Kinnekulle Energi

Kinnekulle Energi (legal name: Götene Elförening ek. för.) is a small DSO serving Götene municipality in Västra Götaland (SE3). It operates one of Sweden’s few active local flexibility markets — Kinnekulle Flex (also called Götene Flex) — and is among the smallest DSOs to have launched and sustained a local flex market in Sweden.

Grid situation and market rationale

Götene is an industrial municipality, ~13,000 inhabitants. Major industry: Dafgårds (food manufacturing), Semper, Arla, Nolato (advanced manufacturing), Paroc. The manufacturing sector drives electricity demand. Kinnekulle Energi’s grid connects to Ellevio’s regional network as the upstream supplier.

Subscribed capacity: 54.5 MW (2023)
Projected need: 135 MW (2028) — a 2.5× increase in five years

Rather than building infrastructure to match the projected peak, Kinnekulle Energi launched a flexibility market in 2023–2024 (pilot season) and 2024–2025 (first full season). The market objective is to defer grid reinforcement by managing peak hours through demand reduction. The flex market does not replace eventual grid investment — it buys time while the DSO demonstrates need and secures funding. (Source - Flexsäsongen i Götene 2024-2025 Sweco)

The grid has a single critical constraint: the subscription limit against Ellevio’s regional network (abonnemangsgräns, ~54–60 MW depending on season). The flex market is designed to prevent this limit from being exceeded during peak hours.

Platform and process

No digital platform: Kinnekulle Flex is the only active Swedish flex market not running on SWITCH or NODES. All operations are fully manual:

• Avrop (calling for availability) and activation via email/phone within agreed format and time windows
• Validation: manual in Microsoft Excel at month-end, combining FSP-supplied .csv files with grid database readings
• FSP interest registration: online form on kinnekulleenergi.se, integrated with the DSO’s CRM system via API
• Market data published monthly on kinnekulleenergi.se

Forecast tool: Aiolos software by VITEC; twice-weekly forecast meetings (Monday and Thursday 09:00); automatic email alert when high-load predicted. Improved during 2024–25 season from single summaserie to per-station load and production data.

Consultant: Sweco Sverige AB (Andrea Pettersson, project author) evaluated and documented the first season.

Season 2023–2024 — pilot (proof of concept)

Tested an LFM-e energy activation product at D-2 lead time with one of the providers. Demonstrated feasibility. Identified that activation close to the hour (H-1) would be more precise — motivating the switch to LFM-h for 2024–25.

Season 2024–2025 — first full season

Four FSPs

Total available capacity: up to 5.28 MW/hour, of which ~5 MW (Dafgårds elpanna) has effectively unlimited endurance.

Products and pricing

LFM-h (tillgänglighetsprodukt): DSO calls for available capacity D-7 to D-2 (latest 14:00). FSP confirms by D-2 17:00. Activation issued D-1 07:00 to D-1 15:00 (or up to H-1). Operational hours only (07:00–15:00 per contract). Two-stage process: first prognosis = avrop; second prognosis closer to hour = activation decision.

MaxUsage: FSP holds power below a defined ceiling during high-load hours (weekdays 06–16). Validated by counting hourly measurement values below the threshold. Reference 450 kW, max 350 kW for GKT.

Pricing: Bilateral seasonal contracts. Basis: alternative cost of energy at HVO combustion price plus fair markup.

• Availability payment: ~200–300 SEK/MW/h
• Activation price: ~2,300–2,500 SEK/MW/h (approximately 8–10× the availability fee)
• MaxUsage: ~300–350 SEK/MW/h

Season results — exact figures

LFM-h:

• Avrop on 20 occasions; 151 hours of first-prognosis availability called; 15 of those proceeded to activation
• Activation rate: 15.6% of avropad energy was activated
• Largest single week: W7 (41.08 MWh avropad, 4.84 MWh activated)

MaxUsage (GKT cold storage):

• 859 total measured values during contracted hours (weekdays 06–16)
• 817 below the 350 kW limit (95% delivery), 42 exceeded it
• Validated flex: 81.7 MWh (817 × 100 kWh per validated hour)

Grid situation

The 2024–25 winter was mild. The abonnemangsgräns was not breached. Week 50 (early December) had the smallest margin. The DSO deliberately continued procuring and activating flex throughout the season to build market liquidity — the same approach taken by Effekthandel Väst and E.ON markets where future congestion is anticipated but not yet acute. At year-end the subscription limit rose from ~55 MW to ~60 MW due to a new large industrial connection (not yet drawing power).

Data analysis — capacity potential

Sweco analysed full-year 2024 data (a cold year) to characterise the market’s adequacy:

• Abonnemangsgräns exceeded 17 times in 2024 (leap year)
• Total excess energy: 31.5 MWh; maximum exceedance in a single hour: 5.4 MW
• The 2024–25 market (5.28 MW available) would have handled all but the single worst hour of 2024

Binding constraint: MW available per hour. Endurance and energy are not the limiting factors.

