Enabling independent flexibility service providers to participate in electricity markets: A legal analysis of the Belgium case

Abstract

Ambitious renewables targets of the EU call for creating a flexible electricity system accommodating and facilitating the integration of large-scale intermittent renewable electricity. To further exploit the considerable potential of demand flexibility, final customers need to be fully mobilised to offer their flexibility to electricity markets. The independent flexibility service provider (IFSP) operates independently from the electricity supplier and has a separate balance responsible party (BRP), which plays a key role to that end. However, in activating demand flexibility, suppliers and BRPs are affected and thus likely to impose barriers or restrictions on market entry of IFSPs. This analysis utilizes legal-empirical research to closely examine how to promote broader market participation of IFSPs by regulating their relationships with affected suppliers and BRPs. In doing so, the Belgian regulatory framework is used as a case study. This article further analyses the remaining regulatory gaps and challenges of the Belgian framework.