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Rapid changes in the electricity sector are creating new challenges and opportunities for market participants. In the European Union (EU), these changes are underpinned by three trends forming the centerpiece of the EU's energy policy: • Decarbonization drives growing expansion of renewable energy sources (RES) in the electricity grid and markets. • Decentralization is supported by the push for consumer empowerment and the new opportunities on the demand side. • Digitalization enables new solutions to connect and coordinate system elements and stakeholders across supply, demand, and grid levels, as further described in Chapter 3. These trends foster the emergence of aggregators and position them as key enablers that can help unlock value from in front of and behind the energy meter, for example, by pooling consumer loads and small-scale generation or enabling prosumer entry to electricity markets. Yet, so far, their market entry has been a mixed success in the EU countries. The range of value streams that are available to aggregators, consumers and prosumers depends on technical prerequisites, such as availability of smart meters and appropriate communication infrastructure, and also on the market design and the regulatory framework, which create opportunities along with challenges for aggregators. This chapter reviews the current business models of European aggregators and, based on an assessment of their drivers and barriers, describes how these models may evolve. It 105 Behind and Beyond the Meter

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The aggregator has been touted as the key enabler of active engagement of distributed energy resources and promises to contribute to greater economic efficiency in the European balancing markets by providing cheap sources of flexibility. This paper presents an empirical analysis of how aggregators organize themselves in relation to other market participants given the rules of the balancing market and the impact thereof on their participation. We reviewed how market design influences their choices by comparing three countries, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, in the light of the goals set by the EU. Despite the EU policy drive to integrate aggregators, the participation of independent aggregators in the balancing market is so far limited. Relaxing the agreement requirements, allowing pool-based prequalification and standardizing compensation mechanisms unlocks more possible business models for the aggregator and may help create synergies among aggregators, suppliers and balance responsible parties.