Scenario analysis — how low could the subscription ceiling be set, given flex:

Even the most modest scenario requires 8.9 MW — well above current 5.28 MW. The inverse reading: the DSO can use this analysis to quantify how many new connections can be admitted without raising the subscription ceiling. (Source - Flexsäsongen i Götene 2024-2025 Sweco)

Season 2025–2026

Three providers (MaxUsage removed; GKT and Nolato presumably not contracted for the remaining LFM-h product). Resources now described as: elpannor, kylsystem, batterier, laddinfrastruktur — suggesting the aggregator (Checkwatt battery) and Dafgårds continue plus at least one additional resource.

Key developments

• Process maturity: four-stage data pipeline (avropad / accepterad / aktiverad / validerad), up from two stages in 2024–25
• Improved contracts, processes, and digital follow-up
• Grid situation: W7 February 2026 — the subscription ceiling was reached exactly at 60 MW, the most critical moment in either season. The flex market was operationally essential that week
• W7 2026 flex response: ~65–70 MWh avropad, ~35+ MWh accepterad — the largest single-week response of either season
• MaxUsage ran its final season; removed from 2026–27 onwards

2025–26 price data

• Availability: ~200–300 SEK/MW/h
• Activation: ~2,500–2,600 SEK/MW/h (slightly above 2024–25)
• MaxUsage: ~300 SEK/MW/h

(Source - Kinnekulle Energi Marknadsdata Web 2025-2026)

Strategic decisions going into 2026–2027

From the Sweco report:

1. MaxUsage discontinued — two reasons: (a) energy efficiency improvements between seasons undermine the reference-value baseline (GKT’s baseline level shifted downward between pilot and active seasons, confounding validation); (b) time-differentiated network tariffs mandatory from January 2027 (EIFS 2022:1) will implicitly shift loads away from high-cost hours, making MaxUsage redundant as an explicit instrument
2. Multi-year contracts (5–10 years) — to provide FSP investment certainty and prioritize the local flex market over competing revenue sources (notably Svk FCR, where Dafgårds already participates)
3. Villkorade avtal as backstop — the voluntary market cannot guarantee reserves from year to year; conditional connection agreements should be added as insurance
4. IT procurement — after two manual seasons, Kinnekulle Energi has sufficient operational experience to specify and procure a digital system; deliberately delayed to avoid premature and costly commitments
5. FSP recruitment — the binding constraint for scaling is available MW/hour; more FSPs needed before the market can meaningfully expand

Target for 2026–2027

10–12 MW contracted flex capacity. Representing a ~2–4× increase from the 2024–25 base (5.28 MW). Includes potential additions of ~5 MW automated industrial flex and ~12 MW/24 MWh batteries (from the national dialog presentation May 2026). (Source - Nationell Dialog Flexibilitet Nätkapacitet 12 Maj 2026)

Significance

1. Smallest DSO running a permanent flex market in Sweden — demonstrates that a local flex market does not require large organizational resources or a digital platform; two seasons operated entirely manually
2. No external platform — the only active Swedish LFM not using SWITCH or NODES; bilateral contracts and manual activation show a low-cost entry path
3. Multi-market stacking confirmed — Dafgårds participates in both Svk FCR and Kinnekulle’s local LFM; first documented case in the wiki
4. Operational necessity demonstrated — 2025–26 W7 February breach of the subscription ceiling shows the market is now genuinely needed, not just liquidity-building
5. MaxUsage lifecycle documented — the decision to drop MaxUsage provides a concrete case study of how an implicit demand-side product becomes obsolete when time-differentiated tariffs make the same signal available market-wide at no additional cost

Contact

Albin Frängård, albin.framgard@kinnekulleenergi.se (presented at national dialog, 12 May 2026)

Related pages

• Flexibility Market — Swedish LFM landscape; Götene Flex in the market table
• Villkorade Avtal — recommended backstop for the Kinnekulle market
• Aggregation — CheckWatt named as the battery aggregator FSP
• Baseline Methods — MaxUsage baseline problem (reference value drift from energy efficiency)
• Distribution Network Development Plan — Kinnekulle as a small lokalnät DSO required to submit NUPs
• CheckWatt — battery aggregator that participated as an FSP

Data gaps

• Exact identity of the third provider in 2025–26 (elpanna, kylsystem, batteri, or laddinfrastruktur — one is likely a new entrant)
• Whether Kinnekulle Energi has signed or is planning villkorade avtal with any of the FSPs
• IT system procurement outcome — has a vendor been selected for 2026–27?
• Whether Kinnekulle Energi is within scope of FNA 2026 reporting (as a lokalnät with subscribed capacity growing rapidly from 54 → 135 MW)
• Whether Dafgårds’ participation in both Svk FCR and local LFM has required any formal opt-out or value-stacking agreement