For charge point operators (CPOs), staying ahead of the curve is closely tied to efficient energy management. They need to maintain an intricate balance that entails optimizing energy procurement to avoid peak tariffs, utilizing renewable energy when it’s most available and economical, and balancing the load to prevent outages. All these factors contribute significantly to a CPO’s operational costs and service reliability.
At AMPECO, we’re not just aware of this; we actively align with innovative solutions that benefit both businesses and consumers, and our partnership with Nord Pool is a prime example. As CPOs seek to optimize their operations, cut costs, and provide value to their customers by offering attractive charging tariffs, this collaboration at the intersection of energy markets and EV charging unlocks many opportunities.
What is Nord Pool?
Nord Pool is one of Europe’s leading power market operators, facilitating electricity trading. It operates in the Nordic and Baltic regions and Central Western Europe, serving a diverse clientele of approximately 360 companies from 20 countries. Nord Pool’s primary role is to provide a marketplace where electricity producers, consumers, and traders can buy and sell electricity transparently and efficiently. Here are some of its key aspects:
- Nord Pool operates both the day-ahead and intraday electricity markets, allowing market participants to purchase electricity for future delivery or immediate consumption.
- Nord Pool uses a market-clearing price mechanism, where the intersection of supply and demand curves determines the electricity price.
- Nord Pool provides real-time information on electricity prices, market data, and trading activities.
Nord Pool’s range of services
Day-Ahead Market Prices
The Day-Ahead market allows customers to trade energy for the subsequent day. Operating as a closed auction, participants can either sell or purchase energy, and orders are meticulously matched to maximize social welfare while respecting the network constraints set by transmission system operators. The outcome, the established price for each hour of the next day, serves as the baseline for planning the energy landscape for the next 24 hours and highlights the reference prices against which market participants can gauge their strategies.
To empower decision-making, Nord Pool offers access to the following data categories:
- Day-ahead market data: Includes day-ahead prices, buy and sell volumes, capacities, and flow details, enabling market participants to assess current pricing dynamics, trade volumes, and capacity constraints.
- Operating data: Includes energy production, consumption, exchange activities, and hydro reservoir data, offering valuable insights into the overall energy landscape.
- Regulating market data: Includes regulating power data, prices, and volumes, helping participants navigate the intricacies of grid regulation and its impact on energy markets.
Intraday markets
In addition to the day-ahead market, Nord Pool extends its services to the dynamic intraday markets, offering clients a way to trade energy in 14 countries. These intraday markets complement the day-ahead market, facilitating closer-to-real-time energy trading, ensuring a balance between supply and demand, facilitating the real-time adjustments needed to maintain grid stability. With 24/7 availability, Nord Pool’s Intraday markets offer flexibility through various time intervals (15-minute, 30-minute, hourly, and block products) to meet specific trading needs.
Nord Pool offers three types of essential intraday market data:
- Intraday real-time data: Provides real-time access to intraday trades and orders for a specific country or region of choice. This annual subscription ensures traders have up-to-the-minute insights to make swift and well-informed trading decisions.
- Intraday delayed market data: Offers easy access to delayed order and trade data for all countries served by Nord Pool. The data includes 48 hours of trade history and one hour of order history for each subscribed product, with a 15-minute delay.
- Intraday historical data: For those seeking a deeper perspective, Nord Pool offers access to historical order, trade, and operational data spanning specific years. This resource is available exclusively for the Nordics, Baltics, and Poland.
How AMPECO’s integration with Nord Pool benefits CPOs and EV drivers
At AMPECO, we understand the importance of technical solutions that improve user experiences and streamline operations. That’s why we have integrated with Nord Pool to provide CPOs with day-ahead electricity prices. This data empowers CPOs to implement dynamic pricing models for their charging services, such as passing on cost savings to customers during off-peak times or when market prices are low. By doing so, this approach encourages more EV charging during these periods and helps balance demand on the grid.
Smart home charging
With the Nord Pool integration in place, AMPECO’s users gain access to advanced features that optimize their charging experience. This includes the option to optimize charging for the lowest pricing in the smart charging settings of the mobile app as well as the ability to customize charging preferences by setting parameters such as the desired charging time and the amount of kWh required.
Energy time of use tariff
The integration also benefits commercial scenarios, particularly with the Energy Time of Use (ToU) tariff. These electricity rates can be applied to specific charge points, user groups, or partners for certain days or periods. Enabling this functionality optimizes energy costs and allows EV drivers to select from various pricing regions in their country, which is particularly useful in countries like Sweden with multiple electricity pricing regions.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of EV charging, being in sync with dynamic energy markets is a necessity. Nord Pool’s real-time data and market analytics, integrated seamlessly with AMPECO’s platform, empowers charge point operators with the insights and flexibility they need to chart the course for sustainable, cost-effective, and responsive operations. With the tools at hand, CPOs are well-equipped not just to navigate the complexities of today’s energy market but to harness them, offering exceptional value to their customers and stakeholders.
