Since electricity is usually not generated where it is consumed, high feed-in levels – particularly from volatile renewable sources – can lead to overloading of individual power lines. Redispatch is used to prevent such overloads and ensure stable grid operation. This involves reducing feed-in on one side of a bottleneck and increasing it on the other. This service has typically been provided by large power generation plants.

As part of the NEFI flagship project Industry4Redispatch (I4RD), this approach is being expanded: in addition to generation plants, large consumers, particularly industrial plants, can also actively participate in redispatch. By specifically adjusting their electricity consumption, industrial plants can help relieve the grid during bottlenecks.

The project is developing a redispatch product specifically tailored to the requirements of industrial plants. To this end, clear rules for bids, time slots and quality criteria are being established. At the same time, close coordination is being established between transmission system operators and distribution system operators. This ensures that the use of flexibility does not lead to new bottlenecks in the distribution network. To this end, factors such as network capacities are taken into account and the impacts of measures are assessed in advance.

Another focus is on economic incentives and technical solutions for industry. With the help of energy management systems, businesses can optimise their electricity consumption whilst simultaneously providing flexibility for redispatch. Both the simulation and the demonstration in industrial facilities show that the installed optimisation software can increase efficiency and reduce electricity costs.

Through I4RD, AIT, together with its partners, is laying the groundwork for industrial facilities to actively contribute to the stability of the electricity system. At the same time, dependence on conventional power stations is reduced. The project demonstrates how flexibility from industry can become a key component of the energy transition and a secure electricity supply. It also shows that flexibility can be utilised for the transmission grid in such a way that the condition of the distribution grids can be taken into account in advance, thereby accessing flexibility where it makes the most sense for the entire system.