In today’s fast-evolving energy landscape, energy companies face a common challenge: how to manage distributed energy resources (DERs) efficiently while maximizing revenue and maintaining grid stability. This is where Fusebox steps in with our cutting-edge Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform. At the heart of this platform lies one of our most powerful tools – the Flexibility Calculator.
What is a Flexibility Calculator, and Why Does It Matter?
Imagine you’re managing a large energy portfolio that includes solar farms, battery storage systems, and industrial consumers like cold storages, pumping stations, etc. Each of these assets behaves differently based on weather conditions, operational schedules, and maintenance requirements. Now what if you had a smart system that could predict how much energy flexibility (the ability to adjust energy consumption or production) each asset can offer at any given time? That’s exactly what our Flexibility Calculator does.
The Flexibility Calculator helps to predict how much energy flexibility each asset can provide, which is crucial for participating in energy markets where timing and precision can mean the difference between profit and penalties.
Smarter Energy Decisions with Our Flexibility Calculator
We’ve harnessed the power of Machine Learning (ML) to create forecasting models tailored to different types of energy assets. Think of machine learning as teaching a computer to learn from data, much like how an operator gains experience over time. The more data it gets, the smarter it becomes.
Our ML algorithms are trained daily on fresh data to ensure the most accurate forecasts. Every 30 minutes, the system updates its predictions based on real-time information, such as:
- Historical Cyclic Behavior and Impact of External Influences: How assets respond to repeating patterns and external factors over time.
- Asset States: The current operating condition of an asset (e.g., Is the solar panel generating at full capacity? Is the battery charging or discharging? Is the compressor running at partial load?).
- State of Charge (SoC): For batteries, this indicates the amount of stored energy available for use.
- User-Defined Regulation Conditions: Custom rules set by platform operators to control energy flow based on specific business requirements and constraints.
This dynamic adjustment means our platform doesn’t just make predictions, it adapts to changing conditions in real-time, helping operators make smarter decisions faster and reduce manual analysis workload.
Learning and Improving Over Time
When new assets are integrated, our system uses pre-existing models to start managing them immediately. For instance, if you add a new compressor to your portfolio, our Flexibility Calculator will initially apply general compressor behavior models. As the system gathers more operational data, the model becomes more accurate, evolving into an asset-specific predictor.
Similarly, for industrial compressors, the system quickly learns operational patterns such as load cycles, downtime schedules, and energy consumption behaviors, enabling precise flexibility forecasting over time.
This capability allows Fusebox to manage not only large-scale power plants but also a wide variety of small-scale assets, all under one virtual roof.
The result? Optimized participation in energy markets like mFRR (manual Frequency Restoration Reserve), aFRR (automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve), and FCR (Frequency Containment Reserve). These are markets where companies can help to balance the grid by adjusting energy supply or demand, and accuracy here is critical.
Why Choose Fusebox?
Our Flexibility Calculator isn’t just a fancy algorithm, it’s a dynamic system designed to maximize the value of your energy assets. It has been extensively proven in real-world portfolios with hundreds of diverse resources, including solar farms, battery storage systems, and demand response units. Every day, it demonstrates its value in some of the most dynamic energy markets.
Ready to see the Flexibility Calculator in action? Contact our VPP sales team at aleksandr@fusebox.energy and discover how we can help you unlock the full potential of your energy assets.
