Datahub 2.0 brings many changes
Datahub is a centralized data exchange system for the retail market, which stores data on Finland’s 3.8 million locations of electricity usage. Datahub, which has been in use since the beginning of the year, will in the next version have a significant change – the transition to a 15-minute measurement period. The 15-minute measurement period enables the transition to a 15-minute balance sheet, which will be introduced in the Nordic countries from 23.05.2023. Another important change is the internal netting of the place of use, where electricity consumption and production are netted within the measurement time step used. Netting has a direct effect on the invoicing of energy communities.
Synerall is already preparing for the future and the legislative changes brought about by the changing regulations so that Synerall can minimize the costs of the changes for its customers.
What does a 15-minute measurement period mean in practice?
With a 15-minute measurement, electricity consumption is measured with an accuracy of 15 minutes instead of an hour, and because of this, each electricity meter will send four times more reportable data in the future. For the end customers, this means that they now receive information about their electricity consumption with an even more accurate, 15-minute resolution, which means they always know how much energy they have consumed. The end users benefit from higher measurement accuracy because it enables more accurate monitoring and planning of their own electricity consumption. With the help of planning, the end customers can save significant money and balance consumption spikes.
With Syneralli’s services, this is already possible. At the moment, some of the electricity meters are not yet capable of 15-minute measurement, but according to the legislation, all electricity meters must be able to do this by 2027.
Impact on energy communities
The EU’s renewable energy directive defines energy communities as new energy operators, and as part of this, a law came into effect in Finland at the beginning of 2021, energy communities within a building based on rebate accounting, i.e., for example, housing associations that install solar panels on their roofs to produce electricity for the housing association’s needs. With the new legislation, the housing association’s electricity consumption and production are netted, whereby the difference between consumption and production is recorded either for consumption or production, depending on which is greater. In practice, the electricity produced by the energy community is primarily used for the needs of the building and then to cover the electricity consumption of the partners according to the agreed percentages. If the energy community produces more electricity than it needs, the surplus is sold to the grid.
In accordance with the Finnish Government’s regulation that entered into force at the end of last year, Datahub must be able to handle processes related to local energy communities from the beginning of 2023, which is possible with the help of Datahub 2.0.
Energy communities an opportunity for the future
The energy community produces savings for the end consumer in the form of a reduced electricity bill because the energy produced by the housing association reduces the need for purchased electricity. However, the financial benefit is only one of the benefits of energy communities. Renewable energy produced by energy communities is environmentally friendly, and it also reduces dependence on external energy producers. Current legislation enables energy communities to operate on a small scale. In order for the energy communities to be able to take advantage of their opportunities more widely, a change is required that would allow the virtual cooperation of the energy communities, which would also offer a tax benefit. The change would also be necessary to allow block-wide energy communities, which enable greater production capacity and the use of flexible services.
However, energy communities bring new challenges to electricity transmission companies because the distribution network must be maintained at the same level as without private production, which results in costs for the network company.
The beginning of changes
We are living in an era of change, where energy consumption and production are raising more and more discussion. The transition to Datahub 2.0 is the beginning of changes that steer electricity consumption and reporting in a more real-time and environmentally friendly direction, taking into account the interests of the end customer.
In addition, version 2.0 better supports the cancellation of the termination of the end-user contract and the delivery of measurement data for file interfaces.
