Stödtjänster på Elmarknaden Energiforsk (2024)

“Stödtjänster på elmarknaden – i dag och i framtiden” (Ancillary services in the electricity market — today and in the future). A concise introductory report on the Swedish ancillary service markets: what they are, why they are needed, how they work, and how the energy transition will change them. Useful primarily for market size data and the chronological overview of product development.

Author affiliation: Bodiz Consulting AB (same author as Source - SOU 2025-47 Elmarknadsutredningen (2025))

ISBN: 978-91-89919-00-6

Programme manager: Stefan Montin (Energiforsk)

Summary

A high-level introduction to Swedish ancillary services, written for an audience of policymakers, industry actors, and new entrants who need a grounding in the products, their purpose, and market structure. Not a primary regulatory source. Most useful for:

• Historical market size data (net costs)
• Product chronology (FCR-D ned introduction, mFRR capacity market, aFRR activation market)
• Reserve requirements table (~2023 data)
• Narrative framing of BSP/BRP split rationale

Key findings

Market size — the most important data point

Svk’s net ancillary service costs grew dramatically:

• 2020: ca 1.6 billion SEK
• 2021: 3.8 billion SEK
• 2022: 6.5 billion SEK (from the report’s foreword: “från 500 miljoner kronor för några år sedan till över 6 miljarder kronor år 2022”)

The foreword uses the round figure of “500 million SEK a few years ago” — consistent with a baseline in the mid-to-late 2010s. The primary driver was FCR and FRR cost increases, amplified by the spike in wholesale electricity prices in 2022 (stödtjänst prices track spot prices).

Reserve requirements (c. 2023 data)

Note: the FCR-D ned and mFRR figures above carry footnote markers (*, **) in the raw annex table whose footnote text is OCR-corrupted in the extraction and could not be recovered — treat both as possibly qualified until the source PDF is re-extracted.

These are the pre-2026 volumes; compare with Source - Svk Behov av Reserver 2026 for current requirements.

Product chronology

• FCR-D ned: introduced 1 January 2022. Rationale (per the raw): growing risk of loss of a large HVDC interconnector cable (the raw does not specify import vs. export for this product specifically — it names both import and export cables as the general FCR-D risk driver).
• mFRR capacity market: introduced October 2023.
• aFRR energy activation market: to be introduced in 2026 (the report was written in early 2024 before the exact date was confirmed).
• BSP/BRP split: announced as coming from 2024 (the report pre-dates the May 2024 paper construction).

Rationale for BSP/BRP split

The report explains the intent: from 2024 the balansansvarig role splits into BSP (leverantör av balanstjänster) and BRP (balansansvarig part), explicitly to open the market to more actors — for example aggregators that today can only operate via a BRP partnership.

Notable new market participants (2023–2024)

Two cases illustrating new FSP types:

• Gränges (aluminum manufacturer): connecting aluminium furnaces to FCR. Furnaces switch off automatically when grid needs it — classic industrial demand response.
• Ellevio Energy Solutions (EES): a “fristående bolag i Elleviokoncernen” (independent company within the Ellevio group) investing in battery parks and trading FCR-D and FFR — the raw does not explain the unbundling/permissibility rationale itself; the “permissible because structurally separated” framing is the wiki’s own added interpretation, not sourced content.

Svensk Kraftreserv AB

Svk’s wholly-owned subsidiary currently owns five gas turbines and operates to own and manage facilities that provide ancillary services for the transmission grid (the raw does not describe them as historically used as a strategic reserve — Effektreserv/strategic power reserve is a separate concept in the source’s own glossary). From 2025, the company’s services are to be market-exposed (sold in the ancillary service markets).

Price dynamics

The report notes that stödtjänst prices correlate with spot market prices: when spot prices are high, the opportunity cost of providing reserves is high, which drives up ancillary service prices. The 2022 spike in net costs was partly attributable to the wider energy price crisis, not only to increased volumes.

Future direction

Key themes for future market development:

• Smaller minimum bid sizes to enable more distributed resources
• Closer-to-real-time trading
• New technology enablement: clearer qualification paths for VRE, demand flexibility, and storage
• Potential inertia/rotational energy compensation mechanism (discussed but not yet decided as of publication)
• EU cooperation via PICASSO (aFRR platform) and MARI (mFRR platform)
• Voltage regulation services (non-frequency ancillary services) not yet market-priced; Svk considering administratively-set compensation

Limitations

• Market data is current to ~2022/2023; the volume tables predate the 2026 reserve requirement changes.
• The BSP/BRP discussion reflects the announced intent, not the actual implementation. As documented in Source - Svk Införande BSP BRP and FlexAbility reports, the May 2024 “paper construction” did not deliver the market access improvements this report anticipated.
• Written as a popular introduction; does not contain primary regulatory citations for the individual product rules.

Related pages

• Balancing Markets — the primary wiki page this source informs
• Svenska kraftnät — the procuring TSO
• Nordic Balancing Model — the broader architectural context
• Aggregation — BSP/BRP rationale and the aggregator access question
• Source - SOU 2025-47 Elmarknadsutredningen (2025) — same author; more detailed legislative treatment of the BSP/BRP question
• Source - Svk Behov av Reserver 2026 — current reserve volumes (supersedes this source’s table)