From March 1st 2012, Swiss transmission system operator (TSO) Swissgrid will join the International Grid Control Cooperation (IGCC) for optimized control energy utilization

February 28th 2012 – Berlin, Bayreuth, Dortmund, Stuttgart – From March 1st 2012, Swiss transmission system operator (TSO) Swissgrid will join the International Grid Control Cooperation (IGCC) for optimized control energy utilization, leading to further cost reductions in the range of several millions of Euros and increasing disposable control reserves to ensure system security. In Germany, all financial benefits resulting from an optimized utilization of control energy are passed down to the balance responsible parties.
Already the German Grid Control Cooperation implemented in 2008 allows financial savings of approximately 300 Million Euros every year. With the entry of Swissgrid, three international TSOs are now part of the IGCC which originally was developed by the German TSOs EnBW Transportnetze, 50Hertz Transmission, TenneT and Amprion. The IGCC concept has already proven its value within an international context with the entry of Danish TSO Energinet. dk on October 1st 2011 and of Dutch TSO TenneT TSO B.V. on February 1st 2012. Thus, after the entry of http://Energinet.dk, the resulting energy savings from October 2011 until December 2011 accumulated to approximately 80 GWh corresponding to financial savings of about 3 Million Euros. These figures support initial estimations of possible cost savings which had been indicated in the range of approximately 10 Million Euros per year and new IGCC participant.
Technically, the IGCC performs an automatic netting of active power imbalances across control area borders. Through this, cross-border counter regulation is avoided which enables all participating TSOs to reduce their utilization of control energy and increase their disposable control reserves to ensure system security. The additional netting potential brought in by the new partner Swissgrid lies in the range of up to 400 MW. However, the cross-border exchange of control energy is only realized up to the limit given by available cross-border capacity after gate closure of the intraday markets, i.e. which has not been nominated for cross-border trades; a reservation of capacity to be used within the context of IGCC is not foreseen. A dedicated technical module ensures the optimal usage of the available crossborder capacities and additionally allows the limitation of cross-border exchanges of control power if necessary, up to a complete separation of single IGCC participants.
The concept of Grid Control Cooperation was jointly developed by the German TSOs and implemented in Germany by means of several complementary modules, resulting in a German- wide single market for control energy with a common merit-order list for secondary control power. The underlying optimization system is operated in the System Control Center of EnBW Transportnetze in Wendlingen, Germany.
The German TSOs provide further information on the IGCC on their internet platform https://www.regelleistung.net.