Nordic reserve market transformation enables 15-minute grid balancing for a more stable energy future

The energy markets in the Nordics are undergoing a shift. Driven by the rise of renewable energy, new European regulations, and increasing pressure for automation. Transmission System Operators (TSOs) across the region are overhauling the way grid balancing is done. At the centre of this transformation is the Nordic Balancing Model (NBM), a collaborative effort to modernize reserve markets and harmonize practices across countries. The aim is to transition from national-level processes to a shared Nordic and eventually European model.

For Fortum, one of the region’s most prominent Balancing Service Providers (BSP) and future-oriented energy producers with an extensive hydro asset portfolio in Finland and Sweden, this shift presented a dual challenge. The company needed to manage the transition from hourly to 15-minute market resolutions — a fourfold increase in granularity — as well as an increase in attributes and a new communications channel, while also adapting from human-driven processes to increased automation.

Fortum wanted to develop a pioneering solution for reserve markets with increasing complexity, maintaining access to critical business opportunities, and continuing to play its essential role in ensuring the stability of the Nordic electricity grid.

Futurice brought deep domain understanding to the table from previous collaborations with Fortum — notably in hydro optimization — and other European energy and renewable energy companies. Our multidisciplinary team supported Fortum through each phase of this multi-year transformation, spanning from early strategic evaluations to hands-on DevOps implementation.

We kicked off by mapping the key trading workflows, processes, and systems in each Nordic country. These markets had developed with different rules, tools, and terminology. To align them, we needed to understand how each one worked in practice and how new EU-driven changes would reshape everything from market participation rules to the timing and structure of bids. We analyzed new regulatory documentation from the Nordic TSOs, identifying how updates like the shift to 15-minute time resolution and new market models (e.g., aFRR and mFRR Energy Activation Markets) would affect Fortum’s trading logic. From this, we built a foundation for a new multi-market bidding solution that harmonized practices across countries while being flexible enough to adapt to future European-scale changes.

Increasing transparency, creating clarity, and keeping the interface familiar enough to inspire confidence in use were key design principles from the start. The new markets required more frequent, granular, and attribute-rich bidding, which would be impossible to manage manually without risking errors. We built a system that embeds logic checks, prevents invalid combinations, and guides the trader through bid creation and management, ensuring compliance without slowing them down.

Beyond software, we collaborated with traders and portfolio managers to co-create the tooling, ensuring it aligned with how they think, work, and make decisions. We ran collaborative design sessions, conducted user research, and iterated based on real-world feedback.

As the market transition approached, we shifted focus to change enablement and operational readiness. We led training sessions in both Finland and Sweden, prepared the business for evolving TSO requirements, and ensured continuity throughout the market go-live. During critical transitions — like the June 2024 aFRR rollout and the more complex mFRR changes in 2025 — we provided live support.

Our role didn’t stop at delivery. We took full responsibility for DevOps and ongoing operations, providing 24/7/365 reliability for a mission-critical system. We also collaborated closely with Fortum’s internal IT to ensure everything met security and governance standards.

Our holistic partnership, spanning analysis, design, and long-term operations, enabled us to manage complexity, mitigate risk, and support Fortum in remaining a key player in securing the Nordic grid stability. Grid balancing is a mission-critical operation, and Fortum’s assets are uniquely positioned to provide the flexibility that TSOs need. But the complexity of the new Nordic markets presented a challenge. Without automation, the shift to a 15-minute cadence would have introduced an unsustainable operational burden. With Futurice’s support, Fortum was able to:

• Maintain its position in the evolving Nordic balancing reserve markets.

• Avoid a quadrupling of manual work by embedding smart constraints and rule-checking into the bidding system.

• Navigate new bid attributes and regulatory requirements in a manageable manner.

• Simplify the complexity of reserve bidding, turning opaque rules into intuitive workflows.

• Ensure business continuity during market go-lives, with full readiness and on-site support.

The solution is not just a tool for compliance; it’s a strategic asset. The platform helps Fortum optimize bidding with asset-specific constraints in mind, enabling more effective participation and better decision-making. We didn’t just build software. We worked closely with Fortum in their core business, continuously adapting the solution to meet evolving regulatory, technical, and strategic needs.