Romania is turning electricity demand and backup infrastructure into tradeable power-system assets, creating an emerging market for aggregators and virtual power plants. In September, transmission operator Transelectrica activated Romania’s first balancing reserve group made entirely from controllable electricity consumption. At the same time, Huawei Romania, Bamboo Energy and Flexumers are developing a virtual power plant aggregating batteries at telecom sites.
Balancing reserve from controllable consumption
On Sept. 1, a portfolio aggregated by Flexumers supplied 3 MW of upward manually activated frequency restoration reserve, or mFRR, by reducing electricity consumption. No generator or storage unit was involved. The approach uses demand response to shift or reduce industrial electricity use when the system requires it.
Flexible loads can include pumps, compressors, refrigeration, heating and ventilation systems, water treatment, and other processes where electricity use can be moved for limited periods without materially affecting output. An aggregator identifies those loads, sets a consumption baseline, and combines flexibility from multiple customers into a portfolio sized for participation in electricity markets. When Transelectrica requests activation, the aggregator distributes the required response among participating consumers.
The customer can receive part of the flexibility revenue. Participation depends on whether the payment for changing consumption exceeds the operational cost of doing so. The model therefore links industrial flexibility availability to balancing-market activations.
Regulatory rules for consumption-flexibility services
Romania has also introduced a regulatory framework for this type of service. In August, energy regulator ANRE approved rules allowing eligible consumers to provide consumption-flexibility services directly or through suppliers and aggregators. Remotely readable metering is used to support measurement and verification.
The rules give aggregators access to a pool of assets that requires little conventional energy investment. Flexumers has estimated Romania could have about 700 MW of potential aggregation capacity, although only part is expected to be technically available and commercially viable. The same structure can allow industrial facilities such as steel plants, food processors, cement producers and logistics centres to participate without owning a power plant.
Batteries at telecom sites tested for balancing services
A second Romanian initiative applies similar aggregation principles to existing physical energy storage in telecommunications networks. Telecom operators require batteries to maintain service during electricity outages, and thousands of installations spend most of their operating lives waiting for emergencies. A partnership involving Huawei Romania, Bamboo Energy and Flexumers is assessing whether part of that dormant capacity can provide electricity-market services while preserving primary backup functions.
Bamboo Energy provides optimisation technology, while Flexumers provides aggregation and market access. The partners plan to test charging and discharging under market conditions and participation in mFRR and aFRR balancing services. The approach differs from constructing a conventional grid-scale battery because the batteries already exist.
The investment focus is largely on software, communications, market access and optimisation needed to turn geographically dispersed devices into a single controllable portfolio. A virtual power plant could therefore aggregate thousands of relatively small assets that the electricity market treats as one resource.
Expanding flexibility beyond generation assets
The aggregation model also creates opportunities for recurring revenue from infrastructure that operators traditionally treat as resilience-related expenditure. Telecom operators treat backup batteries as a resilience expense, while aggregation could convert part of that spending into revenue-generating capacity. Similar concepts can apply to data centres, hospitals, logistics facilities, commercial buildings and industrial plants that maintain batteries, generators or thermal systems primarily for purposes other than electricity-market participation.
The key requirement is identifying how much capacity can be made available safely, at what times, and under what operational constraints. This capacity verification function is described as part of the aggregator’s business model.
Software-driven coordination across portfolios
The emerging Romanian market combines two sides: industrial demand response converting controllable consumption into flexibility, and virtual power plants converting distributed physical assets into flexibility. An aggregator could combine both within a single portfolio that includes factories reducing demand temporarily, telecom batteries discharging, commercial buildings adjusting HVAC systems and EV fleets delaying charging. The electricity system would then see the combined portfolio as controllable capacity rather than thousands of separate devices.
The commercial activity relies on software coordination rather than new generation build-outs. Aggregators need to forecast customer behaviour, determine asset availability, optimise bids, issue dispatch instructions, collect meter data and demonstrate that requested flexibility was delivered. They also manage conflicts between revenue opportunities when assets cannot provide full capacity simultaneously across multiple balancing products or when production schedules cannot reliably support promised flexibility.
This creates demand for virtual power plant platforms, automated demand-response systems, industrial energy-management software and flexibility verification services as portfolio optimisation becomes central to participation in balancing markets.