We were able to achieve the systemic CO2 savings of around 197,394 tonnes of CO2 in 2021 and 363,267 tonnes in 2022 with the help of our customers, because we market their flexibilities on the power market in such a way that the use of green power increases overall compared to a scenario without the use of flexibilities.
Flexibility as virtual storage
For example, when there is a lot of wind or PV power available, we use our short-term trading to ensure that more electricity is consumed than at times when we have to fall back on fossil fuel-based power generation. From the perspective of the overall system, flexibility has the same effect as a battery storage system, for example, which stores electricity when there is a high proportion of renewables and discharges it when there is a shortage of generation. Flexibility therefore also stabilizes the system.
Market prices as an energy transition motivator
When wind and PV systems are running at full speed, the price level on the electricity market falls. By incentivizing the use of green electricity via price signals and making production processes attractive during low-price phases, the electricity market has a highly effective steering effect on usage behavior. This needs to be promoted as part of the energy transition. Since consumption and generation always have to be synchronized on a second-by-second basis and the forecasting error in weather-dependent electricity generation continues to increase with the increasing expansion of renewables, it is important, for example, to encourage flexible industrial processes to increase the load precisely in these time windows and, in turn, to reduce it when there is a shortage of renewables and fossil generation has to step in. This motivation is provided by the price signals of short-term trading.
What does that have to do with CO2?
The steering effect of short-term trading described above kills two birds with one stone. On the one hand, it supports the electricity grid by helping to better coordinate generation and consumption and reduce costly redispatch measures. On the other hand, the use of flexibility in short-term trading enables the increased use of green electricity, which displaces fossil base load and thus saves CO2. Germany therefore needs a flexibility offensive in order to manage the energy transition, apart from austerity measures - flexibility is important and is also fun from an economic point of view!
