Enel X, the Enel Group’s advanced energy services business line, became Poland’s 2021 – 2023 demand response leader, with around a 70% share in that segment of the country’s new Capacity Market over the period, following the awarding of 546 MW of demand response capacity for 2023 as well as last month’s awards of 446 MW for 2021 and 546 MW for 2022. These MWs were awarded in the first three capacity market auctions ever to be held in Poland.
Francesco Venturini, Head of Enel X, commented: “With these latest awards, we are boosting our global demand response portfolio as well as achieving a leadership position in Poland’s promising market. Our experience with various demand response markets around the world gives us the confidence to state that Poland’s capacity market can be both a cost-effective solution for the electricity grid and a fruitful new business opportunity for the country’s C&I energy consumers. Demand response and, more generally, the participation of the demand side in energy markets, continue to play a central role in all power systems striving for cost-efficiency and faster decarbonisation.”
Enel X started providing its first demand response services in the Polish market in 2017. In Poland, demand response is increasingly contributing to the security of energy supplies. In 2023, demand response will account for over 3% of contracted capacity in the country’s capacity market.
Demand response programmes are intended to encourage end users to adjust their power consumption to facilitate the stabilisation of the grid when requested by the system. Active demand response ensures greater grid flexibility that can lead to more efficient use of the energy infrastructure, helping to guarantee grid security and contain electricity prices. These programmes pay the participants an annual fee in exchange for their availability to respond to possible grid emergencies.
Enel holds the leading position in demand response programmes globally, with over 6 GW of demand response capacity currently managed and assigned in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.