动车充电,但也可能有热泵,然后最终消费者在应用程序中启用他们是灵活的。我们看到有不同的商业模式,其中
一些灵活性服务提供商也向消费者提供奖励,他们每月获得一些返款,相比什么都没有但你的资源仍在被使用,这仍然相当不错,所以我们看到了很多不同的资产,但我提到的一些资产相当有趣,我看到它们日益增长。
电动车司机为这项服务能获得多少报酬?例如,如果我在家并提供这项服务,好的,所以这是不同的。我知道Tibber在应用程序中启用了这个。所以作为Tibber客户,你可以获得很好的奖励。然后Tibber的工作是从我的电动车充电器中最大化价值堆叠到多个市场。所以他们在DSO市场中管理它,或者如果他们认为这对他们来说可能没有价值
他们可能会在不同的TSO市场中进行价值堆叠,因为他们已经预先合格了。或者他们也可能在现货市场中进行套利。这也是可能的。所以他们可能会返还,这是不同的,所以在挪威是3克朗之间,挪威货币,可能在某一天或某一周达到10。而且这也不是静态的,所以这不是保证价值,但它是
你随时间获得的东西。可能有些人可能获得更多,因为他们可能有两辆大车在家里充电,他们可能有更大的房子。所以现在,我认为在应用程序中,最后我检查时,作为客户你只能用smart charging这样做,但我认为他们现在也承诺用供暖。所以如果你也有热负荷
他们将结合两者,然后他们可能会为你提供更高的电网奖励,因为他们本质上每个客户有更多的灵活性。但在Tibber的情况下它如何工作的?因为他们有,如果我记得正确的话,总是动态关税。所以作为最终用户,我会启用Tibber不仅在最低现货关税时开始充电,而且与其他事情结合,所以我不必担心。在
一天结束时账单反映了现货价格,它应该是,如果我在充电的现货价格高于如果我没有激活电网奖励时我本可以充电的价格,通常它仍然会更低,对吧?是的,绝对是。所以他们向你承诺现货价格充电,所以以最低价格为你的车充电。所以为你的车充电的能源成本将是最低的。但是然后如果
你激活电网奖励,本质上我的理解是,这可能是他们的专有知识,他们能够使用这些多个灵活性市场,传输或配电,然后本质上使用他们的价值堆叠算法为我提供额外的钱,这就是电网奖励。所以现货价格是为你的车获得最便宜的充电,安心的是你最终会给你的车充电,对吧?如果你
保持它插着。但是然后电网奖励是顶部的樱桃,现在很小。但正如我们在荷兰看到的,电网是如此拥挤,它可能会在整个欧洲发生,电网奖励可能也会开始增加。平衡成本也在每个国家增加,我认为在德国也有讨论说
这里的输电系统运营商在未来几年可能会面临非常高的不平衡成本,如果他们没有从电网的不同层级获得额外资产的话。所以如果你从市场规模的角度看整个情况,现在起步很慢,但如果你为最终用户提供最便宜的充电,同时在多个市场上使用他们的灵活性,然后开始为他们提供奖励,这可能会使
奖励也开始随着年限逐步增加。那么你对车队看到什么潜力呢?你已经提到过你与挪威邮政服务有一些接触,这类车队,还有公司在办公室安装自己充电桩供办公室员工使用,你在灵活性方面看到什么潜力?是的,我认为说实话,这是一个非常有趣的资产类别。车队总体上也是这样,因为他们有特定的需求。最终,挪威的大多数车队实际上都在转向电动化。在挪威,我认为大多数公司都有强制要求在2025年前转向电动化的任务。如果不是,他们最晚会在2026年底之前转向,所以实际上非常快,几乎已经到了。所以我们看到这些车队被充电的商业建筑,他们基本上拥有
他们的技术聚合商或商业聚合商之一与他们合作,以从他们的资产中实现这种灵活性。然后通常大多数时候是一个收入分享模式,其中在不同市场上赚取的资金,所以正如我们讨论的那样,DSO和TSO市场全部合并,在车队所有者或车队运营商与提供服务的公司之间分享。有不同的公司采取不同的模式和
不同的方法。所以有些公司直接连接到汽车、货车或其他类型的车辆。如果是像卡车这样的大型车队,那么通常是拥有或租赁这些卡车的客户,他们要么在自己的公司内拥有能源部门,然后制造虚拟电厂,因为他们可能有一个设施,因为大卡车在他们的设施充电,所以他们可能也有太阳能电池板、备用电池
还有其中的灯用于需求响应,所以他们自己的部门可能有能力制造虚拟电厂。但当你走向我所说的中型车队运营商时,你开始看到这是与其他人的合同安排,这是不同客户的不同模式。谈论控制,实际上根据这些信号减少和增加充电,是什么...DSO有任何限制吗?根据
我的了解,也有一些技术要么由DSO强制执行,要么甚至由监管机构强制执行,你需要安装一些DSO直接控制的额外硬件设备。有这些类型的限制吗?因为作为一个创业者,我更希望在控制类型的决定层面有更多灵活性,是通过你所说的车辆,还是通过充电桩,
如果你谈论充电的话,或者你是否真的需要安装额外的设备,这些设备在技术上原本并不需要。这是一个非常好的问题。我个人认为DSO的工作是维护电网并确保连接存在,以便他们可以连接客户。这不是他们的工作来了解如何控制资产。这是Nodes平台的基本原则之一,
即当你进行短期灵活能源交易时,你不会在Nodes平台中向DSO提供资产的直接控制权,但你会获得一份调度通知,可以通过API配置给灵活性服务提供商。然后灵活性服务提供商,聚合商、虚拟电厂,无论我们用什么公司名称,他们是自己资产或其客户资产的专家。所以那时他们的工作就是以最佳方式真正驱动该资产。最终,电网公司真正需要的本质上是上升或下降的灵活性,对吧?所以他们应该获得这项服务。如果他们获得这项服务,为什么还要安装额外的硬件并增加整个社会的成本呢?因为你不会只为一两个安装,如果你看规模,你可能需要为数百和数千个安装,那额外成本随时间推移也需要维护。所以那个盒子或额外硬件是对
整个体制的附加成本。最后你得到的是相同的结果,你得到的是上升或下降的灵活性,对吧?这就是Nodes平台的基本原则。我们一直都在从DSO那里收到这个问题:"我们必须运营一个非常可靠的电网。我们不能停电之类的。这就是为什么我们需要在我们的桌子上有这个红色和绿色按钮。我们可以
调度这个电池或那个充电器。"但我们一直在告诉他们:相信市场。因为如果你创造足够好的价格信号,你会看到技术的出现,像你和很多其他公司一样开发了真正有趣的技术,最终能够实现灵活性的上升和下降。所以当DSO首次进入市场时,他们有这些问题,但一旦他们进入市场,
他们接下来最大的关注就是获得流动性,真正吸引这些灵活性提供商进入他们的市场并获得资产。所以整个关于它是否可靠的讨论在我一直与客户交谈过的大多数市场中真的没有进入阶段。所以现在的设置方式就是你建议DSO运营的方式,这意味着没有额外硬件。是的,完全正确。所以我们允许他们提交买单
整个体制的附加成本。最后你得到的是相同的结果,你得到的是上升或下降的灵活性,对吧?这就是Nodes平台的基本原则。我们一直都在从DSO那里收到这个问题:"我们必须运营一个非常可靠的电网。我们不能停电之类的。这就是为什么我们需要在我们的桌子上有这个红色和绿色按钮。我们可以调度这个电池或那个充电器。"但我们一直在告诉他们:相信市场。因为如果你创造足够好的价格信号,你会看到技术的出现,像你和很多其他公司一样开发了真正有趣的技术,最终能够实现灵活性的上升和下降。所以当DSO首次进入市场时,他们有这些问题,但一旦他们进入市场,他们接下来最大的关注就是获得流动性,真正吸引这些灵活性提供商进入他们的市场并获得资产。所以整个关于它是否可靠的讨论在我一直与客户交谈过的大多数市场中真的没有进入阶段。所以现在的设置方式就是你建议DSO运营的方式,这意味着没有额外硬件。是的,完全正确。所以我们允许他们提交买单
整个体制的附加成本。最后你得到的是相同的结果,你得到的是上升或下降的灵活性,对吧?这就是Nodes平台的基本原则。我们一直都在从DSO那里收到这个问题:"我们必须运营一个非常可靠的电网。我们不能停电之类的。这就是为什么我们需要在我们的桌子上有这个红色和绿色按钮。我们可以调度这个电池或那个充电器。"但我们一直在告诉他们:相信市场。因为如果你创造足够好的价格信号,你会看到技术的出现,像你和很多其他公司一样开发了真正有趣的技术,最终能够实现灵活性的上升和下降。所以当DSO首次进入市场时,他们有这些问题,但一旦他们进入市场,他们接下来最大的关注就是获得流动性,真正吸引这些灵活性提供商进入他们的市场并获得资产。所以整个关于它是否可靠的讨论在我一直与客户交谈过的大多数市场中真的没有进入阶段。所以现在的设置方式就是你建议DSO运营的方式,这意味着没有额外硬件。是的,完全正确。所以我们允许他们提交买单
在市场中,这是他们对位置和他们愿意为该服务支付多少费用的信号。然后调度通知被发送给已提供该价格下该灵活性的灵活性服务提供商。所以调度通知本质上是激活信号,但具体如何实现,这取决于灵活性服务提供商。所以没有额外的硬件,没有绕过
灵活性服务提供商的额外直接控制。我们从沙特阿拉伯和巴基斯坦开始,我想以这些为结尾。关于电动出行,你在跟踪这些国家的电动出行发展吗,你能和我们分享什么?是的,我们这里的关注重点有点更多在欧洲,但我也可以向听众推荐一期关于埃塞俄比亚的不错的播客。那么你能分享
关于这些国家电动出行的什么信息呢?是的,我认为电动出行或可持续出行总体上在世界各地都在进行。如果我从沙特阿拉伯开始,我一直在关注该发展。根据该国政府的《2030年愿景》,他们确实吸引了很多电动汽车制造商。正如你所知,美国的大型参与者之一Lucid,他们在那里有
一家大工厂。他们确实是沙特市场的先驱,在开发电动汽车方面以及在那里培训员工方面处于领先地位。所以有一个巨大的转变,即采用德国汽车工业模式并将其应用于沙特阿拉伯,但仅适用于电动汽车。他们的许可证系统和所有事项都非常简便,而且沙特投资基金可能也有大量投资
用于在那里建立公司和制造业的此类公司。除此之外,他们还在沙特启动了其他举措来开发整个价值链,因为如果你拥有电动汽车、开发的汽车、卡车或任何其他东西,那么你还需要备件,你需要整个行业聚集在一起。因为如果你仅停留在车辆离开生产线的阶段,那么总拥有成本
永远不会低于柴油或化石燃料。所以我认为这也是一个大重点。有很多其他参与者来自亚洲、中国、日本和其他国家,也在那里建立电动汽车的售后服务。所以我认为这非常有趣。我认为最近我也看到他们在大力投资Power-to-X或本质上的Power-to-
氢。所以他们在不同地区安装了大量可再生能源,因为他们那里有大量阳光,也安装了一些风能,与其在有额外生产时限制这些能源不同,他们开始考虑生成氢气。而且由于沙特或中东整体的距离非常远,我们谈论的是数千公里,在那里使用电动卡车可能不是
最优选择。所以氢的使用案例在那里确实有效,因为那样你可以在某些位置真正补充氢气,对于车队运营商来说,以最短的时间跨度从一个目的地运送氢气卡车到另一个目的地可能非常有价值。所以我认为看到电动和氢在那里都被使用非常有趣。在巴基斯坦,市场
对电动的增长缓慢,但最近大型中国制造商比亚迪在巴基斯坦推出了他们的电动车队。他们提供在欧洲也能买到的各种车型,实际上在巴基斯坦提供了相同级别的汽车和服务,这非常有趣。最近政府进行了一些研究,作为一些政策信号,我认为开发计划署做的一项研究我在大约一年或一年半前查看过,他们关注巴基斯坦的市场份额,我会说,这相当类似
于印度和孟加拉国,其中主流电动或主流运输工具是两轮车。如果你将两轮和三轮车加在一起,那么
你看的是一个拥有2.5亿人口的巴基斯坦国家市场份额的80%,这是很多,对吧?80%的车辆,不是人口,而是80%的车辆是两轮或三轮车。我也查看了那里的数字,所以那几乎是2200万或2300万辆两轮车目前在道路上行驶。有趣的是与此形成对比的是
该国进口所有这些燃料,所以巴基斯坦没有像中东那样庞大的石油储备。所以这是该国的巨大进口账单。如果进口账单能够减少,我认为这是他们考虑的问题,对社会可能有巨大收益,你实际上将运输从今天进口的化石燃料转变为电力或电动汽车,然后你可以用太阳能在本地生成电力。所以
太阳能在巴基斯坦家庭的投资回报期少于3年,因为那里的电力成本相当高,如果你只是今天在你家的屋顶上放置太阳能,你已经在不到2年内获得投资回报。最坏的情况可能是3年,而整个太阳能安装市场确实达到了顶峰。我只是看到一篇文章说在巴基斯坦
太阳能屋顶的已装容量,加上可能一些集中式太阳能,几乎是49亿瓦的太阳能,但整个国家的政府和独立电力公司,过去大约70年左右安装的所有东西,的容量是48,000兆瓦。所以你已经可以看到来自水力、煤炭、天然气的48,000MW用于整个国家;这是峰值已装容量。然后实际需求峰值在夏季时只有30,000或35,000,当你有
很多空调。所以你的峰值装机容量和需求之间已经存在差距。如果你能通过本质上增加需求来减少这个差距,对国家来说最好的方式可能是在道路上部署电动两轮车,因为那样人们就会开始给它们充电,需求会增加,但国家的化石燃料进口账单也会下降。最后,如果你还安装了家用住宅
