In January, Fusebox paid out to its clients tens of thousands of euros earned from the electricity balancing market for demand-side response flexibility in the previous quarter. Earnings from the balancing market have increased as much as ten-fold in the space of a year.
“The largest number of payouts we made in January were to industrial companies and refrigeration plants, with the largest single payout being valued at more than 7500 euros,” said Fusebox founder and CEO Tarvo Õng. “It’s mainly refrigerated plants, office building management companies, shopping centres and industrial outfits that are involved in the demand response market through our platform, especially those that have electrical pumping, freezing, cooling and ventilation equipment, but also heating equipment.”
Õng explained that the balancing market runs in parallel with Nord Pool, which trades in the balancing of consumption and production on the electricity system in real time. Based on the reaction time and characteristics, balancing market prices are substantially higher. Fusebox helps major consumers enter the market via a single platform, since access to smaller capacities is restricted. Electricity is sold to the balancing market by Fusebox and the buyer is the network administrator, who on the Estonian market is Elering, in Finland Fingrid, in Lithuania Litgrid, in Latvia AST etc.
“Earnings were higher last year mainly because of the higher prices on the balancing market that are paid for using less electricity during certain periods so as to balance out production and consumption in the system,” Õng explained.“ The network operator would rather pay consumers for not using electricity than buy additional energy from the more expensive power stations running on fossil fuels that are used in their place. That way, the consumers help to bring prices down on the electricity market and not only contribute to the sustainability of the electricity system, but also to reducing environmental impact.”
Launched in 2014, Fusebox was the first and is the largest demand response platform provider in the Baltic region. It has since also expanded into the Nordic countries, Western Europe and further afield. “The number of countries and clients enabling the Fusebox platform has been growing every year,” Õng said. “Partly this has had to do with the introduction of regulations promoting the involvement of consumers, but the marked rise in electricity prices and the growth in renewable energy have also played their part, since they have increased the need for balancing. In 2021 we made payouts in the hundreds of thousands of euros.”
Fusebox is trusted by such companies as Stora Enso, Siemens, Technopolis, Premia, Balbiino, Rimi, Enerkey, and many others.
