Being able to deliver the ancillary service mFRR is becoming increasingly important to ensure a good return on a battery investment. CheckWatt has received four pre-qualifications approved for mFRR, started the pre-qualification process for residential systems, and signed the first agreement regarding the handling and delivery of mFRR with Bixia as the balance responsible party.
According to Svenska kraftnät, the demand for mFRR is expected to quadruple between 2023 and 2026, and from December 2024 and onwards, mFRR has been the ancillary service with the highest average monthly prices.
Below, we have created a model of annualized revenues based on technical requirements and prices for each ancillary service during January and February 2025. On the right, you can see the result of an optimal plan, where the most profitable ancillary service has been selected for each hour. In practice, achieving perfect forecasting is not possible, so this should be seen as an indication of potential revenue rather than an actual outcome. On our website, you can read more about how an optimal dispatch of ancillary services would have been in 2024.
Yearly revenue based on prices of ancillary service in January and February 2025
mFRR is the abbreviation for manual Frequency Restoration Reserve and is designed to restore the frequency of the electricity system to 50 Hz following a disturbance or an imbalance between purchased and sold electricity in the electricity markets. Unlike FCR-D and FCR-N, mFRR consists of both a capacity market and an energy activation market, where compensation can be received both for offering capacity and energy.
The approach to activations also differs between the FCR services and mFRR, which requires updated work flows between CheckWatt as the aggregator and the balance responsible parties. When FCR services are activated, it happens automatically based on the frequency in the power system. For mFRR, charging and discharging of the batteries are activated through an electronic signal from Svenska kraftnäts’ control room, which requires technical integrations between CheckWatt, the balance responsible party, and Svenska kraftnät. Delivering a more energy-intensive service like mFRR also means that agreements between CheckWatt, the balance responsible parties, and the customer’s electricity trading company need to be adjusted to account for the imbalance costs that arise due to activations.
This week, CheckWatt finalized the first agreement for the delivery of mFRR with Bixia. Bidding and delivery of mFRR will begin after CheckWatt and Bixia have tested and verified integrations, likely during March.
Meanwhile, we are working with other balance responsible parties to finalize agreements and integrations. Modity has communicated that they plan to have a solution ready to deliver mFRR by the end of the second quarter of this year. Regarding Jämtkraft, we have started the pre-qualification process for mFRR, but due to technical integration work on their part, they estimate it will take six to eight months before they can begin delivering mFRR via aggregators.
CheckWatt started pre-qualifying for mFRR in December and has so far received four approved pre-qualifications. Last week, we also began performing tests as part of the pre-qualification process for residential systems that have Bixia as the balance responsible party. Unlike FCR, it is not possible to pre-qualify for mFRR in general; only the resources that have been pre-qualified can deliver the ancillary service.
