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Electricity grids worldwide need both the flexibility to adapt to renewable energy sources, and the resilience to cope with grid-stress events. Demand curtailment and other forms of demand-side response (DSR) play an increasingly fundamental role in supporting both these requirements, yet direct participation in these programmes can be complex, and is typically geared towards high-demand customers with single, centralised sites.

However smaller, decentralised organisations can still unlock the benefits of DSR and provide a crucial grid service by working with an aggregator. By bringing multiple demand customers and sites together in a virtual power plant (VPP), aggregators help businesses of all sizes become major contributors to grid stability, without the challenges of managing individual enrolment themselves.

In this episode, Michael Lynch, manager of Enel X’s global Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Dublin, joins Ed Porter to discuss the growing role of VPPs in helping stabilise global electricity grids. In conversation they discuss:

• The nature of VPPs, and the type of generation, storage and load-curtailment resources they aggregate.
• How VPPs respond to the requirements of grid and asset operators.
• The use of flexibility and automation in managing VPP performance.
• The need for resilience in the NOC to ensure a reliable and rapid response in volatile conditions – from shutdowns and outages, to extreme weather and earthquakes.
• The human dimension and skills set required to balance around 10 GW of flexibility services worldwide.
• The future of VPPs as they adopt more battery storage assets in EVs, homes and businesses.

About our guest

Michael joined Enel X Global Retail in 2020 from an airline operations control centre, where he

gained hands-on experience planning, scheduling and managing disruptions in a fast-paced,

high-pressure environment.

Enel X Global Retail is Enel Group’s business line dedicated to customers around the world with the aim of effectively providing products and services based on their energy needs and encouraging them towards a more conscious and sustainable use of energy. Globally, it provides electricity, integrated and innovative energy services to more than 54 million customers worldwide, offering flexibility services aggregating 9.8 GW, managing around 3 million lighting points, and with 30,500 owned public charging points for electric mobility.

For more information on what Enel X Global Retail does, head to its website at https://www.enelx.com/uk/en/

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