Utilitas is the first Estonian company whose equipment has been recognized by Elering as meeting the requirements for providing manual frequency restoration reserves (mFRR) on the European frequency management platform.

Elering's communications specialist, Kätlin Klemmer, told ERR that it is an open market for all, but the initiative came from Utilitas and the market access platform provider, Scener, who were the first to complete all the requirements. She added that all other current Baltic balancing market providers should also be capable of this, but they have not yet proven it through the pre-qualification test.

The current Baltic balancing market employs a similar product, but the rules there are somewhat different, according to Klemmer.

Without technical pre-qualification, it is not possible to participate in the European energy platforms MARI and PICASSO, nor is there a right to participate in the upcoming Baltic frequency containment, frequency restoration reserve (aFRR), and mFRR capacity markets.

At the beginning of next year, the electricity systems of the Baltic states will be connected to the Continental Europe frequency band for security reasons.

Elering CEO Kalle Kilk said that this process involves not only extensive network development work but also years of cooperation between countries to be prepared to ensure the necessary frequency in the new situation, which is one of the most important parameters for the reliability of the electricity system. Currently, as Estonia and the Baltic states belong to the same frequency band as Russia, frequency is managed from Russia.

"The synchronization of the Baltic electricity systems with the Continental Europe synchronous area will bring about a fundamental change in the entire current organization of balancing the Baltic electricity systems, as a result of which the Baltic system operators will create the capacity to take responsibility for frequency control themselves," said Kilk. "Reserves are important from another aspect as well – greater flexibility is needed for managing the electricity system, especially considering the increasing share of renewable energy, as unpredictability and forecast error in the system increase."

Currently, Utilitas offers the first project as a service to the common Baltic balancing market through switching on and off of a seven-megawatt electric boiler consumption based on whether consumption needs to be increased or decreased for the balance of the electricity system. The boiler is connected to the district heating network, which means that the inertia of the district heating system can be used for balancing the electricity system.

Utilitas' access to the manual frequency restoration reserve market for its electric boiler utilizes the platform of Scener OÜ, which provides balance and portfolio management services to energy companies. In addition to offerings for the mFRR market, Scener also helps optimize day-ahead and intraday markets.

Following the synchronization with the Continental Europe frequency band, pan-European digital market platforms, which collect all reserve offerings and optimize the activation of reserves, will be used for joint frequency control.

Elering, along with other Baltic system operators, will join the European regulation market platforms MARI and PICASSO, which are aimed at operating energy offerings for manual frequency restoration reserves and automatic frequency restoration reserves, respectively.

The plan is to join the MARI platform in October of this year and the PICASSO platform at the end of the year.

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