Although installing solar panels and batteries will undoubtedly reduce your electricity bill, it can also limit your choice of which electricity market participant to buy energy from when the power generated by the sun and stored in the batteries is not enough. For example, JSC Virši-A does not conclude electricity supply contracts with owners of such systems.
This was discovered while exploring market options by social network X user Gatis Krūmiņš. “Ha! If you have solar panels and if you have batteries, then you are not of interest to electricity traders. Also ask whether, when the current contract expires, the existing trader will be willing to extend it… Virši refused even to send an offer and did not hide that the reason is the batteries,” Krūmiņš writes on social network X.
Inc. was reluctant to fully believe such a statement and contacted the company to verify the truth of this claim. And it indeed turned out to be true.
Virši Head of Energy Department Linda Popova explains to Inc. : “The exchange price is formed based on the transactions and volumes that are submitted to and matched in the market in advance – the day before actual delivery. Therefore, this price applies to the planned trading volumes. If on the current day actions take place that are not in the trader’s plan, for example, unplanned injection of energy into the grid or changes in consumption, they are considered deviations in the system, to which a balancing fee is applied, because the system has to compensate for these changes.
That is exactly why, if a customer has solar panels installed and later batteries are connected, the previously concluded contract regarding the solar panels no longer corresponds to the new cooperation model. It is important to inform the trader in good time about the installation of such equipment, because the trader plans electricity volumes in advance – transactions for each 15-minute period are agreed already the day before delivery. If on the current day the battery starts charging or discharging electricity into the grid outside the plan, the trader experiences an imbalance and additional costs. At the same time, the BESS (battery energy storage system) owner follows the current exchange price and may think they are earning money. The problem here is not the technologies themselves, but rather the understanding of how the market operates; therefore, it is important that customers and equipment installers assess the situation in advance and coordinate the solution with the trader.
Virši Renergy’s core business is electricity trading to end-users – companies and households. The model with small BESS mentioned in this particular discussion requires specific IT integration, automation, and control solutions. The market is currently new and, if there is sufficient interest and economic justification, we will consider such solutions. For now, we are being honest with the customer and are not offering what we cannot ensure.”
In other words, the company has purchased electricity the day before, based on an assumed level of consumption, but if the customer chooses to use the energy stored in the BESS, the company incurs losses.
To find out whether this kind of practice is widespread in the electricity market, Inc. approached Virši’s competitor Alexela. The company’s customer service explained that a contract for electricity supply will definitely be concluded with owners of such systems, but at the same time also warned that the system will pay off over a much longer period of time.
Another electricity market participant – SIA Tet – also confirms that the presence of batteries is not an obstacle to concluding a contract with their owner.
“As an electricity trader, we also work with customers who have solar panels, batteries, and other electrical equipment. As an electricity trader, we do not have information on whether a particular customer does or does not have such equipment. However, if they do, then in such cases under the contract payment is automatically made only for the electricity received from the grid,” explains Tet Head of Public Relations and Corporate Communications, Laura Jansone.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/elektroenergijas-uzkrasana-baterijas-sasaurina-energijas-piegadataju-loku/
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