Spanish electricity distributors and OMIE join forces to make the electricity system more flexible

The S2F project (“Soluciones de flexibilidad en redes de distribución”) has been approved by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and will deploy around 30 pilots in different parts of Spain.

Its objective is to optimise the integration of renewable energies, self-consumption, electric vehicles and storage, ensuring a more efficient and sustainable electricity system.

The implementation of flexibility services will accelerate the energy transition and make the electricity distribution grid more efficient.

Madrid. 20/03/2025. The Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITERD) has approved the project ‘Solutions for flexibility in distribution networks (S2F)’, proposed by the national electricity distribution companies. 

The objective of S2F is to test the future implementation of flexibility services in electricity distribution networks as a solution to improve grid efficiency and accelerate the decarbonisation of the economy, identifying possible technical and regulatory solutions as well as best practices for their implementation at national level. 

Through flexibility services, the providers of these services (users, generators or storage equipment, among others) adapt their consumption and generation patterns to the needs of the grid, enabling a more efficient use of electricity infrastructures.

This project is covered by Royal Decree 568/2022, which authorises regulatory demonstration projects to experiment with future regulatory developments in localised pilots, in limited and controlled areas, prior to their definitive approval. This regulatory innovation methodology is known as a sandbox or regulatory test bench. 

We are on the brink of a profound and wide-ranging transformation of the energy system. The rules and the way in which we currently regulate must evolve to facilitate change and ensure that consumers' interests are best protected. The lack of certainty about what the future will be like requires regulation in a context of uncertainty that requires a more flexible approach based on learning over time, and this is what the sandbox approach provides.

Thanks to the fact that Spanish regulation, as in the rest of Europe, includes these schemes, the sandbox offers innovators the opportunity to carry out tests during a specific period and with a limited number of customers, so that the test has explicit learning objectives to check the viability of the model and the regulator can take them into account during the development of future policies.

Collaborative project

The distribution grid operators in Spain, Anell (distributor of the Estabanell group), Distribuidora Eléctrica Bermejales (distributor of Cuerva), E-Distribución (distributor of Endesa), E-Redes and Viesgo (distributors of the EDP group), Electra Conilense, Distribución Eléctrica Crevillent (distributor of the Enercoop Group), Compañía Melillense de Gas y Electricidad S. A. (Gaselec), I-DE Redes Eléctricas Inteligentes (distributor of the Iberdrola group in Spain) and UFD (distributor of the Naturgy group), together with the associations AELĒC, ASEME and CIDE, and the Iberian electricity market operator OMIE (OMI Polo Español) have joined forces to carry out this proposal. In addition, the project has the participation of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas as an academic partner. This broad confluence of agents will make it possible to optimise resources, take advantage of synergies, share best practices and test heterogeneous situations at the national level, establishing a joint response. 

The flexibility services to be implemented are organised in pilot tests called ‘demonstrators’ selected by the different participating distribution companies. Specifically, the proposal includes around 30 demonstrators sufficiently advanced in real situations, which include tests in different geographical locations (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Basque Country, Navarre, Castile and Leon, Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia and Melilla), with different network topologies and different problems to be solved. This diversity of demonstrators will make it possible to analyse the different cases of technical and regulatory barriers to be overcome, as well as to provide certainty and robustness to the proposal of the regulatory developments required for its future implementation at national level

New challenges of the strategic model

The S2F project represents a milestone in the transformation of the Spanish electricity system, consolidating a more flexible and efficient model. In a context where the energy transition requires more dynamic grids, this initiative demonstrates how the electricity sector is adapting to the new challenges of the energy model. Users are taking on a more active role, managing their own demand and/or generation, while distributors are evolving towards a key role in facilitating energy exchanges, accelerating the energy transition.

This initiative is also aligned with the objectives of the European Union. EU Directive 944/2019 and EU Regulation 943/2019 require Member States to develop and implement regulations regarding the use of flexibility services in distribution networks. In addition, the European Commission itself, within the proposal for the reform of the European Electricity Market, presents flexibility as an essential solution to connect generation and demand in the grid in an efficient and faster way, in order to boost the energy transition. Similarly, the PNIEC update document also includes the development of local markets as an action measure.

For more information: mbravo@harmon.es; aseme@aseme.org; comunicacion@cide.net