Redispatch is a measure used by grid operators to prevent overload on the electricity grid. It involves adjusting production and consumption intraday, within the same day.
Imagine a grid operator sees that too much power is being fed into a certain area by solar or wind. This could overload the local grid. Through GOPACS, the operator then issues buy-orders: parties in that area are asked to reduce generation or increase consumption.
At the same time, the national grid must remain balanced. That’s why the operator looks for a counter-order (sell-order) outside the congested area. That party will increase generation or reduce consumption. This creates equilibrium: locally the bottleneck is solved, and nationally the grid remains stable.
The matching of these bids is done automatically via GOPACS. Market participants that provide their flexibility receive financial compensation, based on their bid.
Companies earn revenue whenever their flexibility is actually used. You decide your own price by submitting a bid. GOPACS compares all offers and selects the most cost-efficient solution. This way you get paid for making your flexible capacity available.
Redispatch is attractive for companies that can adjust their consumption or generation at short notice. For example, a cold storage facility can lower temperatures in advance and then reduce consumption for a few hours. On the production side, wind and solar farms or growers with CHP units can adjust their output relatively easily. Flexibility thus generates benefits not only for the company itself but also for the grid.
Redispatch can be an attractive way to deploy flexible capacity. Whether it fits your business depends on financial considerations and how well you can steer your production. Below we list the key benefits and points of attention.
Let GOPACS guide you through the registration process and the required steps.
Choose a Congestion Service Provider to handle bidding, control, and settlement.
Ensure reliable (near) real-time measurement and control, for example via an EMS or telemetry.
Place a buy/sell bid through a connected trading platform, including volume, price, and time window.
When activated, follow the instruction (increase/decrease consumption or injection) and log the delivered flexibility.
After verification of the delivered MWh, payment is made according to your bid via the market or CSP settlement.
Join redispatch and earn by using your flexibility smartly. Benefit from attractive compensations while contributing to a reliable electricity supply.
A flock of protected birds passes through an area with wind turbines. A local wind producer must shut down part of the turbines and therefore generates less power than expected. To meet demand, electricity has to come from outside the area. The grid operator expects this will cause problems at one of the substations – overload is imminent.
The grid operator issues a GOPACS market message asking for Sell-orders: producers should temporarily generate more and/or consumers should use less. A local cold storage facility responds to this request and delays cooling. The electricity they save (by consuming less than contracted) is offered as a Sell-order.
A grower outside the congestion area decides to generate less power with his CHP unit. This saves on gas costs, but he now lacks electricity for lighting. He buys this power (at a favorable price) with a Buy-order.
Both the cold storage facility and the grower receive a favorable price for their electricity. GOPACS matches buy and sell orders by finding prices as close as possible to each other. The difference between the buy and sell price is called the spread. This spread is covered by the grid operator.
On the electricity grid, balance refers to the continuous equilibrium between electricity generation and consumption. This balance is essential for a stable and reliable grid. If generation and consumption are not aligned, deviations in frequency and voltage occur, which can lead to wear or damage to installations.
A buy order is a bid in which a market party offers to temporarily increase electricity consumption or reduce generation compared to its original schedule. Buy orders are used in the redispatch process to resolve expected congestion within 24 hours (intraday).
A counter bid is the order placed outside the congestion area to maintain the national balance on the electricity grid. Together, the bid and counter bid (buy and sell) resolve a congestion situation without creating imbalance. The counter bid is an essential part of the redispatch process.
In the context of redispatch, effectivity refers to the extent to which a flexibility bid within a congestion area contributes to resolving local congestion. Since electricity flows freely across the grid, not every change in consumption or production has the same impact on a specific bottleneck. A solution located physically close to the congested part of the grid will generally have a greater effect than one further away.
Within GOPACS, the effect of a specific bid on the power flow and direction across a congested net element is calculated. A bid with high effectivity – with a value close to or equal to 1 – significantly reduces congestion, while a bid with an effectivity of 0 has no effect. Effectivity is determined in advance by the grid operator using network calculations and is recorded in an effectivity matrix.
On the congestion market, trading platforms are digital marketplaces where market parties trade flexible capacity via redispatch to help resolve grid congestion. These platforms facilitate electricity trading and enable participants to submit bids to increase or decrease their energy production or consumption, depending on the needs of the grid. This allows them to manage risks and capture value from market opportunities.
A market announcement is a request for CSPs to submit a redispatch or flex offer on one of the connected trading platforms. These bids are submitted as buy and sell orders, both inside and outside the congestion area.
The spread is the price difference between a buy order and a sell order used in redispatch to resolve congestion. This difference arises because market parties set their own bid prices.
With every market request you are obliged to place a flex-bid. The income depends on market prices.
You offer flexibility whenever it suits you. Successful bids generate a fee per activated megawatt hour.
