2024 smartEn Map on Wholesale Markets: Enabling demand-side flexibility in Europe

On the 21st of January 2025, smartEn published its 2024 smartEn Map on Wholesale Markets, offering a comprehensive analysis of how consumers can access Day-Ahead and Intraday markets by using demand-side flexibility (DSF). Participation of DSF in wholesale markets can support the energy, provide affordability and consumer empowerment in Europe. The report explores opportunities for active consumer participation in wholesale markets, through both explicit trading and reactions to implicit price signals, while highlighting the massive barriers still persistent across Europe.

With energy affordability now a strategic priority for the European Union, the 2024 smartEn Map provides timely insights into measures that can help shape the upcoming European Commission action plan on electrification. It underscores the need for immediate implementation of existing EU rules  to enable consumers to respond to price signals and actively contribute to wholesale market operations in order to reduce energy prices for all and energy costs for participating flexible consumers.

Key findings of the report include:

    Limited access for explicit trading of flexible demand: Most EU countries have yet to introduce changes in their legislation to ensure that demand can actively bid into wholesale markets.

    Dynamic electricity tariffs show promise but face hurdles: Dynamic tariffs are gaining traction and delivering measurable benefits for those consumers that decide to be exposed to day-ahead price fluctuations, but the lack of smart meter deployment in many countries remains a significant barrier to broader adoption.

    Electricity Market Design implementation challenges: The inconsistent and incomplete implementation of the EU regulatory framework on flexible demand participation to wholesale electricity markets is undermining the scaling-up and profitability of flexibility business models and monetary rewards for consumers.

smartEn’s recommendations are directly aligned with the EU’s goal of ensuring affordable energy for households, businesses, and industries. By empowering active consumers to bid into wholesale markets, Europe can stabilise electricity prices, reduce costs, and create a robust energy system capable of integrating renewables effectively.

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