Business Model for Household Flexibility: A Case Study

Power system transition from conventional power generation towards renewables poses a challenge for power system management. Distributed and intermittent sources of electricity require more flexibility from demand side. The potential of households to provide significant amount of flexibility has been recognized for decades already, but lack of sufficient incentives for household consumers has prevented a widespread adoption of such flexibility. This paper presents results from a business pilot project that took place in Finland in 2019. The main project partner was a heat pump manufacturing company NIBE, adopting the role of sub-aggregator. During the pilot, flexibility was activated in real households using NIBE's Uplink platform. From the end user point of view, the occupants were not able to notice any changes in their living conditions related to the flexibility control piloted.