Deutsche Version
28
Jan
2025
News
World Direct and PBEG make biogas plants even more profitable
Since 2023, we have been cooperating with Projektplanungs- Beratungs- und Entwicklungs GmbH, PBEG for short, under our "A1 Energy Solutions" brand to enable operators of biogas plants to access the balancing energy market. PBEG has been working on new ideas, strategies and state-of-the-art technology for agricultural operations and the use of renewable energy sources for almost 20 years. This also includes the management of biogas plants, 50 of which with a marketable capacity of 10 MW have already been successfully integrated into our system.
How does the balancing energy market work?
The balancing energy market is a special market used by the grid operator Austria Power Grid AG (APG) to stabilise the Austrian electricity grid. It is not only the consumption of electricity that fluctuates, but also its generation, particularly due to the increased use of renewable energy sources in the production of electricity. Continuous adjustment is necessary in order to avoid serious blackouts.
Participants in the balancing energy market can offer capacities for short-term balancing measures according to an auction principle and thus generate additional revenue. Remuneration is paid for the mere provision of the capacity and its actual activation when required. This applies to both positive and negative balancing energy. If there is too little electricity in the grid, production is increased or the load is reduced. If there is too much electricity in the grid, production is reduced or the load is increased.
The A1 Energy Pool
In order to participate in the balancing energy market, a plant capacity of at least 5 MW is required - too much for smaller plants. With our technology, it is possible to combine different consumption or generation plants into a virtual power plant, utilise the flexibility and participate in the balancing energy market. In the A1 Energy Pool, these plants are marketed by us in a profit-orientated manner and the revenues are settled in an unbureaucratic manner.
Highly secure technology from World-Direct and A1
We developed the software technology for the virtual power plant and the connection to the balancing energy market and APG and have been continuously optimising it since 2013. Highly secure A1 data connections guarantee reliable communication between the biogas plants and the virtual power plant, which in turn is operated geo-redundantly in accordance with the highest security standards in several A1 data centres in Austria.
Biogas plants are part of the secondary reserve and make a significant contribution to the security of supply and stability of our grid.
Josef Mandl Head of Control Technology, PBEG
The great advantage of biogas plants
Biogas plants are ideally suited for use on the balancing energy market. The methane used to generate electricity from organically degradable substances can be stored temporarily. This allows these plants to produce a so-called "band load" of electricity. In stark contrast to other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, biogas plants can always generate the same amount of electricity per hour. In addition, electricity production can be increased or reduced within just a few minutes to stabilise the power grid.
How PBEG supports the plant operators
PBEG handles the technical connection of the biogas plants via local telecontrol technology, which transmits signals from the plants to PBEG's electricity pool manager. The system is linked to A1's virtual power plant via an API interface in order to monitor and control the individual plants individually. In addition, the current flexibility potential of each plant is determined and transmitted to the virtual power plant. This makes it possible to determine exactly how many kilowatts the output of a plant can be increased or decreased.
With the technology we offer in cooperation with World Direct, we enable our customers with biogas plants to participate in the balancing energy market.
Christian Gremel Managing Director, PBEG
The way to integrate your biogas plant
If you are interested in participating in the balancing energy market with your biogas plant and generating additional income, this is possible in just a few steps.
- Preliminary check of your plant
After contacting us, PBEG experts will advise you on whether your plant is suitable and whether any adjustments need to be made to your plant control system in advance.
- Technical connection
A PBEG technician installs an IoT controller in your system on site and ensures that the system can be controlled externally. A prequalification is then carried out - a test to prove that your system can participate in the balancing energy market.
- Registration with APG
Following prequalification, we at World Direct register your system with the Austrian grid operator APG and integrate it into the A1 Energy Pool.
- Ongoing availability notification
Your only task is to announce how much capacity of your plant is available for the balancing energy market on which days.
Together with PBEG, we have set ourselves the goal of integrating more and more biogas plants into the balancing energy market and marketing them. In doing so, we are making an important contribution to grid stability and avoiding blackouts and supporting biogas operators in utilising their plants even more profitably.