Elisa Estonia has deployed an AI optimisation solution across its mobile network to convert backup batteries into energy grid participants.
Telecom operators maintain vast networks of battery backup systems at cell sites. Their sole purpose has been to ensure network uptime during power outages. This infrastructure represents a substantial capital investment sitting idle for over 99 percent of its operational life.
Elisa is altering this model by implementing Elisa Industriq’s Gridle software. The platform transforms these distributed batteries from a simple insurance policy into a revenue-generating asset that also strengthens the national electricity grid.
The core of the deployment involves using the existing battery capacity to participate in Estonia’s frequency regulation market (FCR), which is managed by the national transmission system operator, Elering.
Gridle’s AI continuously analyses multiple data streams, including real-time grid frequency, electricity spot prices, and weather forecasts. It then makes autonomous decisions on when to charge or discharge the batteries at individual mobile network sites. This action helps stabilise the grid by balancing supply and demand in real-time.
The primary mission of guaranteeing network availability always takes precedence over grid-balancing activities. The AI ensures each battery maintains a sufficient charge to handle any potential power outage, overriding market participation when network resilience is at risk.
Providing dual benefits
The Gridle solution provides Elisa with a dual benefit. First, it introduces a new revenue stream by selling grid-balancing services to Elering. This allows the operator to monetise an otherwise dormant asset. Second, it enhances the operator’s own energy resilience and cost management.
The system can be programmed to charge batteries during off-peak hours when electricity prices are lowest and even discharge power back to the site during peak hours, a strategy known as “peak shaving.” This reduces operational expenditure by optimising energy consumption across hundreds of distributed sites.
Lasse Nordlund, Vice President of Elisa Industriq, said: “We’ve been optimising energy usage in our own mobile networks for years and Gridle represents an important next step in this journey.
“It’s a win-win situation where we can improve the resilience of our mobile networks, while also helping to accelerate the green transition by supporting the stability of the electricity grid.”
The technical deployment required integrating the Gridle software with the battery management systems already in place at Elisa’s cell sites. This integration allows for granular control over each battery unit. Key operational capabilities enabled by the platform include:
- Automated grid balancing: Real-time response to frequency deviations in the national grid, providing Frequency Containment Reserve for Disturbances (FCR-D).
- Predictive charging: Utilises spot market price forecasts to schedule battery charging for the most cost-effective times.
- Intelligent State of Charge (SoC) management: The AI model calculates the minimum required charge to guarantee network availability based on site criticality and historical outage data, ensuring its primary function as a backup is never compromised.
- Centralised monitoring and control: Provides a unified dashboard for Elisa’s network operations centre to oversee the entire distributed battery network.
A broader model for distributed industrial assets
This initiative by Elisa Estonia serves as a working model for other industries with significant distributed power infrastructure. Sectors such as logistics, data centre management, and large-scale retail could adopt similar strategies.
Any enterprise that maintains a fleet of backup batteries or uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) is effectively sitting on a potential virtual power plant (VPP). The convergence of industrial operations with energy markets is becoming a viable strategy for offsetting costs and improving sustainability credentials.
Andrus Kaarelson, CEO of Elisa Estonia, commented: “The security of supply of our services is our highest priority, and we are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to ensure it. Gridle helps us to manage our battery backup systems even more smartly so that we are always prepared for possible power outages.
“The solution also enables us to support the electricity system, as the batteries in our base stations help to ensure the stability of the grid. This is our way of contributing to society and to the green transition.”
The success of such a system depends heavily on the sophistication of the controlling AI and the reliability of communication links to both the energy market and the assets themselves. The challenge shifts from pure asset maintenance to active asset management.
See also: Scaling 3D physical AI for infrastructure inspections
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