Virtual Power Plant
ALTEO Group is one of the few companies in Hungary that has a virtual power plant with an installed electrical capacity of nearly 100 MW, typically consisting of natural gas-fired power plants and energy storage facilities.
As of May 2023, we started operating a new virtual power plant, integrating almost exclusively renewables-based power plants.
What does this mean in practice?
A virtual power plant is a technical solution that allows multiple small, stand-alone power plants to enter the electricity and ancillary services market as a single, larger power plant, enabling the use of a highly efficient, flexible, economical energy production technology that fully meets the challenges and demands of our time. The same system management principle can be used for both gas engines and power plants utilizing renewable energy sources, primarily wind and solar power plants.
With its gas engine virtual power plant established at the end of 2013 with an installed capacity of nearly 40 MW, which has since grown to 100 MW, ALTEO Group has played a pioneering role also in this form of energy production. While the system has continued to grow in size, the experience gained in the course of its operation has enabled the company to adopt and put on a sustainable path a more balanced, profit-oriented and customer-focused commercial model carrying lower operational and business risks. As a result of our business activities, based on the pillars set out below, ALTEO Group's virtual power plant earned the Hungarian Cogenerated Energy Association’s "Virtual Power Plant of the Year" award in 2015.
The mission of ALTEO Group is to provide a Virtual Power Plant service with high added value and quality, tailored to the needs of its customers. To this end, it operates and develops a comprehensive system that is able to integrate previously independent market players, thereby significantly increasing the overall efficiency and profitability of all partners involved, as well as those of the system.
ALTEO Group is committed to sustainable and economical energy production. To achieve that it relies mainly on the virtual power plants working with gas engines and renewables – thanks to their flexible and innovative solutions, these offer the Group and its partners an economical business opportunity sustainable in the long term.
Two months after adding more flexibility to its gas engine virtual power plant by commissioning a new electrical boiler in the spring of 2023, ALTEO took another significant step, contributing to more efficiency in the operation of the Hungarian electricity system: through its new aFRR-accredited virtual power plant capable of real-time balancing, it is expanding its balancing reserve market opportunities while providing the domestic electricity system with a substantial amount of additional flexibility. This allows additional renewable-based power plants, mainly solar farms and wind turbines, to join the system without jeopardizing its effectiveness.
In the electricity wholesale market, ALTEO Group has signed long-term and short-term sales contracts with international and domestic partners based on framework agreements. The Company also has the opportunity to buy and sell on Hungarian and international exchanges. Since 2008, the Group's network of contacts, its sales and procurement channels have been expanding on a continuous basis.
With energy in mind.