屋顶上装太阳能,然后就可以在家充电,所以消费者也会有便利。所以我认为政策一直都在那里。我认为他们查看了4个主要参数,看看在接下来的十年里需要做什么来真正实现这一点:基本上是来自政府的明确政策信号,还有全球电池成本下降,因为这不是一个拥有
人均收入高,所以你需要电池成本下降,这样车辆本身才能够负担得起。然后充电基础设施也需要发展,因为那也是目前缺乏的东西,也许这正是分布式充电可以发挥作用的地方。然后最后一件事,我认为他们提到的是供应链的本地化,所以再次以我在沙特提到的例子为例,那是针对
他们在做的更大的车辆,但采取类似的方法来本地组装和制造三轮车或两轮车,然后还要有售后市场,因为这些两轮车,你知道的,刹车灯坏了或什么的,你可以在国内买到备件,而不用进口,因为同样,驾驶两轮车的市场的82%其实也并不是处在收入的上游。
所以他们真正需要的不仅是降低拥有车辆的成本,还要降低运营车辆的成本。再回到电动汽车的问题,总拥有成本应该降低这一直是讨论的话题,而且我认为联合国开发计划署的报告也强调了这一点:如果这需要发生,那么必须是整个价值链的本地化。好的,感谢分享。你有最后的话吗
从我这边来说,如果你对灵活性或这个话题感兴趣,可以随时通过LinkedIn与我联系。
如果有电网公司的人在听,来自德国或其他地区,请联系我。在灵活性的历程中从某个地方开始,趁监管还没有强制要求你这样做。最好现在就试试,从中学习,积累数据,确保你为即将到来的下一代电网做好准备。这就是我最后的信息。谢谢你,Farran,继续
加油。谢谢。这是Farran Farouk。Charge PNB的故事表明,多供应商堆栈、协议不匹配、批准延迟和微薄的单位经济学使充电器共享很难规模化,即使有补助和奖项。向节点的转变展示了可行的路径。灵活性在位置、价格、数量和时间方面进行交易。DSO可以购买长期和短期灵活性,新的收益机制让DSO和TSO能够对资产进行估值,使它们能够赚取多条收入流。像芬兰Fingrid和Helen这样的协调示例使用受限逻辑
和市场规则来避免冲突激活。该平台在北欧、比利时和加拿大运营,在包括英国在内的几个欧洲国家进行研究。它最小化了DSO硬件,向聚合商发送调度通知,并通过API进行扩展。资产数量已经达到数万个。在电动汽车充电方面,可控性处于领先地位。电池带来可靠性和价值堆叠。家庭通过Tibber等应用程序看到小但真实的奖励,3到10欧元,即每天或每周几欧元,而车队电气化增加了可预测的容量。法规设定了节奏。英国的灵活性
模式启用了成熟的本地市场。欧盟正在准备需求响应网络代码。安大略省推动无线替代方案,德国可以通过TSO-DSO协调和更好的低压感测来释放更多潜力。实际教训是尽早开始,开放区域,让交易显露灵活资产。通过清晰的产品和简单的结算,本地灵活性成为可靠性工具和成本杠杆。感谢收听RiDERgy的Smart Charge。下次见,保持充电状态。
Welcome to the Smart Charge by RiDERgy podcast. This is Claudio Geyken, founder and CEO of RiDERgy. This is your show to learn about all things energy management and smart charging innovation for electric vehicles and fleets.
Welcome to Smart Charge. Today's guest is Farhan Faro. This conversation begins with Charge BNB, a charger-sharing startup that won 100,000 from the Postcode Lottery in Norwegian grants for a pilot in Halden. The pilot exposed market and tech frictions: Schneider 22 kW units without built-in connectivity that needed costly on-site activation, older OCPP version quirks where chargers showed as available but failed in use, late stakeholder approvals in a postal fleet pilot that stalled as funds ran out. With a six-person team, the verdict was clear: thin margins and fragile
user experience make sharing hard to scale - something even players with the most advanced charger backends touch only at the edges. From there, we move to Nodes, a Nordic global flexibility market that tackles congestion through trading, not just grid upgrades. Nodes models the grid at node level, from street-level low voltage to city-scale medium voltage, and every trade is defined by location, price, volume, and time. DSOs can reserve long flex months ahead and call short flex near delivery. In Norway, last season's 100 MWh of
availability at about €20 per MWh saw under 10% activation, prompting a new army mechanism so DSOs and TSOs can stack value from the same assets. We'll link this to real projects across Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, and Canada, with research in Greece, Switzerland, Spain, and the UK. The platform runs with a web app for grid companies and APIs for aggregators or flexibility service providers, already connecting 15,000 approved assets with a pipeline above 50,000 - from EV chargers and batteries to heat pumps and commercial sites. That's the
journey today: from sharing pilots' hard lessons to a market model that turns flexibility into simple contracts, clear activations, and reliable settlement. The energy transition faces huge challenges that distribution system operators, DSOs, need to face. This episode is fundamental to understanding how we can solve this. Let's dive in. Farhan, nice to have you today. How are you? I'm doing very well, thank you for inviting me. Happy to have you coming from Oslo, and it worked well that you could make it to the
podcast studio here in Berlin. That's awesome. And before we jump into detailed topics related to your work, please introduce yourself. Yeah, first of all, thank you again for inviting me. So my name is Farhan Faro. I've been a global citizen, I call it, because I was born in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia, but I'm actually a national of Pakistan. My parents lived in Saudi for several years. So I grew up in a
different desert environment with different cultures and experiences. Then I moved back to Pakistan, did my education there, and yeah, then moved to Europe. That's where I met you as well, while I was studying in Belgium doing a master's in energy engineering. And then after that I moved to France, where I did a second master's in smart grids and buildings, and then after that I ended up
in Norway. Right now I'm working on flexibility - really about local flexibility markets - and working with a lot of the whole value chain of the energy industry, and it's really exciting. I think we'll talk more about that. Yeah, for sure. Thanks. We knew each other from the InnoEnergy community days. I think we were both quite passionate about that project as well - the vision of uniting sustainable energy change makers - and you were super active as a community leader and
you studied one of the masters there, as did I. So for the listeners, that's the background, and I'm happy to have you. I think you're one of the first guests from the InnoEnergy community, and I'm happy to have more in the future. As you will see, there's plenty of interesting work that people coming from that community are doing. So you said you came to Europe - first you said global citizen. What motivated you, from your Saudi experience and Pakistan, to come to Europe?
