Data centers are among the most energy-intensive facilities in modern infrastructure. Beyond their traditional role of IT service provision, they hold untapped potential to support the energy transition by participating in demand-side flexibility markets.
Within the REEFLEX project, the Bulgarian demonstration site (infrastructure owned by our partner, ABILIX SOFT), showcases how even modest data center facilities can provide valuable demand response (DR) services. The key innovation is the Cross-Sector Flexibility Management System (CFMS), developed by UBITECH, which dynamically evaluates and schedules IT workloads (backups, batch processing, non-critical tasks) to respond to energy market signals.
Coupled with the Balancing Market Optimizer (BMO), developed by UPRC, this framework enables data centers to become active participants in flexibility markets. Three operational scenarios were tested:
- Temporal Load Shifting – rescheduling tasks to low-price periods.
- Load Migration – redistributing workloads between geographically distinct data centers.
- IT Load Consolidation & Throttling – reducing active servers or throttling capacity to provide fast-acting flexibility.
Simulation results at the current phase of the project show measurable financial and technical benefits:
- Energy cost savings by avoiding peak-price hours.
- Revenue from DR participation via flexibility offers accepted by the BMO.
- Grid support through demand-side flexibility without compromising IT performance.
This demonstration proves that even small-scale data center loads can make a difference when coordinated intelligently, contributing to EU goals for active consumer participation in energy markets.
Next steps include refining the system to operate at 15-minute resolution, supporting multi-price offer curves, and updating KPIs to reflect real-world market performance.
The Bulgarian pilot highlights a scalable pathway for data centers across Europe to become active players in the clean energy transition.
Contact Information
For more information about REEFLEX, please contact us at: contact@reeflexhe.eu
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