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Direct and easy start: We connect your CHP unit with the control system of our virtual power plant via our own Next Box control interface or via the existing protocol interface of your plant. The operation of your CHP unit is not affected.

Cumulative know-how: Over 10,000 power generators and consumers are now part of our virtual power plant. This makes us one of the largest in Europe.

Profitable: You get income from the power exchange - more than you would get if you supplied a constant current. We calculate a small and transparent part of your profit for our services.

Next Kraftwerke pays you the income from the sale of your electricity on the power exchange. Our real-time data assessment and highly qualified progonoses and analysts enable us to negotiate your electricity very efficiently. No additional fees for you, no trading or market access fees. Another important point: unlike our competitors, we assume the balancing risks ourselves instead of transferring them to you.

Uncomplicated: We carry out the prequalification - the necessary test procedure for the provision of control power - for you.

Additional revenue: Already for the provision of control energy from your CHP plant, you receive the capacity fee, in the case of call, the activation fee is added.

In safe hands: To sell your CHP-generated power on the reserve power market, a connection to the Virtual Power Plant via the Next Box or the built-in protocol interface is necessary. Almost all commands executed by the Virtual Power Plant controller are automated via M2M communication. Strict safety standards are complied at any time.

Restrictions: Calls for control energy usually last only a few seconds or minutes, the heat supply is not or hardly interrupted during this time due to the heat inertia. In addition, the maximum call-up duration of your CHP plant can be limited in time by storing individual parameters in the control system of our virtual power plant.

The tertiary reserve capacity mFRR (R3) balances the fluctuations of the network after a delay of 15 minutes. The TSO measures the frequency and places commands to call capacities. The network operator Elia buys two different mFRR products: R3 standard and R3 flex. The first can be activated for up to 8 hours per day, while the latter can be activated for maximum 2 hours continuously – between two activations there has to be a pause of at least 12 hours. The grid operator pays a capacity fee for both products, but only the R3 standard entitles the grid operator to an energy fee.

View performance values: In our customer portal, you can keep an eye on the feed-in of your CHP plant and the revenues.

Notification of malfunctions: We can inform you via app about malfunctions of your CHP plant.

Maintenance times: Register upcoming maintenance and repair times conveniently via My Power Plant so that we can take them into account in electricity trading.

We connect your CHP plant to the virtual power plant via our Next Box interface or via the protocol interface that may already be present in your plant. The system is based on a reliable and tested mobile infrastructure for data exchange. The connection is established via a VPN (Virtual Private Network) with encryption according to IEC 60870-5-104 or Modbus TCP protocols.

Your generated power is sold on international power exchanges by our team of analysts and traders. The data you have generated with your CHP unit is essential for this task. With the real-time data from every power station in our network, our team can provide reliable forecasts and analyses. We then adjust these based on our meteorologist's forecasts, so that we can sell your energy at a higher profit. This not only guarantees higher profits, but also helps to build and strengthen a flexible energy market.

The Next Box is your connection to the Virtual Power Plant. It manages the communication between your CHP-plant and our control system via a secure mobile connection that meets a legally prescribed requirement for the telecontrol capacity of a plant. The Next Box also enables you to operate your system according to a price-based scheme, which opens up additional trading opportunities.

Primary, secondary and tertiary reserves are negotiated by the Belgian TSO Elia during auctions on the control reserve markets. Market participants submit initial bids for the capacity price, which are sorted by amount in a merit list. For the secondary and tertiary reserve, successful suppliers participate in a second auction and submit bids for the unit price. If the control pool is required, the suppliers with the lowest price receive the RFx first. Higher offers follow in order. If a control reserve order is placed, secondary and tertiary reserve suppliers also receive the additional unit price. While the FCR and the RRF are subject to a weekly call for tenders, the RRFm is subject to a monthly call for tenders. In addition, Elia offers part of its FCR power on the regional market regelleistung.net.

Together with you, we analyse which reserve power market offers the highest value for your CHP installation. Important: We only ever make control energy calls within the restrictions you specify. You always retain control over your CHP plant.

Aggregated Units

16 769Q4/2023

Networked Capacity

13 500MW Q4 2023

Volume of traded energy

15.1TWh in 2019

Employees

338

Locations

9

Foundation

2009Next Pool
CHP