Romania is turning electricity demand and backup infrastructure into tradeable power-system assets, creating an emerging market for aggregators and virtual power plants. In September, transmission operator Transelectrica activated a balancing reserve group made entirely from controllable electricity consumption. At the same time, Huawei Romania, Bamboo Energy and Flexumers are developing a virtual power plant aggregating batteries at telecom sites.
Balancing reserve activation and virtual power plant development
Transelectrica activated Romania’s first balancing reserve group composed entirely of controllable electricity consumption in September. The same period also saw work by Huawei Romania, Bamboo Energy and Flexumers on a virtual power plant that aggregates batteries installed at telecom sites. The companies’ technologies differ, but the commercial model is described as the same.
An aggregator identifies flexibility already embedded in the economy, combines hundreds or thousands of smaller assets, and sells their coordinated response into electricity markets. The approach is expected to expand the pool of capacity available for balancing Romania’s increasingly complex power system.
Industrial demand response enters mFRR
On Sept. 1, a portfolio aggregated by Flexumers supplied 3 MW of upward manually activated frequency restoration reserve, or mFRR, entirely by reducing electricity consumption. No generator or storage unit was involved in the activation. The arrangement changes how industrial consumers relate to the power market.
Factories traditionally buy electricity as a production input, while demand response enables them to sell a different product: temporary reduction or shifting of consumption when the system requires it. Flexible loads can include pumps, compressors, refrigeration, heating and ventilation systems, water treatment and other processes where electricity use can be moved for limited periods without materially affecting output.
An aggregator identifies those loads, establishes a consumption baseline and combines flexibility from multiple customers into a portfolio large enough to participate in electricity markets. When Transelectrica requests an activation, the aggregator distributes the required response among participating consumers. Customers can receive part of the flexibility revenue.
The participation decision is described as depending on whether payments for changing consumption exceed operational costs associated with doing so. This framework is linked to how aggregators structure portfolios for market participation.
ANRE rules for consumer flexibility services
Romania has also introduced regulatory rules for this activity through energy regulator ANRE. In August, ANRE approved rules allowing eligible consumers to provide consumption-flexibility services directly or through suppliers and aggregators. Remotely readable metering is used to support measurement and verification.
The rules are intended to give aggregators access to a potentially large pool of assets requiring limited conventional energy investment. Flexumers estimated that Romania could have about 700 MW of potential aggregation capacity, while only part of that resource is expected to be technically available and commercially viable.
The market impact described includes industrial sites such as steel plants, food processors, cement producers and logistics centres becoming electricity-market participants without owning a power plant. In those cases, flexible consumption is treated as the asset enabling participation.
Telecom batteries tested for balancing services
A second Romanian experiment applies similar principles to infrastructure already containing physical energy storage. Telecommunications networks use batteries to maintain service during electricity outages, with thousands of installations spending most operating time waiting for emergencies. A partnership involving Huawei Romania, Bamboo Energy and Flexumers aims to test whether part of that dormant capacity can provide electricity-market services while preserving the primary backup function.
Bamboo Energy provides optimisation technology, while Flexumers provides aggregation and market access. The partners plan to test charging and discharging against market conditions and participation in mFRR and aFRR balancing services.
The concept is described as different from constructing a conventional grid-scale battery because the batteries already exist. The investment opportunity is largely tied to software, communications, market access and optimisation needed to turn geographically dispersed devices into a single controllable portfolio.
Software-driven aggregation across sectors
The same aggregation approach is described as potentially applicable beyond telecom infrastructure. Data centres, hospitals, logistics facilities, commercial buildings and industrial plants often maintain batteries, generators or thermal systems whose primary purpose is not participation in electricity markets. Some of that infrastructure may contain flexibility that can be monetised without undermining its core function.
The value proposition described focuses on identifying how much capacity can be made available safely, at what times it can be offered and under what operational constraints. This is presented as the core business activity for aggregators.
The emerging Romanian market is described as having two sides: industrial demand response converting controllable consumption into flexibility, and virtual power plants converting distributed physical assets into flexibility. An aggregator could combine both within a single portfolio that includes factories temporarily reducing demand, telecom batteries discharging and commercial buildings adjusting HVAC systems alongside EV fleets delaying charging.
The system would see the combined portfolio as controllable capacity rather than thousands of separate devices. Aggregation is also described as relying on coordination capabilities rather than assuming generation capacity as the scarce asset.
The commercial opportunity is described as increasingly software-based because aggregators need to forecast customer behaviour, determine asset availability, optimise bids, issue dispatch instructions, collect meter data and verify that requested flexibility was delivered. Aggregators also need to manage conflicts between different revenue opportunities.
A telecom battery cannot simultaneously provide its full capacity to several balancing products while retaining reserve needed to protect communications network operations. Similarly, an industrial consumer cannot promise flexibility that its production schedule cannot reliably deliver.
Portfolio optimisation is identified as central to the product offering, with potential markets for virtual power plant platforms, automated demand-response systems, industrial energy-management software and flexibility verification services. The developments are described as moving beyond an initial stage of electricity-market liberalisation focused on generation trading by shifting attention toward controlling thousands of smaller connected loads and assets through aggregation into bankable products.