IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2021 - 55

projects investigating such consumer-centric decentralized
electricity market structures. At the same time, local flexibility markets are advocated as an efficient market-based
approach in procuring flexibility at finer geographical granularities. Denmark is very engaged in those developments
as well with large projects, such as EcoGrid 2.0 and Lolland
Local Market.
With the current low energy prices and high equipment
costs due to the lack of standardization, the resulting small
payments per flexible resource make it challenging to establish viable business models except for perhaps a few cases,
such as the provision of frequency reserves. Standardization
is widely recognized as a key requirement for improving the
economic attractiveness of flexibility procurement. A coordinated effort on a European level is underway to harmonize
TSO practices, regarding the monitoring, validation, and
standardization of communication. The recently proposed
platform, Equigy, can act as a common and standardized
interface among TSOs, aggregators, and DERs to facilitate
the prequalification, provision, and validation of ancillary
services. The Danish TSO, Energinet, represents Denmark
in this effort to utilize digitalization and blockchain technologies to lift the barriers for the mass integration of DERs
in power system operation.
DSOs are expected to play a pivotal role in this transition
to a DER-dominated power system. The substantial increase
in electricity demand and the amount of flexible demand that
follows the volatile power market prices pose a threat in the
security of the supply of end-users unless costly grid reinforcements are undertaken. Demand-side flexibility can turn this
challenge into an opportunity by creating new value streams,
given that the appropriate framework is in place. The Danish
DSOs and TSO have established a market and operation collaboration committee to discuss such future challenges and
how to develop operational and market-based solutions.
This is unique internationally and has proven to be efficient with common proposals for a future tariff structure
and the establishment of a pilot project on a local flexibility
market. The Danish Energy Authorities have also started
the Marked Model 3.0 initiative, which focuses on 1) ensuring power system security via market-based solutions, 2)
enhancing flexibility via active customers and new actors,
and 3) developing the role of DSOs in the market. As part of
the initiative, the Danish market design for local flexibility
will be developed.
In this new landscape, flexibility must be utilized concurrently in different contexts, including the traditional electricity markets, emerging local communities, local flexibility
markets, and regional/European marketplaces. As a result,
the need for research focused on system integration, market
mechanisms, and actor coordination is more relevant than
ever. There are open research questions regarding DSO-TSO
coordination and which mechanisms are more appropriate
for the efficient and secure integration of DERs. Other open
questions exist on how the aforementioned new marketplaces
march/april 2021

can fulfill their role, operate in parallel, and not jeopardize
the secure operation of the system and on how these developments can be facilitated by a future digital energy architecture with open interfaces.
Future research projects at Danish and EU levels should
include DSOs and TSOs, as well as aggregators and asset
owners, in large-scale demonstrations that resemble real operations as closely as possible. Such projects can provide valuable insights and learnings, point out regulatory or technical
challenges that require particular consideration, and provide a
way forward to make attractive business cases for all actors.

For Further Reading
" Powering Denmark's green transition, " The Danish Government's Climate Partnerships, 2020. [Online]. Available:
https://www.danskenergi.dk/the-climate-partnership-theenergy-and-utilities-sector
P. Pinson, L. Mitridati, C. Ordoudis, and J. Østergaard,
" Towards fully renewable energy systems: Experience and
trends in Denmark, " CSEE J. Power Energy Syst., vol. 3,
no. 1, pp. 26-35, 2017. doi: 10.17775/CSEEJPES.2017.0005.
" Danish research projects within smart grids 2010-2019, "
Zenodo, June 16, 2020. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.3866327
FinGrid, Energinet, Statnett and Svenska Kraftnät, " Local Flexibility Projects in the Nordics, " 2020. [Online]. Available: https://energinet.dk/-/media/F3F4B2A805014164A5F
9FB8F5107176B.pdf
C. Heinrich, C. Ziras, A. L. A. Syrri, and H. W. Bindner,
" EcoGrid 2.0: A large-scale field trial of a local flexibility
market, " Appl. Energy, vol. 261, 2020, Art. no. 114399. doi:
10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114399.
A. Zecchino, A. M. Prostejovsky, C. Ziras, and M.
Marinelli, " Large-scale provision of frequency control via
V2G: The Bornholm Power System Case, " Electric power
System Res., vol. 170, pp. 25-34, May 2019. doi: 10.1016/j.
epsr.2018.12.027.

Biographies
Jacob Østergaard is with the Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark.
Charalampos Ziras is with the Technical University of
Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark.
Henrik W. Bindner is with the Technical University of
Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark.
Jalal Kazempour is with the Technical University of
Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark.
Mattia Marinelli is with the Technical University of
Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark.
Peter Markussen is with Energinet, Fredericia, 7000,
Denmark.
Signe Horn Rosted is with Energinet, Fredericia, 7000,
Denmark.
Jørgen S. Christensen is with Danish Energy, Frederiksberg C, 1900, Denmark.
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https://www.danskenergi.dk/the-climate-partnership-the-energy-and-utilities-sector https://www.danskenergi.dk/the-climate-partnership-the-energy-and-utilities-sector https://www.energinet.dk/-/media/F3F4B2A805014164A5F9fb8f5107176b.pdf https://www.energinet.dk/-/media/F3F4B2A805014164A5F9fb8f5107176b.pdf

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2021

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