NODES

A flexibility market platform operated by NODES AS (organisasjonsnummer 920 321 844), a Norwegian company registered at Strandveien 13, 1366 Lysaker (Bærum). NODES AS is 100% owned by Å Energi AS, the Norwegian DSO group formed by the 2022 merger of Agder Energi and Glitre Energi. NODES is one of two active flexibility market platforms in Sweden — the other being SWITCH, developed and owned by E.ON Energidistribution. (Source - NODES AS Brønnøysundregistrene Entry (2026), Source - NODES AS Aksjonærer (2026))

Overview

NODES is a commercial software-as-a-service platform that provides the market infrastructure (bid management, clearing, settlement support) for local flexibility markets. Unlike SWITCH, which E.ON built and operates in-house, NODES is a separately-incorporated vendor whose platform is licensed to multiple DSOs and TSOs across several countries (see NODES › Geographic reach). NODES AS is 100% owned by Å Energi AS, itself majority/plurality owned by Statkraft (Norway’s state-owned power company, ~32.6% indirect stake) and around 50 Norwegian kommuner and municipal holding companies (Drammen, Kristiansand, Arendal, Lindesnes, Lier, Kongsberg, Vardar AS, and others). None of NODES’ Swedish DSO customers hold any stake in NODES AS or Å Energi. (Source - NODES AS Aksjonærer (2026)) NODES was also a founding partner (alongside Agder Energi, Glitre Energi, and Statnett) in the NorFlex demonstration, and in September 2025 received GridTools — a DSO-side grid decision-support tool — from its parent, Å Energi; see Source - Å Energi Transfers GridTools to NODES (2025) for detail.

Swedish usage

NODES has been used by three Swedish markets:

In sthlmflex, NODES was used as the market tool (bid management, clearing, settlement, and baseline validation) while SWITCH‘s flex tool (DSO operator interface and grid state visualization) was reused from the CoordiNet platform. This demonstrated that the two platforms could be modularly combined. (Source - Ei Flexibility in Distribution Grids (2023))

NODES’s specific sthlmflex functions (Source - sthlmflex säsong 3 (2022-2023)):

• FSP registration and pseudonymization of resources for privacy
• Baseline calculation: NODES provided a standard 5-day rolling average method (same hour across the 5 preceding working days). FSPs could alternatively upload their own baseline or agree an alternative method with the buying DSO
• Delivery validation: compared measured values against baseline using metering data from the buying DSOs
• Settlement payments: mechanics not detailed in the sthlmflex source itself. (A prior version of this bullet cited a comparable ~25-working-day settlement-timing pattern documented for Effekthandel Väst — that specific timing was found unsupported by Effekthandel Väst’s own raw source during a 2026-09-18 audit and has been removed from both pages.)
• Contributed to sthlmflex’s CIM standardization work (alongside E.ON Energidistribution and DNV)

Product design

NODES-based markets in Sweden offer four product types as of the 2026/27 season, and — as of the same season — use the Ei standard names directly on the platform’s own interface rather than platform-specific brand names:

Mapping note (reconciled June 2026): ShortFlex is the energy-activation product — free hourly bids paid only on acceptance, no availability component → LFM-e (≈ SWITCH DO). LongFlex is the period availability product (availability + activation) → LFM-p (≈ SWITCH ST). An earlier reading of the onboarding source mis-mapped ShortFlex to LFM-h (availability); the onboarding document itself (Step 5) and Göteborg Energi’s product page both confirm the energy-only structure. (Source - Effekthandel Väst Produkter och MaxUsage (NODES, 2024), Source - Effekthandel Väst Onboarding Info (2025-26))

The 2026/27 product-name change is explicitly national-standardization work, not a cosmetic rebrand: NODES states the goal is to make products recognizable to FSPs and aggregators operating across multiple Swedish local markets (SWITCH- and NODES-based alike). The change applies only to the graphical platform interface; existing API integrations keep the legacy ShortFlex/LongFlex names, unaffected. (Source - Webinar Effekthandel Väst Säsongsuppstart (2026))

LFM-H is a genuinely new product, not just a rename: a shorter-notice availability product reserved week-to-week rather than over LFM-P’s multi-month contract. Reservation announced D-2 09:00; suppliers respond by 18:30 the same day; activation runs D-1 09:00 through H-2 — closely matching the Ei standard LFM-h definition already documented elsewhere in this wiki. Piloted at Effekthandel Väst by Göteborg Energi in 2025/26; Mölndal Energi plans its first test in 2026/27. (Source - Webinar Effekthandel Väst Säsongsuppstart (2026))

