National regulatory authorities (NRAs) have a key role to play in ensuring that each European country meets its targets for energy markets and implements the relevant EU regulatory policy.
Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are responsible for the efficient and reliable transmission of electricity from generation plants via the power grid to regional and local electricity distribution operators. TSOs are responsible to procure ancillary services to guarantee system security, to enact balancing services after markets closure to ensure the security of energy supply at the least cost and they use balancing energy from frequency restoration reserves to ensure supply is equal to demand and to reduce the need for back-up generation.
Distribution System Operators (DSOs) operate, manage, and may own the local and regional energy distribution networks, which transport electricity to end users. DSOs are thus responsible for connecting renewables, as well as enabling flexibility, supporting electrification and empowering consumers to engage in an increasingly decentralized energy landscape.
Power plants are mainly divided into conventional and renewable types and in the last decade the renewable energy sources have increased considerably their share in power system. The power plants can participate on the wholesale and balancing services markets.
In the European Union, the electricity market has been designed to incentivize the clean energy transition while delivering on key objectives of energy security and affordability. Energy trader companies are responsible for trading electricity on the wholesale, retail, balancing mechanism and balancing services markets.
The role of independent aggregators is to enable active participation of small energy consumers and producers in the electricity market while increasing security of supply and making the grid more resilient. They continuously monitor the needs of the electricity grid on one side and the energy consumption and generation of many distributed assets on the other. When the grid is stressed or out of balance, aggregators adjust the consumption or production of those distributed energy assets to help the grid restore balance.
Each IT and OT hardware and software system supplier to the electricity market participants, whose products are part of the important and critical energy infrastructure is responsible for the quality and security of these products and services. The supply chain security is thus of high importance to the security of electricity supply.