Yeah, so as I told you, my bachelor's was from Pakistan - I studied electrical engineering and majored in power systems. Right after graduating I went to Saudi in 2016, trying to see if I would be back in my childhood living environment and could get work experience there, but at that time Saudi was not doing great economically,
so there were not many projects on the electrical power side. Then I moved back to Pakistan and found a job at a very small company, almost a startup, that was doing very technical work. They were essentially partners with General Electric, the large US company, and were installing protection and control system equipment inside medium and high voltage electrical grid stations. The government of Pakistan in 2017 started to upgrade a lot of these electrical
substations, so they had a contract to upgrade them. While I was working there it was super interesting, but it involved a lot of technical details - designing circuits, really getting into the engineering side, which has its own fun. But one thing I was missing was the new things you hear in the news and online: what is this energy transition happening? And really looking
From the outside, and never been in Europe, never, never visited even before that. It was like Europe was the leader - back in 2017, if you ask any young person outside Europe, if you tell them 'energy transition' or 'sustainable energy' and all these keywords, every young person would say, 'Oh yeah, this is something happening in Europe.' So that was the main motivation to become part of that community or that society where something is happening, which
is actually quite important. And then I found this master's with InnoEnergy, which was combining not just the energy engineering and sustainability topics, but also combining innovation and entrepreneurship. So that was like the best of two worlds for me - getting into the sustainability topic, but while also having this very much a hobby to become an entrepreneur. A naive hobby at that time; didn't even know what an entrepreneur
really means. It was a cool thing to do, but that's how I ended up in Europe and with those two passions: energy and sustainability, and then innovation and entrepreneurship. OK, and one step back again, because it's also something that is a lot in the news right now - we're seeing geopolitical tensions here and there, and borders being set by the US, for example, especially for people coming from abroad with their H-1B visa. And I'd be curious to know
- I think there's not so much light shed into how many people from Pakistan or India and other regions are actually living in Saudi or in the Arab countries there on the Arabian Peninsula. Like, what's the share of population? What led your parents to move there? Yeah, that's a very interesting question, because my generation has actually seen the global community more connected - it's much easier to move between countries. But back in the day when my parents were, you know,
in the 60s and 70s, when Saudi - or not even just Saudi, but the whole Middle East - had this oil exploration boom, that was the big function in that society that really enabled them to hire a lot of skilled workers. So my dad actually used to work in the public sector of Pakistan. We have a public company that operates all our electricity grid, but also all our hydro dams. So he used
to work at a hydro dam up in the north of the country, and then the Saudis were hiring a lot of skilled people because they had a real shortage - they really needed a lot of the new infrastructure to be maintained, developed, and operated. And that's how a lot of skilled people migrated from Pakistan to Saudi. But the same thing happened, I believe, in Dubai or UAE, also in Qatar and Kuwait
and all those countries, which are quite closely linked. Most of them had one thing in common: they had a shortage of skilled labor, and the countries which had a lot of population but also a lot of skilled labor saw people migrate to those countries. So living there and growing up, I would say my school also had three sections. One was a Saudi section, where only the Arab students were studying.
Then we had another floor in that school which we used to call the Pakistani section. All the Pakistani students were studying there, and the curriculum we were following also came from the embassy of Pakistan or the government, teaching the curriculum that we were following. And then we had another floor on top which was for the Indian students. They had their own curriculum from the Indian government, which they were following as
overseas citizens as well. So it was an interesting experience - you had three different layers within the same premises of the school. We would play with the Indian kids from time to time. Also, we'd play cricket with the Indians and football with the Saudis. So that was an interesting experience. Funny anecdote. And coming back to Europe after your
studies - what did you do? So I finished my second master's in Grenoble, at the polytechnic in France. From there I started reaching out to my network and seeing what the different possibilities were to start working in Europe. I wanted to stay in Europe, build my career here and gain some experience. I had a friend who also graduated from InnoEnergy, but one year ahead of me -
he was working on European Horizon projects. The European Commission sets out an agenda every few years and they have a certain amount of funding allocated to innovation, research, and also some academic-related activities. So I joined a company called Smart Innovation Norway, which was a research institute - a private one, but doing a lot of research with innovation, so really at the high end of the technology readiness scale, which is
a term used by the European Commission - originally from NASA - to define whether your product is in the lab or is closer to entering the market. So my goal was to work on creating new projects, putting a lot of consortiums together of 16 or 17 organizations. This would include companies, universities, academic institutions, research institutions, and sometimes startups. Together we would put forward a new proposal or a new innovation concept for a challenge that has been
set in these Horizon calls, which is designed by the European Commission experts. So I would create those proposals, submit them to the commission, and then you would get feedback whether you got funded or not. And if you are funded, then the second role of my job was to do project management. Also, one of the projects I did manage was as a pilot coordinator. So we
were actually deploying microgrid optimization solutions across three countries: Romania, Spain, and Norway. I was the main pilot coordinator for all three sites, so I had to coordinate with the vendors supplying equipment, a university that had developed a new algorithm to optimize energy consumption, and then with the site itself - the site manager who's operating that site on a daily basis. So it was a kind of interesting multi-stakeholder engagement, but within the energy side. And also then
really working with European funding schemes and really understanding - this is quite complex coming from outside of Europe, to be honest - but when you start seeing the different trends and different themes, you can start to learn how does this work and what's the benefit of it. And one of the things that I felt was missing there was the impact of these projects, because the European research can go up to a certain level and then it has to end, and
then it has to enter the market, because that's where the commercial interest will take it further and develop some value for society. And that's where I thought maybe that is just a bit slow compared to the commercial world. And that's where I stopped working there and moved to the next role. And the next role was with Nodes, as a business development manager.
So here, interestingly, within my last job I was doing an R&D project with Nodes, where I already saw their platform and looked at it - it was very interesting. It was a new concept to create new local flexibility markets, which I had a little bit of knowledge about but not really, and I just reached out to my contact there and asked them like:
"Hey, this looks really cool, and I'm more interested in really commercializing these new innovations, and your platform is already at a stage where it can be commercialized." So I joined this company in 2023 and we've been working there. OK, and before we deep dive into that one, I think there is one episode that could be interesting - Charge B&B as well - that you could be elaborating a bit on as well, what
what that was about. The name is catchy. Yeah, absolutely. So while I was working in this research organization, the research institute in Norway, one of the things that was really interesting in Norway - and I think most of the listeners will also catch on to that - is that Norway has a lot of electric cars, right? And that was one of the things that I also felt when I arrived there and started living there, that
when I needed to get a car, let's get an electric one because you're in Norway. But one of the biggest problems I faced was that the place where I was living, I was renting a home, and the landlord had one electric car charger, and that was for his own car. I could not charge on it with any commercial model. I had to charge, and I would have to manually calculate how much
I charged, which was not really fair for him and also maybe not fair for me. But really where I was living, there was a school that was like 5 minutes away by walking, and they had like 8 22 kW chargers installed at that school. And the school only - the people coming there were charging from the morning till the afternoon. The school closes, the chargers sit there, and I was looking at them all
day whenever I crossed the school, thinking: why can't I charge there? From 2020 through to 2021 I looked at it - there were many such chargers in that small town in Norway. And then I got contacted by one of my old mates who was living in the Netherlands, and he had this idea from a hackathon: why don't you do the Airbnb of charging? And I
told him: I'm actually facing this problem in Norway, so this is actually a real problem that you're describing to me. So let's join hands together. Let's create a startup - become that entrepreneur that I talked to you about earlier. So we created the company, and then we faced the first challenge. It was an immigrant challenge: as an immigrant in Norway, or I think most countries, until
you have lived there for a certain number of years, you cannot create a company just on your own. This was the immigration requirement - you need to have a Norwegian citizen involved, yeah, or a permanent resident. So I was not a citizen or a permanent resident, so we involved another colleague of mine who was, and he was also bringing some experience of Norwegian society and a bit more knowledge of Norwegian society.
So we were 3 that started it. And then we realized quickly that, as soon as we learned the first keyword - OCPP - what is that, and suddenly we hit the wall that none of us had the software development skills really needed to develop a platform that could allow the Airbnb of charging. That's when I reached out to another student who was studying in the same town where I was working.
