Posts
How much does a solar park earn on the frequency markets? Real numbers from 10 MW
A 10 × 1 MWp solar portfolio earned €46,700 on the frequency markets in 2.5 months — and 77% of it came from the capacity market. See the real split and what it means per MW.
Frequency markets: get paid to keep the grid at 50 Hz.
Volton qualifies your battery, solar park or industrial load into FCR, aFRR and mFRR reserves and trades on your behalf. You keep the bulk of the revenue.
Solar parks and the frequency markets: the money is in capacity
A solar park earns on the frequency markets mainly from the capacity market — payment for keeping a reserve available, not for activation. And it qualifies without a battery. Here is how it works and how Volton takes a park to market.
mFRR — where Estonian battery profits come from
Manual Frequency Restoration Reserve is activated by a human operator, with full delivery in 12.5 minutes. In Estonia, it is currently the most lucrative balancing market for batteries.
aFRR, the reserve in the middle
Automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve activates in ~30 seconds via TSO control signal, follows it on a 4-second cycle, and pulls the grid back to 50 Hz. Estonia joined the EU PICASSO platform on 9 April 2025; cross-border aFRR clears every 4 seconds across the continent.
FCR: what catches the grid when a reactor trips
Frequency Containment Reserve activates within 30 seconds of a frequency deviation, fully automatic, no TSO signal. Batteries dominate it. It is what made grid-scale storage economically viable.
PPAs — how long-term contracts financed the renewable boom
Power Purchase Agreements are 5–15 year bilateral contracts between renewable generators and corporate offtakers. They probably did more for Europe’s energy transition than any subsidy.
Power futures: how a wind farm gets its loan approved
Forward contracts on electricity, traded on Nasdaq Commodities and EEX, let buyers fix a price for delivery months or years ahead. Most settle financially against the day-ahead spot.
Intraday market — after the auction, reality drifts
After the noon auction closes, intraday opens — a continuous order book that runs until close to delivery. It is where flexibility actually pays.
Day-ahead market: pricing an hour that has not happened yet
Every day at noon CET, an algorithm sets the price of electricity for every hour of tomorrow. The day-ahead auction is the reference the rest of the energy industry hangs off.
REMIT Article 15 and the algorithmic-trading notification
REMIT Article 15 brings algorithmic energy trading under ACER oversight. We explain the notification regime, what counts as algorithmic, and why this matters for asset owners.
Balance Responsible Party (BRP): who pays for every imbalanced kilowatt-hour
Every kilowatt-hour on the grid has a Balance Responsible Party that is contractually accountable for it. Here is how the BRP regime works under Elering and why aggregation matters.