Challenge
A leading European electricity TSO operated monthly auctions to procure balancing energy from prequalified producers, a business-critical process directly impacting grid stability and operational costs. Manual auction result calculations required significant expert effort and time, limiting auction frequency to once per month. This constrained the client’s ability to respond to volatile market conditions and increasing flexibility demands. Manual processing created inefficiency risks across the entire lifecycle: bid evaluation, invoicing, notifications, and external reporting. As energy market volatility intensified, the monthly model became increasingly costly and inflexible.
Solution
We delivered a cloud-native platform that fully automates the ancillary services auction lifecycle. At its core: a custom optimization algorithm that evaluates all supplier bids and determines the most cost-efficient procurement outcome while strictly adhering to business rules, technical constraints, and market regulations. The platform handles everything from auction configuration through settlement: automated bid evaluation, invoice generation and distribution, stakeholder notifications via email and B2B messaging, and seamless integration with external systems. Complete auditability ensures full traceability of all auction results.
Business Value
The platform delivered immediate, measurable impact. The optimization algorithm achieved cost savings of million euros in a single day through superior bid selection. Auction frequency increased dramatically: from 1 per month to 1 every 4 hours, a 16,700% increase, with hourly auctions planned next. This enables precise real-time response to grid needs and market conditions. End-to-end automation eliminated manual calculation, allowing teams to shift from operational execution to strategic oversight. The solution transformed ancillary services procurement from a manual, low-frequency process into a highly automated, cost-optimized operation that strengthens grid balancing capability while delivering substantial ongoing savings.