ShortFlex/LFM-E (hourly energy-activation market):

• Minimum bid: 0.1 MW, raised from 0.05 MW ahead of the 2026/27 season, aligning with the national standard (was lower than SWITCH’s 0.1 MWh/h; now the same floor)
• As of 2026/27, matching happens at two fixed auction points rather than continuously: “upphandling 1” resolves D-1 09:00; unmatched bids remain available for continuous “upphandling 2” up to H-2
• Contract length: one hour; market opens 6 days before delivery, closes H-2
• Lead time for first order: 6 days (process requirement for new FSPs; ongoing orders within season have no additional lead time)
• Validation threshold: 75% (must deliver at least 75% of ordered volume)
• Payment: activation only — paid on delivery; no availability fee

LongFlex: seasonal availability (capacity fee plus activation). How the availability price is set is uncertain: this page previously said the lowest asking availability price wins the reservation (a competitive Model B design), but the onboarding source does not state that, and Göteborg Energi’s 2026/27 product page says the DSO sets the price for availability capacity (a DSO-set Model A design). The pricing model is a per-DSO choice on the platform, not fixed by NODES; see Effekthandel Väst › Products. During activation, all contracted and free bids compete on activation price.

MaxUsage™ (Maxanvändning): a NODES-trademarked cap-based product, marketed as a “virtual fuse contract.” The FSP and DSO jointly set a ceiling on consumption during defined peak hours; the FSP is paid for staying below it, with minimal administration. NODES developed it with its DSO partners and FSPs explicitly to widen participation, above all for EV charging (e.g., capping workplace charging in the morning peak). No per-event baseline calculation; instead the value is benchmarked against a historical-consumption reference (e.g., Renova 75 kW cap vs ~300 kW historical at Effekthandel Väst). It worked well at Effekthandel Väst — judged successful in 2023/24 and scaled to the dominant activation product by volume from Dec 2024 — but was discontinued at Kinnekulle Energi because the historical reference drifts as efficiency/behaviour change, and because time-differentiated tariffs deliver the same signal market-wide. (Source - Effekthandel Väst Produkter och MaxUsage (NODES, 2024), Source - Sweco Kartläggning av lokala flexibilitetsmarknader (Ei, 2025))

The API’s data model behind MaxUsage (2026 swagger spec) shows it runs on bilateral e-signature, not automated matching: contracts carry separate signedByBuyer/signedBySeller flags and signature dates, plus a free-text rejection-reason field for a declined tender response. Usage is tracked at multiple granularities at once (daily max/average, contract-period max/average), the cap can be expressed as either a percentage or an absolute power unit, and both the tender and the resulting contract schedule their active periods via an exposed cron expression — the mechanism behind MaxUsage’s characteristic peak-hour-only targeting. (Source - NODES API Swagger Specification (2026))

Congestion area linking

NODES models the grid as congestion areas, each corresponding to an order book. Areas can be linked vertically — sell orders in a local DSO area become visible to buyers at higher levels (regional DSO, TSO), and buy orders from higher SOs flow down to linked local areas. This means a single NODES deployment can serve a stack of DSO and TSO buyers from one shared resource pool, without requiring each SO to run a separate procurement process.

The DSO defines which congestion areas exist and how they are linked, preserving DSO control over what capacity is exposed to adjacent operators. The mechanism is the platform-layer foundation for both the cascade model (forwarding uncleared local bids upward) and potential common market coordination. (Source - NODES FPM Presentation (2026))

The API’s data model behind this (2026 swagger spec): NODES implements a three-tier grid hierarchy — GridArea (a geographic area operated by a DSO/TSO, subdivided into nodes), GridNode (the physical connection point every order and trade attaches to, forming a hierarchy that orders propagate up/down), and GridGroup (a purpose-built logical grouping — e.g. a microgrid or VPP — that explicitly does not need to reflect the physical grid). An order’s ownerSubscriptionTypes field is what the matching engine uses to gate DSO/TSO visibility on LongFlex orders, and an order can explicitly exclude specific nodes (excludeGridNodeIds) from the propagation described above. Whether “congestion area” (the product-facing term above) and “GridArea” (the API term) are formally the same concept isn’t confirmed by the API spec alone. (Source - NODES API Swagger Specification (2026))

