SamspEL Arena: the electricity market of the future

What is the landscape of the current electricity market? What knowledge do we have today to facilitate the market development? And what perspectives need further research to identify the new emerging needs from the future electricity market? Those are some of the questions that were discussed during the SamspEL Arena seminar on the 30th of March.

The electricity market is experiencing a rapid change in tandem with the ongoing transition from the electricity system. There will be potentially a shift of landscape for both the traditional players and the new ones. In order to better integrate the future electricity system with unprecedented challenges and uncertainties, it is crucial to look into the existing research and innovation on the electricity market, acknowledge the latent missing piece that may help the future electricity market reform into the next norm.

Current status and future needs of Sweden's electricity market
The seminar began with an introduction of the present research directions. The study points out that more efforts could be made towards market development regulatory and legal aspects, and more knowledge should be raised when it comes to the social competence about the electricity system. Research themes in market design, development of new models and behaviour knowledge have revealed their importance and shall continue being explored.

Elham Kalhori from Power Circle demonstrated the implications behind those measures and instruments. It is believed that by inquiring into the topics, we can get a more comprehensive overview on the demarcations of different players, the feasibilities on embracing new technologies, and the possibilities of providing market-based solutions. It is also important to carry out studies on the supporting environment, encourage cooperation between industries and academia, as well as investigate Swedish prerequisites.

Fredrik Lundström from the Swedish Energy Agency presented some projects that the agency has been financing. Beyond electricity price and local market settings, the technical feasibility and market functionality are the two significant subjects that got much attention. Fredrik has also mentioned the necessity of dialogues - that a wider range of stakeholders shall be included into the discussion. While the future electricity markets may hold different possible scenarios, it is important that we think and plan in a long term.

Sustainable integration of the electricity market
Thomas Tangerås from the Research Institute of Industrial Economics spoke about the energy exchange and energy trading in Sweden's market in practice. He claimed that the sustainable integration and the power exporting/importing with neighbouring interconnectors, e.g. Germany, have not been entirely smooth from the past experience. Thomas indicated that more positive political support and fiscal incentives need to be in place to stimulate the energy flow.

Jens Lundgren from the Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate talked about the significance of infrastructure, that investments are required for both Sweden and EU to deliver power in time. Jens also believed that the political willingness or the policy navigation would be a crucial factor for the future electricity market development.

Long-term scenarios for frequency regulation services
Meng Song from RISE introduced her project about flexible energy solutions on providing frequency regulation services. Meng's research focuses on the cost-effectiveness of different resources when they participate in balancing markets, coping with different future market scenarios. The project explores the possibilities of utilizing alternative resources by looking into the capacity forecast, resource availability and the remuneration method from the reserve markets. Hopefully the holistic approach will convey a new landscape of Sweden's balancing market in 2050.

Anna Jäderström from Svenska kraftnät expressed her interest in creating a balancing market with socio-economic and reasonable-priced products. It would also be fascinating to get experiences and learn from other European electricity markets, where similar regulations may apply, or alike challenges recognized.

Finally, the seminar ended with reflections on presentations, and suggestions on focusing most relevant research topics with future electricity market development in a Swedish context.

You can watch the seminar here on youtube.

About SamspEL Arena
SamspEL Arena is a seminar series organized by Power Circle on behalf of the Swedish Energy Agency. SamspEL Arena targets on stakeholders from the energy sector, aims to spread the knowledge from the Swedish Energy Agency's research and innovation program SamspEL in an industry context.

You can have access to previous SamspEL Arena recordings here: framtidens elbehov, konsumentens roll i elsystemet, flexibilitet, digitalisering av elnäten, solel and elkvalitet. For more information about the R&D projects that are under the SamspEL funding, you can visit Framtidenselsystem.se.