en.Wedoany.com Reported - Following the integration of the three Baltic states into the Continental Europe Synchronous Grid, grid operation rules have changed. Lithuanian power operator Ignitis Gamyba has chosen to deploy a hydropower optimization platform for its two large hydropower plants to meet new frequency standards and balancing obligations. Ignitis Gamyba has signed an agreement with HYDROGRID to introduce the HYDROGRID Insight platform for the Kruonis Hydro Pumped Storage Power Plant (HPSPP) and the Kaunas Hydropower Plant (HPP).
These two plants have a combined installed capacity exceeding 1 GW and play a key role in the balancing and reserve capacity of the Lithuanian grid. The agreement covers all modules of HYDROGRID Insight, including real-time operational optimization, scheduling, market bidding support, and ancillary service management. The platform will provide automatic dispatch functionality for the two plants to optimize operations in the ancillary services and energy markets, and integrate hydrological inflow forecasts with market signals to support short- and medium-term generation planning.
The water management and generation planning tools will support the plants' participation in ancillary services such as Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR), automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR), manual Frequency Restoration Reserve (mFRR), and capacity reserve obligations, in accordance with the requirements of the Synchronous Grid of Continental Europe. The platform integrates with Ignitis Gamyba's existing SCADA and historical databases via an Application Programming Interface (API), enabling real-time data flow while preserving the company's existing operational and IT systems.
The Kruonis Hydro Pumped Storage Power Plant currently has an installed capacity of 900 MW, and a fifth unit under construction will increase total capacity to 1,010 MW. The plant also plans to build an 80 MW/160 MWh battery energy storage system, which will be incorporated into unified asset management in the future. The Kaunas Hydropower Plant, with four run-of-river units and an installed capacity of 100.8 MW, is the largest renewable energy plant in Lithuania.
Giedrius Radvila, Head of Ancillary Services at Ignitis Gamyba AB, stated that the power system operating environment is changing, with stricter balancing requirements and a rapidly evolving generation mix, requiring operators to have greater asset transparency and control capabilities. He believes the HYDROGRID platform provides the operational intelligence and automation needed to adapt to market changes.
The deployment of this platform comes as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania exited the existing BRELL synchronous system (which connected the three countries to Belarus and Russia) on February 8, 2025, and subsequently formally joined the Continental Europe Synchronous Grid. This grid synchronization transition was supported by over €1.2 billion in investment from the EU's Connecting Europe Facility, introducing a new technical framework for power generators in the Baltic region, involving requirements for frequency response and real-time system operation.
The Baltic Balancing Capacity Market has also created new opportunities for hydropower operators, enabling them to dispatch available generation capacity in the Lithuanian and broader Baltic balancing markets. In the ongoing process of digitizing its generating units, Ignitis Gamyba chose to deploy the HYDROGRID platform to support the optimization and market-oriented operation of its hydropower assets.
Janice Goodenough, CEO of HYDROGRID, noted that synchronization with the Continental Europe grid has brought fundamental changes to technical rules—new frequency standards, balancing obligations, and requirements for real-time precision. HYDROGRID Insight provides operators with the automation capabilities to meet these requirements.
