New developments in the management of power plants and large-scale storage systems.
This year's E-world energy & water, Europe’s leading trade fair for the energy and water industry, showcased important developments for the sector. This applies particularly to asset-backed portfolio management, i.e., the management of physical assets such as power plants or large-scale storage systems.
The central question here is: How can the flexibility of the power supply—for example, through the use of electricity storage—be designed so that it fulfils two requirements: It should be bankable, so it should be accepted as a reliable source of income. At the same time it should be implementable, i.e. it functions smoothly both in technical and regulatory terms?
In public discussions and personal meetings at the fair three developments emerged:
- Attainment of technological maturity: Important technologies for flexibility and storage have moved past the pilot phase. The question is no longer "Does it work?" but rather "How can we distribute, hedge, control, and scale it across intraday and balancing markets?"
- Growing importance of power grid bottlenecks: Constraints, reliability, and local overloading of the electricity grids are shaping forecasts, optimizations, and risk-related thinking more than ever.
- Acceleration of IT cycles: Expectations for software are rising. Furthermore, AI is finally making individualised solutions possible where standardisation was once the only option.
Regarding "real work," we held intensive, pragmatic discussions with operators of renewable energy sources, municipal utility companies, and trading teams. Here, we also identified three central topics:
- Scaling portfolio management on a solid data basis: Clear responsibilities, strong governance, and platforms capable of withstanding rapid asset growth and faster decision-making cycles are often decisive.
- Modernisation of ETRM and power trading: Solutions that match the complexity of the assets are required. That means moving away from vulnerable legacy or DIY setups toward lean, integrated workflows.
- Market communication as a bottleneck: When deploying PV and batteries, the limiting factor is often not the optimization logic. Rather, it is data pipelines, standardised messaging, and the heterogeneity of distribution system operators. All of this determines how much can be automated in advance.
E-world was an important milestone for us: it provided confirmation for what we are already building in our projects—and delivered new perspectives that will make our offerings even more innovative this year.