He joined us as a full-stack developer. He was also from Pakistan and he came there for studying, and he had a lot of experience developing full-stack applications. So we became 4. You can already start to see that, as a startup, we were quite a big team, not yet really having validated the problem in a real-life market. And that soon became the biggest challenge - we were really pushing to get the
market moving, instead of the market calling us and us starting to onboard. So we did end up actually winning a lot of competitions in Europe. We won a big prize from the Postcode Lottery - they have this Green Challenge, they operate it in 5 countries - and we were chosen the winner in Norway as the best green startup. So we got €100,000 of funding with that, and then we also had some
grants from the Norwegian government to help really build this concept. In the end we did some pilots. We did a pilot with the local municipality of a small town called Halden, on the east side of Norway. We were sharing the chargers from two schools with the community there. But soon we saw a lot of challenges with having a multi-vendor system. We had the chargers - the two-pole chargers from
Schneider, 22 kW. First we had to find out whether they had an internet connection at that site, which was not enabled, so we had to hire a local electrician or a networking guy who would go in and open the charger. He was the only authorized person to do that from the company. And that had a cost for every charger we had to onboard, because these chargers were installed by the municipality and when they installed them they never
had a requirement to make them already enabled with the internet. So that was a challenge. Then when we started sharing the chargers, we also saw that a lot of the time - at that time I think it was OCPP 1.6, if I'm not mistaken - it was not communicating quite well. The chargers would report a status of charging, but the customer was telling us
that their car was not charging; it was actually just sitting there. So we had a lot of bad communication between the two systems, and also on our side I think we were still learning how these protocols work and how to integrate them with the chargers. So there were also a lot of real delivery challenges. Finally we finished that pilot. It had some results, but not really great enough for the municipality to say
"OK, we're going to do this all across," because it also required the municipality to involve a lot of actors, get approvals, and do a lot of paperwork, which was complex for them. On the other side, we were also already talking to a large fleet operator in Norway called Posten, which is the National Postal Service. They had some depots where they were charging their vans - they had electric
vans that would charge at night at the depot. They would pick up the mail or all the deliveries in the morning, go out in the field, and deliver. But when they were in the field those chargers were sitting idle, and the concept again was to share those as the Airbnb of charging. We had approval from their management to do this pilot, but essentially all the approvals came so late that we
were out of funding as well, and also out of motivation, because we were quite a big team by that time - around 6 people - but had not really validated the product. Everybody felt that there was something here, but was it really moving? We all agreed to move forward from it, take all the learnings. I think that's one of the things I really appreciated - that when you
have a failure, which is quite appreciated in the US, maybe less so in Europe these days, it really teaches you a lot. You learn so many things along the way that you can use later in life, both from a technology perspective, from the culture of the team, and also the dynamics of how to deal with customers and do product-market fit - a term which we
learned quite late, I would say, as first-time founders. But overall it was a great experience, and it has also helped me in the new role I'm currently working on. Yeah, very interesting story. Thanks for sharing. Just one more thing on that - how do you look back at this problem, the fundamental problem you wanted to solve? If you look around, there are still so many chargers that are not being shared. It's a big topic in
the industry. What's your view? Why isn't it commonplace? Why aren't there other people that have solved this problem with the same second charge B&B? Yeah, I think that's a very good question. I really wish there should be a solution like that, but like you said, there is still a problem that needs to be solved. There are a few solutions that are working in the UK that I last checked are able to scale to a certain level, but that's really a
community approach to that, right? It's not really a plug-and-play solution like you have on the other sides of EMSP solutions or CPO solutions. This sharing of chargers has not scaled. Even though one of the largest players, Monta from Denmark, they started at the same time in 2022 when we did, and the founders had really great experience from ex-Tesla, and they scaled the platform. Actually, their initial product
- the app - had this option of sharing your charger. But over the years, I think they also saw that the profit margins are higher on the other side, where you have this platform approach to connect different systems and different locations. So their major revenue portion, I guess, is from there. They still, I think, enable you to share the charger, but it's not really the core business. And I think the main issue that I feel in this idea or this
problem-solving is the margins, because if you do a revenue-sharing model, which is quite common in the charging industry, then your margins are so thin on maintaining this kind of platform. And then the second problem with that is the experience, the user experience for the customer. If the charger breaks, it might not be your fault, but then the customer starts blaming your app, and then you start to see the scale not hitting and you already kind of have a
bad press. People don't rely on that in the EV charging world because everybody who's charging their car really wants it to be charged. Because if you have once a bad experience - in our case, that was the case when we were doing the pilot - if there was someone who had one time the charger didn't start and it was not our fault, it was the charger itself not responding, the customers stopped using our app and got out of the
pilot scheme. And I think it's really important for this idea to stick. So someone has to find a very good business model that makes it scale and also have a really good user experience where it works. All right, now moving forward and looking at the present. Tell us all about Nodes. What is the problem that the company is trying to solve first? Yeah, absolutely. So the problem really started on the concept where Nodes was
born. Let me take you back a bit. So Nodes was actually created in 2016 from a concept where the local grid company in the south of Norway was facing a congestion issue on a large transformer station. Congestion, meaning - just for the audience who doesn't know that - is that you are not able to supply enough power or energy through your electrical grid because it's almost full. So then they
brought together some experts and thought, OK, what is the new way we can solve it instead of putting in a big transformer. They gathered a lot of experts from Microsoft and also a lot of other companies. Even Nord Pool was involved at that time, the wholesale market operator. So they together designed Nodes' first market design, which was essentially based on the Clean Energy Package in Europe, which already talked about this role of aggregator and prosumers. And also
local flexibility markets. So the Clean Energy Package - for the listeners, that's the package that the European Commission and Parliament decided in 2021 and went through, that will apply to all member states and involves a lot of things, a lot of regulations and directives - and one of them here this year. Yeah, absolutely, thank you for clarifying that. So that's something that is in the Clean Energy Package. In the earlier draft, I think the 2015–2016 draft,
it said that the DSO, the distribution system operator, may use market-based systems or solutions to solve their problems. So this small group together designed this market design and created a platform. The platform was really designed to be a nodal concept - that's why the name Nodes comes from. Grid node is a really important concept in the platform, because what you are doing essentially is creating a replica of your physical network on a
digital platform. Your grid is connected from point to point. You have a low-voltage connection point connected to medium, and medium to high voltage - that's how our electricity grid works. So you can create a similar replica of that in the Nodes platform. A digital twin - yeah, exactly, you can call it a digital twin or you can call it a simplified grid model; there are different terminologies used for it. But in this case it's really about taking one feeder or
one line of your electrical grid, or even one transformer station, and then you can say, OK, this is my child node. I will have some visibility on this node. In this case, a node would be like a line - but what is a node? Let's clarify that. That's a good question. So in our platform right now it can be anything. It's really up to the grid
How detailed the model they want to develop in the platform, whether they want to take the approach of connecting every line - so maybe at a street level, from 400 volts up - or they prefer to maybe start at a medium voltage level, covering the whole city. So that's really configurable. And we have seen - we can call it 'level'; a node would be like another synonym for level, yeah, exactly. So it can be a really low level of
the grid, and then you start connecting that low level up the chain, really taking each level up. The concept this enables is that you can really solve very local problems, and that was really the issue that was in 2016 where this platform was a proof of concept. So it did actually result in getting some flexibility from the grid and solving that congestion problem for the electric grid.
Then, essentially, just to set the basics and the scene. So the fundamental problem is what you said - congestion - which was already defined, so that not enough capacity can flow through the grid. And you're already going through the solution now, that is flexibility. That is: delay and defer certain consumption - basically, or production - or reduce the production of renewables. That's the two levers, right? Exactly. So, if I just summarize
what Nord's platform does: it facilitates the trading between the grid company and the flexibility service provider, where the concept is that you buy flexibility top-down - so really from the grid - and then you sell flexibility from the assets. So it can be electric car charging, it can be batteries, it can be heat pumps, all kinds of assets, so there's no limitation on that. The real objective here is that you are a generation or a consumption asset. You either
increase your generation or reduce your generation - so we call it up and down regulation - and then the opposite for demand. So if you are consuming electricity, you can increase your electricity consumption or decrease, and that's where the flexibility is, right? What you explained. So what we have done in this platform is that as a distribution grid company, to start with, they can really create a locational market. So that's why we call it a local flexibility market, where this grid company can say:
"OK, I'm facing a problem at this transformer. I have essentially two options: one, put more copper, put a big transformer; or the other option is that I can use what is already inside my grid, which is these new distributed energy resources." That's another term, DER, being used a lot these days, which means solar photovoltaics on people's homes or on buildings, or batteries, heat pumps, electric car charging - all that is in the term DER. So
the grid company essentially can do both functions, and that's what we have seen. They might plan to upgrade that transformer over the next five years, because you cannot just build it in a day. It takes time with all the permitting requirements, the documentation, getting the equipment, tendering for it - all that. In the meantime, we see that there are a lot of companies making a business model where they can actually enable this flexibility. So again, demand turning up or
down, or generation turning up or down. And they see this as a revenue stream. So that's where we call them flexibility service providers. Their function essentially is that they are aggregators - aggregator is another term, exactly. And virtual power plant, because that's also a common term - do you call them that? So that's why we have termed them all as flexibility service providers. So it can be a virtual power plant, it
can be an aggregator, it can be a battery operator, it can even be a CPO, charge point operator. So it can be different roles. So we have categorized them as sellers in the market - or call them flexibility service providers, or FSPs for short - and then on the other side we have the buyers, and those are typically the grid companies. So we start really at the local level, and we started with the DSOs to validate the concept
in Norway with the south of Norway DSOs. Then it scaled up to involve also the TSO, and there we have seen actually different concepts coming along where the DSO and the TSO can buy flexibility using the same platform, and also buying flexibility from the same asset. That's also very important to know, because in the end the physics doesn't change. You have electric power flowing from one to the other, and in the other direction you have the battery which
might be injecting back into the grid. Then you have one battery which might be needed by both the transmission level and the distribution level. So that's something we have also now seen in our recent market launch in Finland, where both Fingrid and the DSO Helen - Helen Sähköverkko - are both trading on the same platform and competing for the same asset. So whoever has the need will pay the highest amount, and that's how we have also seen that. So
you need to convince the stakeholders - mostly the flexibility service providers, let's call them FSPs - to make it more efficient than the compensation. And for the utilities, or the DSOs in particular, it's mostly a business case: you have to calculate OK, how much money can you save compared to copper and a transformer, as the DSO, and how much money can you make with this extra flexibility source? There might be some cannibalization or other values that the FSP might actually lose by participating.
