Onshore wind farm participates in the balancing energy market

31.07.2025

Source: E & M powernews

An MVV Energie wind farm in North Hesse is now providing secondary control power for the electricity market.

The turbines at the "Siegfriedeiche and Buhlenberg" wind farm in northern Hesse are the "first onshore wind farm" in Germany to provide secondary balancing power (SRL). Wind farm operator MVV Energie has successfully completed the wind farm's prequalification for the balancing energy market, the company announced. And: "The wind farm has been participating in the balancing reserve market since mid-July 2025 and is thus actively contributing to the stability of the German electricity grid."

The wind turbines, which were originally erected as two wind farms, were combined into one unit. The six turbines at the "Siegfriedeiche" wind farm have a total capacity of 16.7 MW, while the three at the "Buhlenberg" wind farm have a capacity of 8.34 MW.

Having successfully completed the pre-qualification process, the wind farm meets the requirements for participation in the SRL market. With SRL, the electricity generator must ramp up or ramp down the feed-in within 30 seconds when called upon by the transmission system operator.

After five minutes at the latest, the operator must provide the full agreed output - at least 5 MW - and maintain it for a period of 15 minutes. They must be able to do this twice within the allocated four-hour period ("double hump test"). The balancing energy is used to compensate for frequency deviations in the electricity grid, i.e. to regulate electricity.

Prequalification is proof of the provider's technical reliability, controllability of the systems and communication. This includes the integration of automated metering systems, a continuous real-time data connection and reliable evidence of the system's control behavior. "These requirements were met in full as part of the prequalification process," says MVV.

A step towards the market integration of renewables

The integration of a wind farm into the SRL is considered an important step in the further development of the electricity market. "We are thus demonstrating that renewable energies can also provide grid security services", says Jan Brübach, Managing Director of MVV Trading GmbH, which markets the balancing power. Up to now, balancing energy has come from offshore wind farms, which have a much higher MW capacity than onshore wind farms.

MVV Trading is already working on the pre-qualification of further wind farms. At the same time, initial preparations are underway to open up photovoltaic plants for the SRL market in the future. Quote: "We see great potential in the marketing of secondary balancing power to further advance the energy turnaround and at the same time contribute to a secure electricity supply."

Author: Stefan Sagmeister