Baltic States' PSOs including the need to provide frequency regulation after synchronisation, as well as the rapidly growing connection of wind and solar power plants to the power grids will increase the volume of balancing reserves transmission system operators require to ensure the stable operation of the energy system.
The Baltic States' transmission system operators forecast that in 2025 the volume of buyable balancing reserves will double, and triple by 2030, compared to the volume of balancing reserves currently maintained in the Baltic energy system. You can study the forecast for balancing reserves required in the Baltics during the period from 2024 to 2031 here.
Therefore, in cooperation with Estonian and Lithuanian transmission system operators, in 2025 AST plans to introduce a regional market in which operators will buy the balancing reserves necessary for the operation of the electricity transmission system. A regional balancing reserve market is being created to expand the network of balancing reserve suppliers, increase competition and create conducive conditions for new investments in balancing reserve infrastructure.
It is planned that the types of balancing reserves required by transmission system operators will also expand. Currently, in order to ensure energy system balancing, the Baltic States' transmission system operators buy balancing reserves, which if necessary are activated manually by human beings with an activation speed of up to 15 minutes. After the synchronisation of the Baltic energy system with the European power grids, it will be necessary to ensure more precise and faster Baltic energy system balancing. In order to accomplish this, transmission system operators will require additional types of balancing reserves – faster, automatically controllable frequency stabilization reserves with an activation speed of up to 30 seconds and frequency restoration reserves with an activation speed of 5 minutes.
The most significant changes are planned at the start of 2025, when the Baltic States' transmission system operators will have to provide frequency restoration reserves with automatic and manual activation in conformity with the requirements of the European energy system. The required frequency restoration planned for 2025 for reserves with automatic activation will be about 134 MW for balancing upwards and 134 MW for balancing downwards. Parallel to this, frequency restoration for reserves with manual activation will require about 677 MW for balancing upwards and 568 MW for balancing downwards. In addition, synchronisation will provide frequency stabilization reserves with a planned volume of 25 MW.
The Baltic States' transmission system operators have developed and published a Baltic balancing market development roadmap and balancing reserve power market regulations, which you can study here.