in that market, or maybe it's just a value stack. Can you elaborate on these two points? Absolutely. So essentially the platform allows the market to have four common parameters between the buyers, the grid companies, and the FSPs, the sellers. It is location, price, volume, and time. So with these four parameters, they are actually trading flexibility among themselves using the platform. So as a first point, what we need to enable the market is a
great company to join the platform. So they are currently the prime customers for Nodes, because they are the ones that have the job to supply the electricity to all of their customers, and they are starting to see that as being a big challenge in coming years. Some of the countries already face that challenge. For example, in the Netherlands, the grid is so full that you might need to wait several years to install a heavy-duty charging station
at the highway. So they have the need. That's why our prime goal is to first get the grid company on board so they create the grid nodes on the platform - the areas where they see they need the flexibility. So it's really a map where you put a signal saying that OK, this area is where I'm going to open a market, a local flexibility market where I will need services. Then we go on the other side. So as soon as the DSO decides
where to buy the flexibility, we can start making that available on our website, Nodesmarket.com. And if you go to the Nodes platform, you will see the map where the areas are visible. And what we are doing is essentially inviting all these FSPs to start joining the market, where they see a location on the map where they have an asset. An asset, as I described, can be any type of distributed energy source or generation resource. Then
once they start to sign up on the platform, the grid company and Nodes essentially start to design the market rules, because these markets, like the other markets we know - the wholesale market or the transmission system operator market - all have some rules through which you participate. So these distribution-level markets also have some rules. This is where our experience comes in, because we have been doing this now for more than eight or nine years with a lot of different grid companies. So
we bring them a very simplified set of rules, where the grid company would tell us, OK, the minimum bid size on this market - what do you suggest? We would suggest to them: in our platform you can go as small as 1 kilowatt, and then you can aggregate up to several megawatts. So the grid company might say OK, 1 is fine, or they might say, no, I prefer 50 because I have certain needs for my operations desk. That means 50
should be the minimum size. OK, we can figure that. Then the second point is: as a grid company, what do you want to solve? Whether you want to solve the deferring of your investment - so delaying the investments in the grid - then you might want to launch a reservation contract. So you want to launch a long flex, we call it, a long-term contract where the DSO or the grid company is saying I will buy flexibility
for a capacity and reserve it for myself - meaning for the grid company. And I will pay the flexibility provider an availability fee because they are providing a service for me where they are making this asset available. This is the amount which is paid to the FSP as a base price, which is normally lower because it's a capacity price. And the DSO then decides for the second problem, where they might have an
N-1 issue, or a real-time congestion issue as they go towards the delivery hour. So the long flex reservation is happening maybe months ahead. For example, in Norway or in Sweden, the grid company reserves flexibility for the winter because that's where the grid is really strained. So they reserve this for three months or maybe four months - the long flex contract. Then as you move towards more of the real time or close to the delivery hour, the
grid company will start trading the short flex, which is mainly the energy or the activation part. So you have the capacity contract, then you have the activation of the energy contract. The short flex is where you actually have competition happening, so you can have many flexibility service providers coming in and offering their flexibility, and the grid company looking from their operations desk - they have their own tools, which is normally load flow analysis they do -
and they will find out, OK, at this location I am going to face an N-1 issue. Then they can buy in the market - so D-1 is the day before. And N-1 means that you are losing one critical component of your grid, meaning you are getting supplied from two transformers, let's say, and one of the transformers got a fault, a problem, and then you are only relying on
one. And if that goes, then there is a blackout in that area. So that is a really critical situation. And just for the context for the listener here as well: European law actually dictates that the grid company cannot just disconnect people for the sake of it, which in some other countries can happen without penalties, but in Europe the penalties are really, really harsh. So for them, the alternative is either, as I said, to build the grid
which they probably are doing on the way, but still get some service from the FSBs and then pay them a good amount. And what is the good amount? So this is where your original question was as well. We have seen the prices range differently from different countries and also from one DSO to the other DSO as well. And the reason is that it really depends on what is the situation of the grid,
today, right? So we have seen that in Norway last season there was almost over 100 megawatt - 100 megawatt hour of availability contracts that the DSOs bought. So this is not transmission, this is distribution, very local, but they still reserved almost 100 megawatt hour of that reservation. This was 1 hour each block, so megawatt hour of that, and they were paying around €20 per megawatt hour to reserve. So that was a small portion of money. But
last year also our team did an analysis and saw that actually the DSOs were buying more reservation. They were trying to secure their grid, but they were only activating less than 10% of those contracts. So this coming winter season we are enabling a new product called Long Flex with arming. What this means is that if an FSB offers the flexibility to the DSO, let's say at €20 per megawatt hour, they will get that. That is guaranteed revenue,
but you will not be armed if the DSO does not need you. So let's say the DSO procured you in summer for the winter from November till February, let's say in Norway, and they are paying you €20 per megawatt hour. Then when November comes, they do their load flow again and they see that actually it's not a harsh winter, or maybe they can manage it because they already have capacity in the grid. They would actually release your asset, so it
will not be armed, and then you can value-stack your asset to the transmission system operator market. The timeline of this is set in a way that the DSOs do the Long Flex contract in summer. Then D minus 2, so 2 days before the delivery, the market for the transmission system operator in Norway - the MFRR market, and also the others, the FCR and others - open up. So then, if the flexibility service provider does not
get this arming signal, the flexibility service provider is open to participating in the transmission-level market. This is very popular, I think, now with a lot of players in Norway right now, and we are also starting to see the discussions happening in other markets where we are operating as well. So the goal here is essentially to really enable the value stacking and enable a new market, because DSOs were not really buying from FSPs, right? So there was
no price attached to it. But now with this you can actually do the value stacking from DSO then to the TSO, and within the DSO you already have multiple markets, right? And this is where you will get the full scale of all the revenue streams that you get here. And is there some numbers you can give related to DSOs benefiting from the product in terms of savings? I imagine it's not so easy to quantify the value proposition you offer compared
to what they know with building more cables and transformers. Yeah, this is a very important question, to be honest, and there are actually two things attached to this. There is one about doing this cost-benefit analysis for the grid company - what is the value of flex. Now there is also another aspect that is very important: how the companies are getting paid today, because just for the recap, they are regulated entities, right? And the majority of revenue for
them is essentially passing the electricity through their cables to the end customer, and the end customer uses the electricity. The end customer pays a grid rent or a grid fee, and that's how they get revenue back. They cannot make huge profits on it because they are a regulated entity. They have a societal function and they need to fulfil that. The current regulation in most of the countries where we are operating has a capex model. So the more investments
these companies do in the grid to supply that electricity to the end consumer, the more money they get back. So the incentive there is really to put more copper in the ground, and that is also a big topic. Exactly, and that is a big issue in most of the discussions that I have with the grid companies - that they see there is no incentive for them. However, we have now been seeing the discussion happening on the EU level.
There is a policy change being discussed - we will come back to that as well - but also at the national regulators, the NRAs are really pushing the grid companies to think about opex as well as a key component. We have seen the most mature local flexibility markets are in the UK because the model has been adopted by the regulator there for a totex approach, so a total where capex plus opex is calculated and then the grid
company gets essentially the money. With this change in regulation, there will be a big incentive for the grid companies to not just think about more copper in the ground, but also other services like flexibility. Now the other side of it - the value of investing in the grid. There was a study from the Smart Energy Group, which is a Brussels-based lobby group on demand response, and they have estimated that almost around €600 billion
of investments have to be made in the European grid in the next coming 5 to 6 years, and the majority of that investment, more than 300 billion, will go to the distribution level of the grid. And their estimate is that if from that $300 billion you could invest at least $10 billion in flexibility, you would already gain several billion euros worth of efficiency in your grid, because then you will be also enabling the grid to be more responsive to the demand
and the generation that is locally present. So that is a big number. I mean, in the next 5 to 6 years, you will see this as one of the key enablers. And that is why actually a few days back I was in Finland, and the European Commission - one of the representatives - presented that they are also working on a common methodology on assessing how the needs assessment for the DSOs works, and there will be
something coming out from the Commission as well with common methodologies on how to value flexibility and investments in the grid. And that methodology probably will also serve a lot of the grid companies in Europe where flexibility has not yet been on the agenda. And this is something really important - we believe that going forward more regulation will come in, but also at the same time the markets we are running, the data is being
generated. So there are two things that will come together to really convince the grid companies that have not yet started on this journey. And are there - I think you're already active in different geographies - what's your thought on the regulatory landscape? You already mentioned the UK being very good and favorable to this type of flexibility markets. Are there countries where you could not operate even if you wanted to, or how do you look at geographical conditions? Yeah,
so NREs currently is operating in Europe and in Canada as well in North America. We are dividing the markets and the initiatives that we have into essentially two different categories. One is commercial, where we are getting clients to procure our platform - so it's normally a public procurement, or a public plus private procurement, of our platform. So our core markets are currently Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium,
in Europe where we have already commercial markets, and also in Canada we have a flexibility initiative, which is slightly different to the market because they are still starting to see flexibility as a tool. This was a summer flexibility initiative we did in the Ontario region in Canada. Apart from that, we are working in the second category, which is the research and market design studies that we do and the market design methodologies that will work in that country.
There we are working in Greece with the transmission and the distribution operator there, and also in Switzerland with the DSO on the Italian side of the country, and then also in Spain as well. So these are the three on the European side where we are working on the research side. And then we also have in the UK a project - a community DSO project - where actually two energy communities
are actually supplying flexibility to the grid company through the Nords platform, and that has also been in the research space. So these are the two models we have been working with, and we have been really now starting to see a lot more public procurement happening of our platform. We already see in other countries - I cannot name them right now because we are in the process - but already in Europe we see other countries where
our platform is being procured by the DSO or the TSO, or both. It's also interesting that the TSOs and DSOs are joining hands to launch a market together. And then in Germany we have been really trying to bring this message forward. We had some European research projects here in Germany with some DSOs, but it didn't cross that threshold. One of the biggest challenges, I think, has been on the regulation side here as well,
where the DSOs have been using cost-based redispatch instead of market-based. We however see that in the end the value of having it redispatched through market-based could actually unlock real value for the transmission system operators as well, because then the transmission system operators - which are, you know, multiple in Germany - could also access flexibility down in the low voltage grid. One of the biggest challenges, I think, has been that the grid companies
do fear that their grid will be violated if someone coming from the high level of the grid activates flexibility in the grid, and that creates reliability issues. Which is a valid concern, to be honest, because if you have a high voltage company or a grid company that does not have observability in your area at the local level, they might activate too much flexibility and that creates maybe a reliability issue for the local distribution. So there we are actually enabling
a new module in the platform, already being used in Finland and also in Greece, called the TSO-DSO coordination module. What happens is that the local distribution company, when they are creating this local flexibility market, can already create constraints per grid node - creating limits - so then if the higher level of the grid comes and buys from the same asset, if you remember our initial point, you have the same
