ITI-Eyes enhances VPP platform for mainland DER bidding market expansion
ITI-Eyes held a technical seminar on October 7, 2026, for its 'EmpoGRID.VPP' platform, gathering expert feedback to enhance its capabilities for the anticipated expansion of the Jeju renewable energy bidding market to the mainland. The platform supports power brokers in resource registration, bidding, metering, and settlement, integrating generation, ESS, and demand response.
Our take
Is a VPP platform built for Korea's mainland bidding market a bet on rules that do not exist yet?
Yes: the platform is being readied for a mainland renewable bidding market that has no start date, and for ancillary service revenue that VPPs cannot earn under today's rules, so its value depends on the timing of market reform rather than on the software.
On the mainland, ancillary services are paid to generators on a fuel-cost basis, so a VPP has no route to be paid for providing them; the expert at the seminar framed VPP growth as conditional on real-time and ancillary markets expanding. The mainland extension of the Jeju renewable bidding market is planned but undated. What the platform does today, forecasting, bidding and settlement for brokers, matches what Jeju already requires, so the near-term use is there and in brokerage, not in new revenue streams.
What the source says
- The EmpoGRID.VPP platform's core functions include prediction of generation and power consumption for bidding strategy.
- The platform calculates hourly available capacity.
- It provides hierarchical integrated management for operators, business sites, facilities, and equipment.
- The platform automates performance reconciliation and settlement through linkage with measurement and metering data.
- Professor Ahn Sun-joo Professor Ahn Sun-joo advised that regional grid conditions must be reflected in operating standards for mainland deployment, recommending verification with real-world data before implementation to improve field applicability.
- Dr. Kim Sung-man Dr. Kim Sung-man emphasized that the expansion of real-time and ancillary services markets will broaden the role of VPPs as grid flexibility resources, contingent on stable acquisition of operational data from diverse field facilities.
- ITI-Eyes ITI-Eyes plans to develop a data acquisition linkage module to standardize data collection from field facilities and meters.
- Dr. Noh Jin-ah Dr. Noh Jin-ah stated ITI-Eyes aims to enhance the platform to be immediately operational when the mainland bidding system is implemented and to expand energy business capabilities across renewable energy brokerage and demand response.
For investors — VPP investors: Value brokerage platforms on the resources they already settle today. Treat ancillary service income as zero until a new payment basis is published.
Platform and software buyers: Readiness for the mainland bidding market is worth paying for only once a start date is set; until then, check performance on the Jeju market, where the same functions are in use.
Watch: Power authorities announce the specific timeline or detailed operating rules for the mainland expansion of the renewable energy bidding market.
Weekly digest
What changed in Korea's power market this week — one email, every week.
Email only, used solely to send this digest (delivered via Resend). Unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after 30 days. Free.