Blog Posts on Power Grid

“California’s grid operator falls short during recent heat wave”

On Friday 14 Aug, an extremely hot and dry day in California and the west, California’s independent system operator (CAISO) had to resort to limited rolling blackouts that affected approximately 400,000 customers in California on Friday and the following Saturday 15 Aug. (Published: 25. August 2020 by Jan)
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How Are Units in a VPP Selected to Provide Ancillary Services?

In a Virtual Power Plant, thousands of systems provide balancing services every day. But how exactly are the individual units selected for the provision of balancing energy? Which factors are taken into consideration? (Published: 23. July 2020 by Nils Quak)
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Cross-Border Interconnectors

What are Cross-Border Interconnectors? Definition To turn national electricity grids into a large European electricity market, the various national transmission system operators (TSOs) need transit capacity for cross-border electricity trade. These border connection points, also called cross-border interconnectors, enable TSOs at international level to transfer electricity from one national grid to another. Only cross-border interconnectors More… (Published: 23. June 2020 by Marie Volkert)
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Ancillary Services

What are ancillary services? Definition Ancillary services ensure a proper operation of the power grid . The grid operators (transmission grid operators and distribution grid operators) are responsible for ancillary services. To ensure a reliable power supply, it is necessary that frequency, voltage, and power load remain within certain limits . This does not happen More… (Published: 27. November 2019 by Nils Quak)
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Lessons learnt from Germany’s mixed price system

Jan de Decker, Paul Kreutzkamp and Elias de Keyser from Next Kraftwerke Belgium explain in this blog what lessons can be learnt from the roughly nine months of the mixed price system on the reserve power market in Germany. (Published: 23. July 2019 by Jan, Elias, Paul)
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The big sellout at the Control Reserve Market

How the mixed-pricing system turns the security of the electricity grid into a speculative mass: On the sixth, 12th and 25th of June 2019, market distortions occurred in Germany; some of which had severe effects on the electricity grid. (Published: 4. July 2019 by Jan, Christian)
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Who is disrupting the utility frequency?

On 10 January 2019, the utility frequency of Europe’s power grid dropped to 49.8 hertz. Many factors contributed to the near-blackout that evening, but the incident is not the only one in recent weeks that has shaken the grid. (Published: 15. February 2019 by Christian)
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Balancing group

What is a balancing group? Definition On the energy market, the balancing group (also known as the balancing authority) accounts for all power produced and/or consumed by a collection of assets within the group. Accounting for the group’s net production or consumption serves as an instrument for providing a particular operating region the precise amount More… (Published: 12. February 2019 by Nils Quak)
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Renewable Energy Island – Part 2

In the second part of our series, we will talk about different concepts for Virtual Power Plants on islands and island groups for providing a sustainable and secure power supply. (Published: 27. December 2018 by Christian)
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A nearly complete list of European TSOs

A nearly complete list of European TSOs Same as our list of Power & energy exchanges worldwide this is a list in progress. We give our best to keep it correct, up to date and to gather the still missing information. If you have additional information to complete or enhance this list or if you More… (Published: 27. December 2018 by Christian Sperling)
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