battery or the same charger, but it's now being used for the high voltage service, then the low voltage grid company could already put those constraints. So that allows that initially that fear of having some problems in your grid, not there anymore because the activation component of the platform. We have an algorithm behind that, so the algorithm will warn the high level of the grid, the transmission companies saying that you cannot do that because this will create reliability issues. So this is something I think
could potentially enable in Germany as well the market to open up, because here there are many DSOs, over 800 I guess, which is very unique to entire Europe. But if you start to see this happening, there could be a lot of challenges that could be solved with the low voltage or medium voltage grid, and then also would supply the country overall for the balancing as well at the transmission level. So that's something that we would like to definitely test. Yeah, I know it's
the constraints you're talking about - a big topic as well when we talk about system flexibility or system friendliness, where indeed there must be some constraints at the cables level, and not only at regional but overall systemic level, so that all these value stacking of the different markets can play along correctly, because without these constraints indeed there will be stakeholders that rightfully are concerned about overcapacity. And what is it that you need to set such a market up? So if
I'm a DSO, are there also elements that would impede you to get activated because, for example, lack of meters? I imagine. Yeah, that's a very interesting question actually. So wherever we work and we enable this market - I explained to you earlier that it's a long flex, so you reserve something, and then short flex, you activate something - we also have a third product called Max Usage, which is a kind of a virtual fuse contract, which is
a simpler way to unlock a bit more capacity from the grid. But essentially to unlock this flexibility, or to deliver it between the grid company, the buyer, and the seller, there must be a way to validate it, right? So whether you really delivered the kilowatts or the megawatts that you said you were going to deliver - and that is where we have a nodes metering hub, so this is a platform to essentially upload your meter data, which is normally
coming from the smart meters. This is a really crucial hardware component that needs to be there, because you really need that resolution of the data to be uploaded on the platform. 15 minutes. Yeah, so normally we have seen 15 minutes. It's also, I think, the standard resolution of the meters being rolled out in Europe. So we see that when you have the smart meter penetration going up, you can already start to get
more different levels of flexibility at more granular levels, really from the residential sector as well. But to get started, I think the grid company just needs a willingness - someone at the grid company saying, OK, let's try it out. Let's open maybe one area, just one area at the medium voltage level. That's fine. Anyone below that can come and provide flexibility, because in our experience we have actually seen that when the grid company opens those areas
and we start reaching out to the flexibility service providers to come and register their assets, it sometimes is a kind of a reveal of assets in their area which they really didn't know were flexible, because they might have done a study several years ago and found out, oh, we only have maybe 550 megawatts of flexibility. But real data, or real assets, coming to your visibility is only when you create a real area and you create an incentive. You are really giving an incentive
that we are opening a market - come and register the asset. There is no obligation for you to buy your flexibility as a grid company. It's just a signal that you are opening something and let's connect. Then when the asset is registered and the meter points are uploaded, that's where we have seen that if you don't have a higher penetration of smart meters at all levels of the grid, you might start with bigger assets. You might start with a newly connected battery, which
might be at a smart meter point, or you might connect a big industry first, or a big sports arena for example, because we have seen all types of flexibility coming in, and that might just start your journey. As you penetrate with more smart meters, you will start to see more residential flex and also commercial flex coming into your market. And maybe it's a stupid question, but my understanding is also that the DSOs, especially
in Germany, haven't had many smart meters in most grids, at the medium and low voltage. How do they actually quantify their flexibility needs to then be able to open this market in the first place? Yeah, so there are two ways essentially they can do the assessment. Either they can go through the smart meter data and do studies through that, which is not available in Germany at most of the grid
companies. Then the other side is that they might go through their SCADA systems or the distribution management system, the DMS. This is where they would essentially have these systems installed by big players in this space, like Siemens, Schneider, GE, and also new companies coming in, so they would actually connect to the grid company's local operation and control system, which is traditionally, you know, has been a very simple SCADA system that is
just getting the data from their substations. But now, as we see that there is a lot more innovation happening in that area, we have more modern systems where, with the data that is coming in, they can actually do accurate forecasts. They can predict at different levels of the grid when an overload will be coming, so they can already do that needs assessment with those kinds of tools on the grid side. And many of the
grid companies already have such systems, either not fully deployed - so there are modules of these, maybe not at 100% fully deployed, but they might be at 50% - and that still gives them a lot of visibility of the issues that are coming. Because remember, if they have a blackout, they have a huge fine coming, which is not what they need. So they are already investing in these tools to actually get that visibility of where we are
in the red, in terms of the capacity of the grid. And so that could already help them start this journey. And I understand it's at the substation level, for example, in Germany, but as there are not so many smart meters compared to other countries, you cannot go much below that in terms of visibility. Exactly. So there is a challenge in going below that, but we have a partner in Germany, Smite, who has actually been able to unlock
a technology by installing sensing equipment on the low-voltage feeders. They are actually able to bring that observability also from the low-voltage grid, and surprisingly their biggest market is Germany - they actually have several customers who have already deployed that low-voltage observability equipment and the software with it. So there is, I think, a lot of control and visibility on that side. I think the challenge has been that there is not much motivation
to go towards market-based flexibility. And it's probably also because there had been a few trials in the past which had not been successful - there might not have been enough liquidity at that time, and there might not have been many new aggregator companies that were really bold enough to build those technologies and those business models. So that has had - I'm speculating here, but what I've heard so far from the market in Germany is that those trials didn't really make a
big success, and that resulted in not going towards a market-based approach to flexibility. And talking about concrete projects - which ones are you particularly proud of? I would say that I'm proud of all of them. But our biggest market is Norway, which started with one DSO, as I told you, in 2016, 2018, and 2022, scaled to the 22 largest DSOs in Norway, and now it covers actually eight of the largest DSOs, so it's
scaled up to almost two-thirds of the meter points of Norway. So that is a very large area being covered on the nodes flexibility market. And then also in Gothenburg, it's very interesting, because that's a very small area for flexibility to be open, but the grid company there, together with the local grid company in Mölndal - so these are two small towns, Gothenburg and Mölndal - the two grid companies have been
able to run the market for four seasons now, four years. So every winter season they run a market, and they have been able to attract over 30 flexibility service providers in just those small areas. They have really interesting flexibility coming from EV chargers, batteries connected to heavy-duty charging, and there was also a trial of V2G with Volvo there. Being present in Gothenburg, they are enabling price signals from the DSO but also allowing commercial companies to
test new technologies and really validate whether they have a business case. If tomorrow, let's say, Volvo launches V2G for all their customers, and the grid company is willing to pay this much for that, then there is a business case they can enable. So there are really interesting local players that have contributed to that market. And recently, in Finland, we launched the first TSO-DSO coordinated market where both Fingrid and Helen, as I mentioned, are buying in the
same market area, which is very unique because it was never done before. The TSOs always had their balancing markets and never wanted to involve the DSOs in their markets, because the scale is bigger at TSO level. But this trial is really about solving congestion locally but also at the connection point to the transmission grid. And it was very interesting at the Finland Flexibility Day we hosted two days ago, where TSO Fingrid mentioned that the queue
of connections is almost 70 gigawatts being requested on the Fingrid network in the next five years or so - they have to deliver that. And this is a big rise. This 70 gigawatts is the capacity being asked, and there are terawatt-hours of energy that they have to deliver in the next 5 to 10 years. So you can imagine the scale of the electrification and the things happening there. So if
they don't really have data from these kinds of local flex markets and coordinating with the local distribution, they might be too late if they start it five years from now. So that's really interesting. And I will quickly also mention another one - Fluvius in Belgium - because they have taken the approach of really answering what you were asking, like what's the value of flex. They have taken the approach of really defining six core parameters and really going from a societal
value of flexibility. So they are really engaged in making that market, so it actually enables a real big value for the society overall. I'll just stop here, but there are other initiatives as well which have been really interesting over the years. And let's talk also about DSO-DSO coordination. I think that's also a topic that you address, because it's not - yeah, it doesn't go only from the low to the higher one, but
it also goes horizontally. So this is something, because the concept is the same, right? If the low-voltage grid company, the local DSO, has some constraints at their level, but they have maybe a DSO that's a regional DSO above them that does not have visibility to the local DSO and who's connected there, how much flexibility they have and all that. So we have actually in Euroflex, the Norwegian flexibility market,
actually two DSOs, LV and Nordgisneth, who are actually doing this DSO-DSO coordination, where the Norse platform's architecture of child-parent grid node concept is being used, where the local distribution company is inviting the flexibility providers who are connected to their level of the grid to come register assets. The smart meter data is also being connected there, and then the flexibility, if it's not needed by the local distribution company, is being aggregated at a higher grid node and
being offered to the regional DSO. So the regional DSO is able to access the flexibility from the local one, but if the local one needs it on their own, they can also just use it themselves and also define the constraints if they have issues with those higher volumes being procured. The other example we had was in Stockholm. We did a project a few years ago where the
two regional DSOs were buying flexibility in each other's areas. And what they were doing is that they were also coordinating with the transmission system operator, where if one DSO buys in the other one's area, then the transmission system operator will be able to create a higher limit of their temporary capacity subscription up to the TSO level. So the connection feed to the TSO - they will automatically increase their value there and decrease for the
other one in the other area, and then vice versa for the other case. This was also interesting because then, upstream to the TSO, they were already paying the same amount, but if they hadn't coordinated - anyone who is activating more in the up direction or increasing the limit up to the transmission would have to pay an extra fee to the transmission system operator. And this is a very concrete business case again for them, primarily in Sweden, because the regulation
is like that. The local DSO has to pay the regional DSO some fee if they exceed their peak capacity every year, so they have a defined peak limit every year. And then the regional DSO has to pay up to the transmission system operator. So there is already a business case where, if you just keep your peak below that by buying flexibility, you're already saving as a distribution company. And I think this is also something
I have heard from the German DSOs - that they also have to pay upstream as well if they exceed their peak limit. So there is already a business case where you're already seeing your peak increasing because more people are electrifying, more connections are being done. So you could already have some flexibility contracted. And that's where our max usage contract has been really interesting, because then you are saying that, OK, I have
a 10 MW connection, but my peak, as a battery operator or as an EV charging station, is maybe 7 MW. So the other 3, I can rent back to the grid company, and the grid company can use this either to reduce the cost upstream or to issue new grid connections to the new customers that are waiting in the queue. So that has been also something for some of the distribution companies. And let's talk more from a product angle. How
can I imagine the product being used by these FSPs and the utilities? Is it very much API-first, or is there a web app? Yeah, good question. So it is available both as a web app and also on the API, because we are working with two different stakeholders here. We have the grid companies who have been used to working on the web apps or the applications
over the years. So their staff is really trained and they have capabilities to use the web application on the user interface. That's why the user interface has been one of the main focuses for the application. But we are actually very capable - I would say - over the years to develop the API for the flexibility service provider, because one of the early trials that we did in Norway, one of the main motivations was to bring residential flex into the market.