MCP traffic light — TSO-DSO coordination

NODES implements TSO-DSO coordination through a Market Communication Platform (MCP), which routes trade approval requests between the flexibility market tool and affected system operators before activation. The 6-step process:

1. DSO/TSO submits a buy order based on available market bids
2. Flexibility Market Tool: order enters pending approval state
3. FMT/MCP delivers a trade approval request to the counterpart SO
4. SO assesses grid impact of the proposed trade
5. Traffic light response:
   • Green — no grid impact; trade approved
   • Yellow — impact possible; trade accepted but conversation initiated; post-acceptance withdrawal is possible under strict rules (rarely invoked)
   • Red — critical negative impact; trade rejected
6. If approved: activation proceeds. If not: negotiation phase

The MCP also supports pre-configured node limits — DSOs and TSOs can buy freely up to a specified limit; above the limit the traffic light flow triggers automatically.

This operationalizes the Network Code on Demand Response‘s temporary limits concept in real time. The Yellow state — an accepted trade that may still be unwound — is a notable design choice: it avoids hard refusal while preserving the ability to abort if grid conditions change after initial assessment. (Source - NODES FPM Presentation (2026))

Trade cancellation and settlement configurability

Two operational mechanics documented only in the 2026 swagger spec, not in any earlier source:

• Trade cancellation: either party to a matched ShortFlex trade can request cancellation; the counterparty must approve or reject it (states: Pending → Active/Rejected), and NODES platform operators can override a pending request by cancelling the trade directly (state: Deleted). The initiator can attach a free-text reason; the counterparty, a response message.
• Settlement resolution is a per-market, per-product configuration, not a platform constant: each market sets its own resolution-in-minutes and calculation/payment-factor rule independently for ShortFlex, LongFlex, and MaxUsage. This matters for comparing settlement granularity across NODES deployments (Effekthandel Väst, Euroflex, and any others) — it isn’t guaranteed to be the same.

(Source - NODES API Swagger Specification (2026))

UK — IntraFlex (2019–2022), and why the platform doesn’t run there today

The API’s EnaAssetPqq/EnaCommonParameters schemas — implementing the ENA (Energy Networks Association) Open Networks Flexibility Service Pre-qualification Standard Template, the UK’s cross-DSO flexibility standardization body — trace back to a real, dated UK deployment: IntraFlex, a Network Innovation Allowance-funded trial launched 14 November 2019 by Western Power Distribution (WPD; the DNO for the Midlands, South West England, and South Wales — since acquired by National Grid and renamed National Grid Electricity Distribution, NGED), using NODES’ ShortFlex market for close-to-real-time products (WPD signalled flexibility needs seven days ahead of use; the specific claim of 30-minute blocks biddable down to 90 minutes ahead of delivery is unconfirmed — see the source page’s data gaps). Phase 1 (reported October 2020) procured >50 MW across 241 trades in a two-month window; Phase 2 (spring 2021) went on to record 1,198 trades and 774 MWh purchased, and IntraFlex went commercial on 14 February 2022 — opening the platform to smaller assets (EV chargers, home batteries) competing on price, with up to 4% cost savings reported from price competition. (Source - NODES IntraFlex UK Trial (WPD-NGED, 2019-2021))

No evidence of NODES operating a live UK market since IntraFlex’s commercial launch. Research on the current (2025–2026) UK DNO flexibility-platform landscape finds the major DNOs whose choices could be traced have all settled on other vendors: UK Power Networks runs Localflex (operated by EPEX SPOT, live since April 2024); NGED (the former WPD, which ran IntraFlex) now integrates Piclo and Electron/ElectronConnect through its Market Gateway; SP Energy Networks and SSEN both run ElectronConnect. UKPN separately ran a NODES demonstration of market setup (December 2021) using their Open Data Portal — but that was explicitly a setup demo, not a live trading market, and is a different thing from UKPN’s actual production platform. No source found describes when or why IntraFlex itself wound down or was replaced after its 2022 go-live.

