Hamburg, 19.12.2024 - Hamburg-based electricity trading company FlexPower is now supplying CutPower with green electricity via a new, dynamic supply model. As an independent, vertically integrated sustainability investor with a focus on public high-power EV charging infrastructure, CutPower secures access to both the short-term electricity exchange with spot prices for green electricity and to standardised Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
CutPower currently owns over 1000 public and non-public charging points in Germany and Austria. Over 200 charging parks are currently being rolled out or are in operation. The growing number of charging points and the demand for ultra-fast charging services are increasing the importance of a sustainable, affordable and dynamic supply of charging power.
As a first step, FlexPower is taking over the electricity supply for five charging park locations, including the recently opened charging park at Charlottenburg Palace in the centre of Berlin, currently the largest downtown charging hub in Europe. At these locations alone, more than one gigawatt hour of green electricity is to be charged each year, which corresponds to over five million kilometres of car travel. FlexPower buys the green electricity required for this on the spot market of the electricity exchange and passes on the prices realised to CutPower on an hourly basis.
Opening of the charging park in Berlin-Charlottenburg with the lord of the palace, Prussian King Frederick the Great, and Karl Eberhard Hunke, CEO of CUTPOWER AG
To hedge against price fluctuations on the spot market, CutPower also uses FlexPower's PPA platform PowerMatch to conclude longer-term contracts for the supply of electricity. CutPower combines a solar PPA with a PPA that includes a virtual battery with a contractual capacity of 0.9 MW. In this way, the company secures cheap solar power on the one hand and the flexibility it needs via the virtual battery on the other if prices on the spot market diverge. This happens time and again, for example, when there is too little solar and wind power available in the system during a so-called dark doldrums - as was recently the case in Germany in early November and mid-December. In such market situations, the existence of a virtual battery on the consumer side protects against high price volatility.
FlexPower ensures the hourly settlement of the electricity volumes purchased via the Power Purchase Agreements and spot transactions. The designation of tge procured charging power as green electricity and the monthly allocation of guarantees of origin is also carried out by FlexPower in the same way as electricity purchases via PowerMatch and for residual quantities via spot trading. As a supplier, FlexPower also assumes the consumption forecast and the balancing energy risk.
CutPower CEO Karl Eberhard Hunke is delighted: ‘The collaboration with FlexPower enables us to reliably obtain 100% sustainable charging power even at locations with high grid utilisation without burdening the power grid. FlexPower's professionalism and agility are a perfect fit for us. FlexPower's trading expertise and AI-supported systems also help to smooth out peak loads. With access to the spot market, we can organise the green electricity supply economically and predictably, balance out fluctuations and thus ensure maximum price stability for our charging customers. In the future, FlexPower will also intelligently manage CutPower's own battery energy storage systems (BESS) as a full service.’
Opening of Europe's largest downtown EV charging park with Dr Severin Fischer (l) and Karl Eberhard Hunke (r)
Max Amir Dieringer, Managing Director of FlexPower, sees the dynamic supply model as a possible new standard for smaller commercial and industrial customers too: ‘The further development of structured procurement strategies does not think in terms of band load profiles, baseloads or peak loads. These are concepts of a fossil-fuelled world that will not return. Today, a low-cost power supply must be thought of differently: in PV, wind and battery, which are combined with short-term trading of electricity on the spot market. With this approach, FlexPower offers unbureaucratic, standardised and cost-effective access to the new best practice in electricity procurement - even for comparatively small purchase volumes.’