And if you are working with an energy retailer who's also maybe an aggregator, they are saying that they know how much flex they can enable, but they cannot do it manually. They have 1,000 households that they would aggregate and provide you flexibility. Then you really need the API for it, right? You cannot go one by one clicking. Yeah, ridiculous. Yeah, exactly. So that's why the API has been developed over the years, and this is a very interesting mix because on
On one side the buyers are maybe using the application, and then on the other side the flexibility service providers are using API to trade, but it's not a must, so you don't need to do the API. You can already start by just using the UI, but we have seen that with the maturity, the flexibility service providers prefer the API. And what are regulatory trends that you're particularly interested in? I think you already hinted upon a few, but yeah, the
one of the main ones that I'm really interested in is the EU demand response network code that is coming in next year, and then being finalized in the year after, which will be something that all the member states in Europe have to look at and have to adopt in different shapes and forms. But that network code for demand response, one of the main motivations that we have been contributing towards
it is to enable the local flexibility markets for the distribution. Because, as we discussed very early in the beginning, the Clean Energy Package didn't really mandate it or really put it clearly that the DSO should use this. It said you can use it if you really want to, but it's not a must. So that's something I would be really excited to see if they really put it in the final wording that it is something that should be used first, because if
you use it first and you see it doesn't work, then you can go to your other solutions - disconnecting with flexible connection agreements or dynamic grid tariffs - and there are a lot of other tools, which are fine by the way, because each of the grid companies might have a different need based on their grid needs. So this is something I'm really excited about, if that comes out and how the market shapes. But I'm also quite interested to
see how the overall landscape around climate change - and we hinted earlier that at the geopolitical level as well, the US is now a different focus - but Canada is taking a big leap forward. The Ontario Energy Board is already looking into flexibility; they are really looking into benefit-cost analysis, which is a way to analyze what is needed by the grid company
before they invest in the grid. And connected to that, they have a new regulation called non-wires alternatives, NWAs, which is also something that they want to really promote flexibility for. So it's a lot of things happening in different regions, but these are the two I would say are really interesting to see, because as soon as the shift happens from climate change discussions to non-climate change
discussions in one region, then the capital starts moving towards other countries where the climate-focused groups will like to invest. And that is why I'm already seeing and talking to different flexibility providers where they are seeing a lot of capital coming into Europe - also in Germany where batteries are being built, and a lot of big projects are being done, like several tens of megawatts or hundreds of megawatts now. In the UK it's already the case, also in Germany I
think there are a lot of projects underway. So that is also something I'm really excited about - this will help flexibility because you will have more capital deployed, more assets being enabled, and then what you need is the markets. You need multiple markets to make that return on investment, and that's something. And how do you - you hinted upon it right now - how do you position yourself compared to other forms of DSO flexibility, like dynamic
tariffs? We have here in Germany this new law, the EnWG §14a, the energy law paragraph 14a, that tries to solve congestion via more dynamic tariffs. Is that approach worse compared to a market, or in which way? Yeah, so I would say they both coexist, to be honest, so it should not be one or the other. This is something I think is quite clear in Norway - we also have a step-by-step
grid tariff. So it's already existing - with our smart meter rollout you can already have that. In Norway, if I'm paying my electricity bill and I'm above a certain peak with my average - I think 3 averages are taken over a month or a time period - then if my peak exceeds that, I'm on the next step. So my tariff goes up and up. So it's
like a step-by-step tariff, even though the market is already being used as well. So in my view I think both can coexist, and it should be, because if you consider the situation where everybody plugs in their EVs at night and you might have a dynamic grid tariff at a very high value, then everybody stops doing that. Then the grid rent might be lowered, but the aggregator who has already scheduled them
has a big loss, and they might have taken a position with their energy supplier on the balanced responsible party as well, so they might lose their money there. So there is just not one solution for all, because if you have both present you might lose some revenue from one area because everybody has stopped their charging because of higher grid rent, but on the other side you might gain something from the flexibility market. So
So I think there is a possibility for both to exist, and it should be that way. Yeah, very interesting, also a bit complicated. And I think mathematically, from an optimization standpoint, trying to optimize very many different things and markets at the same time - at least from what I did as an analysis - gets quite complicated. Nonlinear, multi-criteria, multivariate problems are not the easiest ones to solve. Absolutely, you can model all
the grid, but the reality will always be different. I think that's the reality here, at least with the market-based mechanism. For sure, it sounds like a very sophisticated method to try to solve congestions, compared to a tariff maybe - or having both seems like a Swiss Army approach - to solve this important issue, which is probably one where the energy transition might be very jeopardized, and
as you say, there are different sorts of flexibility: batteries coming, and of course EVs and others that have already been deployed, and production that could be curtailed, which obviously is not the best. So which source of flexibility do you think yields the largest potential, especially for DSOs? Yeah, so I think there is definitely, in our data that we see in the platform - we have already quite over 10,000 or 15,000 assets that are
approved, meaning they are not waiting to be registered. They are actually approved by the distribution grid company, so they can start trading and they can supply flexibility. If I add also the not approved, or pending, or those that are still to be connected, then it will go way above 50,000 or maybe over 100,000. So there are a lot more assets that are in the pipeline to join. We have seen that the EV charging
or smart charging is quite easier to supply as a flexibility, so I think that really works nowadays - from the flexibility service provider, they can really plan it quite well, for the end consumer with their apps or whichever solution they have. And then the grid company, in the end, they just need that peak period to be lower, so when the grid is congested, they can reduce
something, and that really works well. Last I checked, if I'm not mistaken, almost 10,000 of the 15,000 assets are EV charging. This also includes a lot of residential charging boxes as well, but there might be some which are also the EVs themselves, because you can also set the state of charge from the car as well. So it's a mix there. And
then we have seen that a lot of the players have started, especially on the battery side - batteries being really reliable in delivering flexibility - and the value stacking there with multiple markets is really the thing to do with batteries nowadays. So we see that the batteries that are being deployed just as a flexibility resource are quite reliable and they can also supply to the DSO, but now also to the TSO as well, with
this concept I explained, the long-flex arming concept. Recently we've also seen batteries being deployed together with heavy-duty EV charging on highways in Norway, where the battery's main function is to provide that extra juice to the EV charging station when people are traveling for vacations. It's a very small time period throughout the year, but the rest of the year this battery is just sitting - it's a resource for the customer who has invested in it. So now
we see that a lot of technical aggregators who have clever algorithms and different mechanisms are able to leverage that battery both in the DSO market by creating this virtual fuse contract, the max usage - so they get some revenue from the distribution company, the DSO - and then below that peak that they have set, they are able to leverage it in the TSO market as well. So really getting the best of both worlds
for those assets, but still the main function is served - when, for example, in Norway in the summer, people are going to the cabins and stopping at these heavy-duty charging stations, the battery can do its job as well. So that's very interesting as well. And then we have seen a lot of demand response assets coming in as well. Some of them are aggregated as well. So some of them might be a greenhouse
directly providing a demand response. We had some fish farms as well in Norway join the market. And then you might also have some residential flex which is then aggregated as well. So you might have EV charging at your home but might also have a heat pump, and then the end consumer is enabling in the app that they are being flexible. There are different business models there that we have seen, where
some of the flexibility service providers are also offering consumers some rewards - where they're getting some money back on a monthly basis, which is still quite decent compared to having nothing, and still having your resource being used. So there are a lot of different assets that we have seen, but some of the ones that I mentioned are quite interesting and I see them growing day by day.
How much does an EV driver get for this service? For example, if I'm home and I'm giving this service - yeah, so it varies. I know that Tibber has enabled this in the app. So as a Tibber customer, you can be offered great rewards. And then it's Tibber's job to maximize the value stacking from that EV charger of mine to multiple markets. So they manage it either in the DSO market, or if they think that's maybe not valuable
for them, they might value-stack it in different TSO markets because they're already pre-qualified. Or they might also do essentially arbitrage in the wholesale market as well. That's also possible. So they would return maybe - it varies - so it's between 3 kroner in Norway, Norwegian currency, to maybe 10 on a given day or a week. And it's also not a static, so it's not a guaranteed value, but it's
something that you get over time. And maybe some of the people might get a lot more because they might have two big cars that are charging at their home and they might have a bigger home. So right now, I think in the app - last I checked - as a customer you can only do this with smart charging, but I think they are also promising now with heating as well. So if you have a heat load as
well, they will combine both and then they might offer you higher grid rewards, because then they essentially have more flexibility per customer. But how does it work in the case of Tibber? Because they have, if I remember correctly, always a dynamic tariff. So as an end user, I would enable Tibber to start charging not only at the lowest spot tariffs but in combination with the other things, so I don't have to worry. And at the end of
the day the bill reflects both the spot and it should be - if I was charging at the spot price that is higher than what I could have charged, if I hadn't activated the grid rewards, normally it would still be lower, right? Yeah, absolutely. So they promise you the spot price charging, so at the lowest price for your car. So the energy cost for charging your car will be the lowest. But then if
you activate the grid rewards - essentially what I understand, and this might be their proprietary knowledge, is that they would be able to use these multiple flexibility markets, the transmission or the distribution, and then essentially use their value-stacking algorithms to provide me extra money, which is the grid rewards. So the spot price is to have the cheapest charging for the car, and the comfort is there that you will get the car charged at the end of the day, right? If you
keep it plugged in. But then the grid rewards is the cherry on the top, which is small right now. But as we see in the Netherlands, the grid is so congested it might happen all over Europe, and the grid rewards might start to go up as well. The balancing cost is also increasing in every country, and I think in Germany as well there has been a discussion that
the TSOs here might have very high imbalance costs in coming years, if they don't get extra assets from the different levels of the grid. So if you look at that overall picture from the market size point of view, it's starting slow right now, but if you offer the end customer the cheapest charging and at the same time use their flexibility in multiple markets and then start offering them rewards, this might enable the
rewards to start to peak as well over the years. And what potential do you see for fleets? You already mentioned that you had some touch points with the Norwegian postal services, this type of fleet, but also companies having their own chargers at the offices for office workers - what potential do you see there for flexibility? Yeah, I think, to be honest, that's a very interesting asset class. Fleets overall are as well, because they have certain needs. In
the end, most of the fleets in Norway are actually going electric. In Norway, I think most of the companies have a mandate to go electric by 2025. If not, they will be by the end of 2026, so it's very soon actually - it's almost there. So we have seen that the commercial buildings where these fleets are being charged, they essentially have one of their
technical aggregators or commercial aggregators working with them to enable that flexibility from their assets. And then it's normally a revenue-sharing model most of the time, where the money made on the different markets - so as we discussed, DSO and TSO markets all combined - is shared between the fleet owner or the fleet operator and the company that is doing the service. There are different companies doing different models and
different approaches. So some of them have a direct connection to the car, or to the van, or whatever the vehicle type is. If it's larger fleets like trucks, then it's normally the customer who owns or has leased those trucks that has either an energy department in their own company, which is then making a VPP, because they might have a facility - because it's a big truck being charged at their facility - so they might have also solar panels, backup batteries
Also the lights in it as for demand response, so their own department might have that capability to do the VPPs. But as you go towards a mid-size, I would say fleet operators, you start to see this as a contractual arrangement with someone else, and this is different models from different customers. And talking control - actually then reducing and augmenting charge based on these signals - what is the... Are there any constraints by DSOs? In
my knowledge, there are also some technologies that are either enforced by the DSO or enforced even by the regulator, where you need to install some extra hardware device that the DSO controls directly. Are there these type of constraints? Because, as a startup guy, I would prefer to have more flexibility in the level of decision of what type of control there is - if it's via the vehicle, as you said, or via the charge point,
if you talk on the charging, or if you actually need to install extra devices that were not really needed from a technological standpoint otherwise. And this is a very good question. Personally, I think the job of the DSO is to maintain the grid and make sure the connections are there so they can connect the customer. It's not their job to know how to control the asset. And that's one of the fundamental principles in the Nodes platform,
which is that when you do the short flex energy trade, you don't give direct control of the asset in the Nodes platform to the DSO, but you get a dispatch notification, which can be configured over the API to the flexibility service provider. And then the flexibility service provider - aggregator, VPP, whichever company name we use - they are experts in their own assets, or the assets of their customers. So then it's their job to really steer that asset in the best way possible. And in
the end, the grid company - what they really need is essentially either up or down flexibility, right? So they should get that service. If they're getting that service, why install extra hardware and increase the cost overall for society? Because you will be installing not for one or two - if you look at the scale, you might be installing for hundreds and thousands, and that extra cost over time will also need to be maintained. So that box, or that extra hardware, is an added cost to
that entire regime. And in the end you are getting the same result - you are getting that up or down flexibility, right? So that has been the fundamental principle in the Nodes platform. We have always been getting this question from the DSO: "We have to operate a very reliable grid. We cannot have blackouts and everything. So that's why we need this red and green button on our desk. We can
dispatch this battery or that charger." But we have always been telling them: trust the market. Because if you create enough good price signals, you will see the technology coming - like yourself and a lot of other companies have developed really interesting technology that is actually enabling, in the end, that up and down of the flexibility. So when DSOs first enter the market, they have these questions, but as soon as they enter the market,
their next biggest concern is to get the liquidity - to really attract these flexibility providers into their market and get the assets. So the whole discussion about whether it will be reliable or not really doesn't come to the stage in most of the markets that I have been talking to customers. So the way it's set up now is the way you suggest DSOs to operate, which means no extra hardware. Yeah, exactly. So we allow them to put the buy order
in the market, which is their signal for where, which location, and how much they are willing to pay for that service. And then it's the dispatch notification sent to the flexibility service provider who has offered that much flexibility at a given price. So the dispatch notification is essentially the activation signal, but then the logic of how to do that - that's up to the flexibility service provider. So no extra hardware, no extra direct control that is bypassing the
flexibility service provider. So we started with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and I'd like us to end on those notes. What about e-mobility - are you following e-mobility developments in those countries, and what can you share with us? Yeah, we are very much focused a bit more on Europe here, but we had a nice podcast about Ethiopia that I can also recommend to listeners. So what can you share
about e-mobility in those countries? Yeah, I think e-mobility overall, or sustainable mobility, is going on all over the world. In Saudi Arabia, if I start with that, I've been following a bit of the development. With Vision 2030 from the government there, they have actually attracted a lot of EV manufacturers. Lucid, as you know, one of the big players from the US, they have
a big factory there. They have really been the front runners in the Saudi market to develop it and also train the staff there. So there is a huge shift of taking the German automotive industry model and applying it in Saudi Arabia, but just for electric. Their permitting system and everything has been really easy, and there is also probably a lot of investment from the Saudi investment fund being available.
