Romania is beginning to turn electricity demand and previously underused backup infrastructure into tradable flexibility, creating new opportunities for aggregators and virtual power plants across Southeast Europe.
Two developments illustrate the shift. Transmission system operator Transelectrica activated Romania’s first balancing reserve group based entirely on controllable electricity consumption in September, while Huawei Romania, Bamboo Energy and Flexumers are developing a virtual power plant using batteries installed at telecommunications sites.
Although the technologies differ, both initiatives follow the same commercial model: aggregators combine smaller assets into coordinated portfolios and offer their collective flexibility to electricity markets. This could expand the capacity available to balance Romania’s increasingly complex power system without requiring the construction of additional power plants.
Factories start selling flexibility
On September 1, a portfolio aggregated by Flexumers provided 3 MW of upward manually activated frequency restoration reserve (mFRR) by reducing electricity consumption, without relying on generation or storage assets.
For industrial consumers, this represents a new way to participate in electricity markets. Factories traditionally purchase electricity to support production, but demand response allows them to monetise their ability to temporarily reduce or shift consumption when the power system needs flexibility.
Potentially flexible processes include pumps, compressors, refrigeration, heating, ventilation and water treatment. Where operational conditions permit, these loads can be adjusted for limited periods without significantly disrupting production.
An aggregator identifies suitable assets, establishes consumption baselines and combines flexibility from multiple customers into a market-ready portfolio. When Transelectrica requests an activation, the aggregator coordinates the required response across participating facilities, with customers potentially earning revenue for their contribution.
The commercial incentive depends on whether flexibility payments exceed the operational costs associated with adjusting electricity consumption.
Regulation creates a new industrial service
Romania is also developing the regulatory framework needed to support this business model. Energy regulator ANRE approved rules in August allowing eligible consumers to provide consumption-flexibility services directly or through suppliers and aggregators, with remotely readable metering supporting measurement and verification.
These arrangements could open access to a substantial pool of flexible assets without requiring conventional investment in new generation. Flexumers has estimated that Romania could have approximately 700 MW of potential aggregation capacity, although the technically available and commercially viable portion remains uncertain.
For industrial companies, the implications extend beyond electricity savings. Steel plants, food processors, cement producers and logistics facilities could become active electricity-market participants without owning power stations. Their ability to adjust consumption becomes a marketable energy service.
Telecom batteries create a different kind of power plant
Romania’s second experiment focuses on infrastructure that already contains energy storage. Telecommunications networks rely on batteries to maintain service during power outages, meaning many installations spend most of their time on standby.
The partnership involving Huawei Romania, Bamboo Energy and Flexumers aims to assess whether some of this battery capacity can also support electricity-market services while preserving its primary backup function.
Bamboo Energy contributes optimisation technology, while Flexumers provides aggregation and market access. The partners plan to test charging and discharging strategies against market conditions and participation in mFRR and aFRR balancing services.
Unlike conventional grid-scale battery projects, this approach starts with equipment that is already installed. The additional value comes from the software, communications and market integration needed to coordinate geographically dispersed batteries as a single virtual power plant.
From backup infrastructure to recurring revenue
The model could create new revenue opportunities for telecommunications operators, which traditionally treat backup batteries as a necessary resilience expense. Aggregation could potentially monetise part of their available capacity without compromising network reliability.
The same principle could extend to data centres, hospitals, logistics facilities, commercial buildings and industrial plants, where batteries, generators and other equipment may offer some flexibility beyond their primary purpose.
The commercial challenge is identifying how much capacity can safely participate, when it is available and which operational restrictions must be respected. These requirements make reliable forecasting and asset management essential to the aggregator’s business.
Romania tests the aggregator model
Romania’s emerging flexibility market has two complementary components: industrial demand response monetises controllable electricity consumption, while virtual power plants coordinate distributed physical assets such as batteries.
Over time, aggregators could combine factories reducing demand, telecom batteries discharging, commercial buildings adjusting heating and cooling, and EV fleets shifting charging schedules. The electricity system would then gain access to a coordinated portfolio instead of dealing with thousands of individual assets.
This approach differs from conventional renewable-energy and storage development. Its principal value lies not necessarily in adding generation capacity, but in coordinating flexibility already distributed across the economy.
Software becomes the commercial engine
The growing aggregation market depends on software capable of forecasting consumption, assessing asset availability, optimising market bids, issuing dispatch instructions and verifying delivered flexibility through metering data.
Aggregators must also manage competing commitments. A telecom battery cannot offer its full capacity across multiple balancing services while simultaneously retaining all the reserve required for emergency backup. Likewise, an industrial facility cannot reliably promise flexibility that conflicts with its production schedule.
Portfolio optimisation and operational reliability therefore become central to the business model, creating opportunities for virtual power plant platforms, automated demand-response systems, industrial energy-management software and flexibility-verification services.
Romania’s developments illustrate how electricity markets are expanding beyond conventional generation and trading. Increasingly, commercial value will depend on who can coordinate the smaller loads and assets already connected to the system and turn their flexibility into a reliable, revenue-generating market product.