Reading: the ENA-standard schemas surviving in NODES’s current API are most plausibly legacy from the IntraFlex-era integration, not evidence of an ongoing UK deployment — a credible early entrant that ran a real trial, produced quantified results across two phases, and reached a genuine commercial launch in 2022, but which the traceable UK DNOs appear to have moved on from by 2024–2026. This isn’t airtight (no source states NODES has fully exited the UK, or explains IntraFlex’s own end), but it’s a considerably more grounded picture than the schema alone suggested. (Source - NODES IntraFlex UK Trial (WPD-NGED, 2019-2021))

Role in the Swedish flexibility landscape

The existence of two competing platforms (NODES and SWITCH) has driven product convergence — both platforms have gravitated toward the same three product families through independent iterations. This creates a de facto Swedish market standard even without formal harmonization.

However, NODES and SWITCH are not fully interoperable. An FSP wishing to bid on both E.ON markets (SWITCH) and Effekthandel Väst (NODES) must prequalify separately for each market. Standardization of prequalification processes and APIs — recommended by Sweco (Rec 8) — would partially address this. (Source - Sweco Kartläggning av lokala flexibilitetsmarknader (Ei, 2025))

Geographic reach

NODES AS is a Norwegian company (registered in Lysaker). As of 2025, the platform operates active markets in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, and Canada — making it the only flexibility market platform in the comparison set with deployments across multiple continents. (Source - Flex Value Chain Rodrigues et al (2025)) NODES also ran a real UK trial and commercial launch (IntraFlex, 2019–2022), not included in this active-markets list — see NODES › UK — IntraFlex (2019–2022), and why the platform doesn’t run there today.

In addition to the Swedish deployments (sthlmflex, JämtFlex, Effekthandel Väst), NODES therefore has operational experience in a broader Nordic and European context, as well as North America. NODES supports both DSO and TSO as flexibility requesting parties.

Belgium — Fluvius (Flanders): Fluvius, the DSO operating the low/medium-voltage grid across Flanders, buys flexibility on NODES where connection requests can’t be met without a flexibility mechanism. The winter 2025/26 season opened 1 December 2025 with 65 confirmed flex zones, using the same ShortFlex (activation)/LongFlex/MaxUsage (reservation) product family as the Swedish and Norwegian deployments. (nodesmarket.com, “Fluvius Market”)

Finland — FinFlex: a genuine joint TSO+DSO congestion-management market, not two separate procurements sharing a platform — Fingrid (the Finnish TSO, managing 400 kV national-level congestion) and Helen Sähköverkko (the Helsinki-area DSO, managing 110 kV distribution-level congestion) both buy flexibility capacity and energy through the same NODES marketplace, open to any FSP in Finland (excluding Åland). The market opened 30 April 2025 following Energy Authority approval of its terms and conditions, and by 2026 had been running for close to a year with active FSP participation (e.g. Synergi). This is the clearest NODES example — alongside Essex Powerlines PowerShare below — of a market structurally designed for both grid levels to transact in one venue rather than coordinating two separate ones. (fingrid.fi; nodesmarket.com, “FinFlex”) NODES itself reported first results in July 2026: ~69 MWh of flexibility reserved through signed availability contracts at an average availability price of ~192 EUR/MWh, and 8 MWh activated at ~99 EUR/MWh on average, with no period or buyer split given (Source - Fingrid FinFlex TSO-DSO Congestion Market (web)).

Canada/Ontario — PowerShare: Essex Powerlines (a local DSO in Ontario) operates a NODES-based local flexibility market with simulated coordination with the IESO (Independent Electricity System Operator), funded through the IESO Grid Innovation Fund. The PowerShare design uses sequential T-D coordination: Essex Powerlines informs IESO of qualified orders D-7; at D-1, IESO Capacity LongFlex orders are transferred as RTEM-qualified capacity and made visible to the simulated IESO (Essex Powerlines orders cannot be activated by IESO during this window); both SOs enter a mandatory activation window from −2h. Two LongFlex tiers coexist: IESO Capacity LongFlex (min 0.1 MW, RTEM criteria) and ordinary LongFlex (min 1 kW, pay-as-bid by Essex Powerlines). PowerShare is the clearest NODES example of a local market explicitly designed for joint DSO+TSO activation. (Source - NODES FPM Presentation (2026)) Essex Powerlines announced its local electricity market as “live” and open to FSP applicants (essexpowerlines.ca) — evidence the market itself has moved past pure simulation, though this doesn’t specifically confirm whether the IESO side of the coordination protocol described above has moved from simulated to real activation; that narrower question stays open below.