for such companies who are putting their companies and manufacturing there. Apart from that, they also have launched other initiatives in Saudi on developing the whole value chain, because if you have the car which is electric, developed, or a truck or whichever, then you also need the spare parts and you need the whole industry to come together. Because if you just stop at the vehicle getting out of the production line, then the total cost of ownership
will never be lower than the diesel or the fossil fuel. So I think that's also been a big focus. There are a lot of other players that are coming in from Asia, from China, from Japan and other countries, to also establish the after-sale services of the EVs there. So I think that's very interesting. And I think recently I've also seen that they are investing hugely on power-to-X or power-to-
hydrogen essentially. So they are installing a lot of renewables in different regions because, as they have a lot of sun there and also some wind being installed, instead of curtailing those when there is extra production, they are starting to also look at generating hydrogen. And because the distances in Saudi or the Middle East overall are very large - you're talking about thousands of kilometers - using an electric truck there is not maybe the
most optimal. So the use case of hydrogen really works there, because then you can really refuel it at certain locations, and it might be really valuable for the fleet operator to take the hydrogen truck from one destination to the other in the lowest time span. So I think that's very interesting to see both electric and hydrogen being used there. In Pakistan, the market
is slow for electric, but we recently had the large Chinese manufacturer BYD launching in Pakistan with their electric fleet of vehicles. They are offering all kinds of vehicles that are also available in Europe - actually the same level of car and service there in Pakistan, which is very interesting. Recently the government had some study, being some
policy signals as well, and I think UNDP did a study that I looked at a year or a year and a half ago where they looked at the market share in Pakistan, which is quite similar, I would say, to India and Bangladesh as well, where the dominant EV or dominant transport vehicle is the two-wheelers. And if you combine two- and three-wheelers together, then
you are looking at 80% of the market share for a country of 250 million people in Pakistan - that's a lot, right? 80% of the vehicles, not the population, but 80% of the vehicles is two- or three-wheeler. And I also looked at the numbers there, so that's almost 22 million or 23 million two-wheelers that are running on the road as of now. And an interesting contrast to that
is that the country is importing all this fuel, so Pakistan does not have huge oil reserves like the Middle East. So this is a big import bill to the country. If the import bill could be reduced - I think that's something they looked at - there could be a huge gain for the society where you actually shift your transport from fossil fuel, which is being imported today, to electricity or EVs, and then you can generate the electricity locally with solar. So the
solar return on investment in Pakistan on a household is less than 3 years because the electricity cost is quite high there, and if you just put the solar today on the rooftop of your home, you already have a return on investment in less than 2 years. Worst case it could be 3 years, and with that the whole market of solar installation has really peaked. I was just looking at an article that was stating that in Pakistan
the installed peak capacity of the solar rooftops, together maybe with some centralized solar, is almost 4.9 gigawatts of solar, but the whole country's government and independent power plants - everything that was installed in the last 70 years or so - is 48,000 megawatt capacity. So you can already see the 48,000 MW coming from hydro, from coal, from gas for the whole country; that's the peak installed capacity. And then the actual demand peak is only 30,000 or 35,000 in the summer when you have a
lot of air conditioning. So there is already a gap between your peak installed capacity and the demand. If you can reduce that gap by essentially increasing the demand, the best way possible for the country could be to put electric two-wheelers on the road, because then people will start charging them, the demand will go up, but also the fossil fuel import bill for the country will go down. And in the end, if you also have a home-installed residential
solar on the rooftop, then you can charge at home, so the convenience will also be there for the consumer. So I think the policy has been there. I think they looked at 4 main parameters for what needs to be done in the next decade to really enable that: essentially the clear policy signal from the government, and also the global battery cost to go down, because it's not a country with
high income per capita, so you need the battery cost to go down so the vehicle itself is affordable. And then the charging infrastructure as well needs to develop, because that is something also quite lacking right now, and that maybe is also where the distributed charging could work. And then the last thing I think they mentioned was the localization of the supply chain, so again taking an example of what I was mentioning in Saudi, which is for the
bigger vehicles they were doing, but a similar approach of having locally assembled and created two-wheelers or three-wheelers, and then also having the after-sales market, because a lot of these two-wheelers, you know, a brake light is broken or something, so you can get that spare part inside the country instead of importing it, because again, 82% of the market that is driving two-wheelers is not really at the upper stream of the income either.
So they really also need not just the lower cost of owning the vehicle, but also the lower cost of operating the vehicle. Again, coming back to the point with EVs, it's always been a discussion that the total cost of ownership should reduce, and that's something I think the UNDP report also highlighted: if this needs to happen, there must be the localization of the whole value chain there. OK, thanks for sharing. Is there a last message you
have for the listeners? Yeah, from my side, I think you can always reach out to me on LinkedIn if you're interested in flexibility or the topic.
And if anyone from the grid companies is listening, from Germany or other areas, reach out. Start somewhere with your journey of flexibility before it's too late and you are given the stick to do it through regulation. It's better to trial it, learn from it, create the data, and make sure you are ready for the next generation of the grid that is coming. So that would be my last message. Thank you, Farran, and keep up the
good work. Thank you. That was Farran Farouk. The Charge PNB story showed that multi-vendor stacks, protocol mismatches, late approvals, and thin unit economics make charger sharing hard to scale, even with grants and awards. The shift to nodes shows a workable path. Flexibility is traded on location, price, volume, and time. DSOs can buy long and short flex, and new earning mechanisms let DSOs and TSOs value assets so they can earn more than one revenue stream. Coordination examples like Fingrid and Helen in Finland avoid conflicting activations using constrained logic
and market rules. The platform operates in the Nordics, Belgium, and Canada, with research in several European countries including the UK. It minimizes DSO hardware, sends dispatch notifications to aggregators, and scales via APIs. Assets already number in the tens of thousands. In EV charging, controllability leads. Batteries bring reliability and value stacking. Households see small but real rewards - €3 to €10, that's a few euros per day or week - via apps like Tibber, and fleet electrification adds predictable capacity. Regulation sets the tempo. The UK's flex
model enables mature local markets. The EU is preparing a demand response network code. Ontario is pushing non-wires alternatives, and Germany can unlock more with TSO-DSO coordination and better low-voltage sensing. The practical lesson is to start early, open zones, and let trades reveal flexible assets. With clear products and simple settlement, local flexibility becomes both a reliability tool and a cost lever. Thanks for listening to Smart Charge by RiDERgy. See you next time and stay charged.
节目笔记
NODES runs the Norwegian flexibility market where distributed batteries, EV fleets, and industrial loads trade capacity with the TSO, and Farhan Farrukh, Business Development Manager, explains why the German market is 5 years behind. The conversation centers on the missing DSO-TSO coordination, why local flexibility markets need standardized APIs, and how NODES' platform turns a fleet's idle battery into a balancing resource. Claudio and Farhan compare the Nordic regulatory model to Germany's §14a rollout. We discuss how NODES evolved from a single Norwegian DSO experiment into a cross-European platform operating in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, and Canada, and how it helps grid companies defer costly grid upgrades by trading flexibility from batteries, EV chargers, heat pumps, and industrial assets. Key topics include: - The origin story of NODES and its digital twin approach to modeling distribution grids - How DSOs, TSOs, and flexibility service providers (FSPs) trade capacity and energy on a local level - Market products such as Long Flex, Short Flex, and Max Usage, and how they enable value stacking - Why regulation and incentive design (CapEx vs. OpEx) are crucial for scaling flexibility markets - Insights from pilots in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, and the UK - API-first product design and how aggregators use it to integrate household and fleet flexibility - The importance of smart meters, visibility, and DSO–TSO coordination for congestion management Farhan also shares lessons from his startup ChargeBnB, the “Airbnb for charging” that tackled underused charging infrastructure in Norway, and what he learned about user trust, business models, and scaling challenges. We close with a look at E-mobility in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where new policies, solar economics, and two-wheeler electrification are redefining sustainable transport. A deep dive into how market-based flexibility, smart regulation, and digital infrastructure can redefine how we balance the grid - one node at a time.