Benefits of the small-scale production

The customers would participate more in the electricity market in the future, especially when they have energy production of their own. The micro producers would be highly interested in using the new services where they could see their own consumption and production and other data (Lautala 2011, interview). The customers with small-scale production will gain the feeling of being independent when producing part of their elec-tricity by themselves. They are also saving money as they do not have to buy all the electricity from the supplier.

52 DSOs can use the small-scale production to cover the losses of the network and the local consumption. In the Figure 6.1. the small-scale production is presented in more detail. This picture can be compared to the Figure 5.1. In the Figure 6.1. there is a place for an aggregator who collects the small-scale production and sells it to the market. The customer has a smart meter that sends the consumption and production values to the data hub of the DSO. This hub can be maintained by some other market actor too. From the data hub the parties that need the information can get it easily. The supplier and the aggregator fetch the data from there. Customer still has the contract with the supplier as the customer’s production still is not enough to cover all the consumption. The supplier could take care of the aggregator’s role but the aggregator could be some new market

Figure 6.1. Schematic picture of small-scale production with new market actors.

In the future the hub where the DSO’s smart meter provides the data should include just neutral information without anything extra and then all the market actors who need this information should have access to it. This raw data could then be refined and fed back to the customer's display systems so the customer can easily read the data. In SCM the monopoly part of the DSO should be limited so that it is just the basic information

53 the DSO provides that is needed for the market to function. (Richert 2011, interview).

The hub should also include the customer register about the metering point identifica-tion numbers and finding the customer should be easy from it. This kind of service is really needed. (Liiri 2011, interview)

In Germany the services for connecting small-scale production were needed so they had to develop them fast. As in Nordics there has not been such an exponential increase in the small-scale production there has not been many services developed around it yet.

There is a market place for the new service providers and aggregators. Aggregator is a market actor who aggregates or collects the small-scale production and acts in the mar-ket with it handling the trading and the balance settlement issues. There is need for new low-cost solutions for customers to sell electricity to the grid. New metering concepts should be developed and this would be DSO’s responsibility. (Söderbom 2011, inter-view).

At the moment aggregators are not needed as there are so few small-scale producers.

If the number of the producers would increase a lot then there could be a need for some market party to take the aggregation business too or then it could be handled by the sup-plier.

It can be thought that the people do not take up wind production or any renewable production for economical reasons. They are rather fore runners and early adapters who are interested in energy business or saving the environment and have passion for energy issues. Many of them want to gain independency from their electricity company. Still the lack of incentives or any pay when feeding the left-over electricity to the grid gives the impression that the renewable production is under estimated and the administrational process to get the possible incentives or certificates is complicated. (Willerström 2011, interview)

If the small-scale producer does not see the incentives feasible he can try to sell his electricity by himself. At the moment it is quite difficult to find a supplier that is willing to buy small amounts of electricity like this. At the moment suppliers can decline as most of them do if they do not want to buy the production but recently suppliers have started to buy these small proportions too. It can be seen as a marketing opportunity.

They promise that they can buy the small-scale production if the customer makes a deal with them to purchase the electricity from them. This is also good for the imago of the supplier. (Nilsson, P.-O. 2011, interview)

If the small-scale producer decides to use the electricity in the house without selling anything to the other parties he can still save money. The small-scale production affects to the energy related part and the power related part in the tariff. The customer needs less kWh:s and the maximum load decreases. (Nilsson, P.-O. 2011, interview) As many houses have recently started to have cooling devices for the summer it would be good if the small-scale production generated with solar panels for example could be used to cover that load. (Lähdeaho 2011, interview)

The benefits for the environment are the main driver for small-scale production. The electricity can be produced locally when it is not necessary to transport it for long

dis-54 tances. This also decreases the need for imported electricity. When the electricity is pro-duced with renewable energy sources the need for fossil fuelled power plants decreases.

As Germany has managed to turn itself as the promised land for the renewable pro-duction with its incentives that encourage for the renewable propro-duction the manufactur-ing business of renewable energy equipment is also focused in the country. In this way also the society is benefiting from the development of for example solar energy systems as the own market is pulling investments to the country, too. (Myllymäki 2011, inter-view) This effect will increase in the future as Germany recently decided to renounce the nuclear power and replace it mainly with wind power and other renewable energy sources.