Discussion Paper release The need for flexibility in a climate-neutral energy system

One essential venue for flexibility deployment is the power grid. In recent years, grid operators have added new and different tools and approaches to manage the increasingly challenging task of keeping the system stable with increasing shares of renewables. In this paper we looked at these challenges in terms of impacts of renewables on system operations, but also at their potential as new flexibility resources and at how this could be unlocked.

As the name suggests, a discussion paper is an ongoing work and not a final one, which tries through incremental steps to find a common understanding and shared terminology and to represent different needs and approaches to flexibility. Most importantly, it also addresses the challenges of the technical complexity of flexibility. It is a first step to bring some clarity and will need to be complemented by further discussions with RGI Members and all relevant actors. In this phase of the energy transition we have to constantly learn from each other in order to find solutions.