RET_2015-01-02-03-04_Flipbook

The Roles of Engie with regard to the Lanscape of Demand-Side Management –
Pierre Caroff, Loïc Donnay de Casteau, Valentijn Demeyer, Mathilde Catrycke
INTRODUCTION
At Engie, we strongly support the development of demand-side management (DSM) as
grid users will play a crucial and active role in the energy transition. We believe that
demand response, together with efficient and flexible generation and storage, will help
Belgium and Europe go towards a more sustainable energy world in the coming
decades.
1 ENGIE AS AN ACTIVE PROVIDER OF FLEXIBILITY
Next to its Balancing Responsible Party, supplier and producer activities, Engie is also
active as flexibility provider and aggregator for demand response in Belgium but also in
other countries.
Our successes in recent years are, to a significant extent, based on the strength of our
in-house demand-side management know-how, which covers real- and quasi-real time
network balancing (frequency control, major disequilibrium, etc.) and market-based
optimization on all time horizons, thanks to front running modeling and algorithmic
capabilities. We stand out through our capacity to make DSM offers to third parties on a
wholesale basis, especially large industrial customers.
In the past 18 months, for example, we have developed and marketed several
innovative offers, including an ultra-fast curtailment service to large industrial customers
to value their flexibility in primary reserve market (R1). Crucially, this “ultra-fast” offer
respects the customer’s production requirements and integrates them at the core of the
offer design – namely by sending a technical expert on site if needed.
We aggregate all types of flexibility and value them in the energy and reserves markets,
notably through our participation to a multi partner urban smart grid project aiming at
valorizing flexibility services at local level for the DSO. We have also launched a first of
its kind frequency support service offer in September 2016. It involves connecting a
smart storage system, 1 MW lithium-ion battery, to the distribution network. This offer
represents an early step towards the integration of storage assets into the energy grid,
increasing responsiveness while reducing our CO2 footprint.
Such innovative services are fully coherent with the priorities of an increasingly
decentralized, digitalized and consumer-focused energy grid. We help make the smart
grid a reality with value-added services that respect our clients’ industrial constraints,
while bringing them to a more dynamic consumption model.
Revue E Tijdschrift – 131 ste jaargang/131 e année – n° 1-2-3-4-2015 (publication mars/publicatie maart 2017) 2