Norway — Euroflex: NODES operates Euroflex, Norway’s local flexibility market and the commercial successor to the NorFlex demonstration project (~2020–2023; Agder Energi, Glitre Energi, NODES, Statnett — Enova-funded; ~1,394 MWh traded, 4,000+ assets, and the first DSO + Statnett-mFRR integration — see Source - NorFlex Project (NODES, 2019-2023)). Euroflex ran its first unified trading season in winter 2024/25. As of V2025/26 it has 8 nettselskap (DSOs) and ~20 active flexibility providers, with December 2025 traded volume roughly 7× December 2024 and contracts lengthening from a couple of weeks at a time to 1–3 months — a clear maturity signal. Euroflex uses the same LongFlex/ShortFlex/MaxUsage product family as Effekthandel Väst, plus a new overlay product, Armering (“arming”): laid on top of an existing contract, it lets a resource hold availability in both the local market and Statnett’s markets simultaneously without double-activation risk (the DSO notifies ~2 days ahead and the contract is “armed” so capacity is withheld from Statnett that day — paying availability in both markets ~9 days out of 10). Technically, this is the LongflexArming object in NODES’s API — a first-class, system-calculated contract-schedule item (armed energy and price computed per period, referencing the parent contract and tender) rather than an ad hoc manual process. (Source - NODES API Swagger Specification (2026)) Glitre Nett applies a traffic-light model (trafikklysmodellen) to prioritise constrained areas but reports a shortage of available flexibility. The NODES market dashboard shows reserved (LongFlex) volume reaching ~11,500 MWh in 2026 across named DSO markets (Fagne, Glitre Nett Sør/Øst, Lnett, Linja, Tensio, Elvia, BKK), with activated volume (~1,900 MWh) now dominated by MaxUsage — mirroring the Effekthandel Väst pattern. Euroflex means Sweden is no longer the only Nordic country with an operating local flex market. (Source - Euroflex Norwegian LFM (NODES, 2026)) The Euroflex stormøte in Haugesund on 11–12 November 2026 is billed as the project’s last trading season before its closing conference, and its preliminary programme covers a “Euroflex 3” successor track, a move from the existing flexibility register to a national one, and national products and terms for local flexibility (Source - Euroflex Stormote Haugesund Program (2026)).

NODES’ Norwegian Flexibility Day on 22 October 2026 in Oslo has the status and “next phase” of Euroflex on its agenda (Glitre Nett), with Elvia, Tensio and Fagne as DSO speakers (Source - NODES Norwegian Flexibility Day (2026)).

The Norwegian flexibility market ecosystem, while distinct from Sweden’s, has developed in parallel. Sweco notes that Norway is working on a centralized flexibility register (hub-connected) rather than requiring each DSO to build its own FIS — an approach recommended for Sweden to consider in the context of the Network Code on Demand Response‘s Flexibility Information System requirement.

GridTools integration (September 2025)

NODES absorbed GridTools — a modular DSO decision-support tool (grid congestion/voltage forecasting using flexible resources, first released 2016 for the NorFlex project) — from Å Energi (the November 2022 merger of NorFlex co-founders Agder Energi and Glitre Energi; Glitre Nett is the merged network company, already a named Euroflex market above). GridTools was already integrated into the NODES platform and used in the Euroflex and Nextgrid projects prior to the transfer; NODES states the platform “will remain open and interoperable, continuing to support multiple marketplaces, operational technologies, and standalone services for DSOs.”

Å Energi AS owns 100% of NODES AS (Source - NODES AS Aksjonærer (2026)), so this GridTools transfer was between a parent company and its own subsidiary.

Related pages

• SWITCH — the competing platform, developed by E.ON
• Effekthandel Väst — the active Swedish market using NODES
• Flexibility Market — Swedish market landscape
• CoordiNet — NODES was used by sthlmflex, which grew from CoordiNet’s ecosystem
• Network Code on Demand Response — the Flexibility Information System requirement

Data gaps

• Whether Essex Powerlines PowerShare’s IESO side has moved from simulated to real IESO activation specifically (the local market itself is confirmed live — see above; the D-7/D-1/-2h T-D coordination protocol’s IESO-facing status is the narrower open question)
• NODES congestion area linking in Swedish deployments — which markets use it and how DSOs configure area hierarchies; also whether “congestion area” (product term) and “GridArea” (API term) are formally the same concept