The Energy Data Center (EDC) of OKTE is a new digital platform that opens the Slovak electricity market to a wider range of participants – from flexibility aggregators to energy communities and active customers. It builds on the European 'Winter Package' Clean Energy for All Europeans and brings its principles of decentralization and digitalization into practice. The system was developed in two phases and, after testing, was put into full operation this year.
Flexibility and storage: how the EDC calculates and decides
Flexibility means a controlled change in consumption or supply according to market signals; the aggregator pools these options from multiple consumption and delivery points. EDC splits the measured data between the supplier and the aggregator and evaluates the volume of activated flexibility in 15‑minute intervals. The key is the baseline diagram (baseline), which models behavior without activation and is calculated at both the technology and site level. These calculations serve as inputs for the evaluation of imbalances and balancing energy.
For safe operation, a "traffic light" – an interface with the distribution systems – informs the aggregator of faults and outages so that they do not activate flexibility where it is not possible. The system also supports storage: it recalculates data for tariffs for system operation and system services according to legislative exemptions. It keeps master technical data on batteries in various configurations (standalone, with consumption, with generation, or combined) and also works with data from sub-metering. This ensures correct and transparent settlement.
Electricity sharing and early results
The most visible change for people is electricity sharing in energy communities and via active customers. Participation is simple: the metering point must have interval metering, must not be under mandatory offtake, and can belong to only one sharing group. EDC supports four redistribution methods: dynamic, static, priority, and combined. Thanks to this, groups can set the distribution according to their needs.
Unlike suppliers' commercial products, sharing via the EDC is free of charge, not limited by geographic location, and works across balancing groups and suppliers. The system already records 13 aggregators, 4 aggregation blocks, 104 active sharing groups and 618 points of delivery; 18 storage devices are registered, including 4 pumped-storage hydroelectric plants. The data show growing interest as well as volumes – sharing peaks in the summer months thanks to photovoltaics, and activated flexibility is gradually increasing as well. EDC is thus quietly fulfilling the promise of democratizing energy in practice.
