Demand-side flexibility is the ability of a consumer to adapt its energy consumption according to grid requirements, user needs and local climate conditions.

The Demand Aggregator is a new market agent necessary to manage demand-side flexibility. Its role is to aggregate and manage coordinately different flexibility providers, allowing them to take advantage of their flexibility.

Balancing services are managed by the System Operator, their objective is to assure the continuous balancing between generation and demand in the electricity system.

Are small-scale power generation, storage units or controllable demand-side sources located within the electric distribution system. They provide an alternative to conventional technologies for energy generation and grid balancing.

The estimated amount of electricity that a consumer would have consumed in the absence of a flexibility activation. The flexibility activation is calculated comparing the baseline with the actual consumption. 

It is the act of shifting the demand from a time slot to another. For instance, thermal systems that can stop the heating production during a certain time, but once finalized the dispatch they need to recover the energy not used previously.

The act of reducing electricity consumption that will not cause an increase in the future consumption. For example, some industrial processes that, if remunerated adequately, can stop their production during a limited time.

Capacity payment is the payment received in exchange for being available to the system operator to change your consumption when required. Capacity payments are only available in certain countries and are paid in €/MW of flexible power available.

The payment received in exchange for the actual amount of energy reduced during a dispatch. Energy payments are only available in certain programs.

The system operator does not pay the capacity and energy payments from their own pocket. Instead, the imbalance price represents the monetary penalty that has to be paid by all the actors who deviated from their expected generation and contributed to an imbalance in the grid.