Battery Arbitrage on Short-Term Markets

As simple as the value proposition of battery storage is - store electricity cheaply and release it at a higher price - the implementation of this simple mantra is often complex in practice.
Why? Because there are many variables to consider. How often are we allowed to charge and discharge your battery storage system? Where will the prices for flexibility be on the various short-term markets? How can we guarantee you a minimum price for your flexibility? Our trading strategy for your battery storage system therefore takes individual restrictions into account and attaches great importance to transparency. This way, the following roadmap for your battery storage system is established.

The Roadmap to Higher Revenues from Your Battery


01

Product market fit analysis for the respective battery storage system.

02

We offer a revenue share model with a fixed percentage fee for our trading services. This model can be extended by a floor price or a fixed price via our PPA PowerMatch platform if desired.

03

We provide the yield forecast and benchmarking.

04

We set up and subsequently implement different trading strategies for standalone large-scale storage systems, but also for battery systems combined with PV parks and C&I battery storage. We guarantee compliance with cycle limits. We place your battery storage on the most lucrative markets at all times and you benefit from our price forecasts and trading expertise.

05

We provide a real-time overview of trading, dispatch and the resulting revenue for the battery operator.

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We pay out your proceeds on a monthly basis.

THE STRATEGY

Every battery storage system is unique. And that's how we optimize and trade it!

PUNCH 1

Our algorithm optimizes your battery storage from the day-ahead auction to the intraday auction to continuous intraday trading starting at 6pm on the day before delivery.

PUNCH 2

In the meantime, the optimizer continuously looks for better trading opportunities in primary control reserve (FCR), secondary control reserve (aFRR) and tertiary control reserve (mFRR). Intraday optimization allows us to close positions we have previously opened at a profit if the price structure changes in your favor.

PUNCH 3

We also look at our own renewable portfolio and see if we can use the battery to reduce our balancing energy costs in real time. It all sounds very complicated, but as a trader, our job is quite simple in the end: buy low and sell high.

Why work with us?

We do x-market

The journey of batteries moves from FCR to aFRR to Intraday to Day Ahead. In the next years, the biggest value will be on Intraday, however all these markets need to be combined to maximize revenues. We will pool your asset giving it access to all flex markets.

We are digital & human

Yes, we run your batteries with algorithms and yes that requires a lot of digital expertise and brilliance. However, unforeseen things happen on markets, and we have human traders on a 24/7 shift to optimize your returns and processes.

We are renewable

Our renewable portfolio of wind and solar allows us to use your battery to optimize this portfolio in real-time. This allows us to unleash values of your assets that most market participants cannot.

We battle for you

As traders we see the market as a fun challenge that gives us opportunities to do the best for our clients. We have some of the best tech and traders in the market and we incentivize them to go out and get the most of your asset literally 24/7.

We are experienced

The FLEXPOWER team has the longest trading experience of all German wholesale desks. We have managed Germany‘s largest PV and Biogas portfolio on the Day Ahead, Intraday, and on all ancillary services markets for over 10 years. 

We are visionary

As the first player in the industry, we have created a price floor product on PowerMatch that allows you to stabilize the returns of your asset, whenever you want. The high-low swap allows you to fix the price spreads on the lowest and highest Day Ahead hour to hedge against falling volatility.

Props to the Winner

By 2031, the installed capacity of large-scale battery storage in Europe is expected to increase twentyfold. This is good news for the energy transition and for the stability of the power grid. But it also means that operators of storage systems will increasingly be in competition not only with other flexibility options, but also with each other.

The optimization of your own battery capacity thus becomes the center of attention. FLEXPOWER ensures that you achieve the highest possible revenues on various marketplaces.

Mirko Thoden, Head of Trading at FLEXPOWER

HOW WE ROLL

The Only Important Statistic Is The Final Score

"Arbitrage with battery storage in short-term markets is like playing basketball with springs under your shoes. The game gets faster, but also easier and often ends with a crashing dunk." Mirko Thoden, Power Trader at FLEXPOWER

Frequently Asked Questions on Battery Arbitrage

WHAT IS THE MINIMUM SIZE OF MY BATTERY IN ORDER TO BE OPTIMIZED BY FLEXPOWER ON ELECTRICITY MARKETS?

FlexPower onboards batteries from 500kW.

ON WHICH MARKETS DOES FLEXPOWER USE THE FLEXIBILITY FROM MY BATTERY FOR ARBITRAGE?

FlexPower is able to place your battery on all short-term electricity markets. In particular, this includes: day-ahead spot, intraday auction, intraday continuous, ancillary services: primary control reserve (fcr), secondary control reserve (afrr), and tertiary control reserve (mfrr). We see the greatest potential for flexibility from your battery storage in the spot markets, but "cross-market optimization" can make sense in certain cases.

WILL I STILL BE ABLE TO DETERMINE WHEN THE BATTERY SHOULD BE CHARGED AND DISCHARGED?

Yes, you can give us restrictions on when, how often and under what conditions the battery can be traded by us.

WHAT RISK DO I TAKE IF I LET FLEXPOWER HANDLE THE FLEXIBILITY OF MY BATTERY?

The revenue of a battery is always positive over a month. FlexPower assumes responsibility for managing the battery within all the restrictions you communicate to us. Depending on the arbitrage concept and your preference, we can choose more conservative or more risk-oriented trading strategies.

DOES FLEXPOWER ONLY TRADE THE CAPACITY OF MY BATTERY ON SHORT-TERM MARKETS?

In addition to arbitrage strategies on short-term markets, FlexPower has developed an option you can choose to hedge against falling volatility and thus lower revenues in the long term - Flex-HL. We would be happy to present this PowerMatch option to you in a meeting.

WHAT IS THE REVENUE FROM OPTIMIZING MY BATTERY?

Arbitrage revenues depend on our trading decisions on the one hand, but are also largely dependent on market prices and their volatility in particular. Unfortunately, we cannot influence this. However, you can hedge against falling volatility with our FlexHL product. You can see the current market volatility from our FlexIndex. This models the revenue of an idealized 1 MW / 1 MWh battery on the spot markets and gives you a sense of the revenue potential of your battery.

HOW DOES FLEXPOWER BENEFIT? HOW DO YOU EARN YOUR MONEY?

FlexPower optimizes your battery via a revenue share model. This means that we retain a portion of the revenue received through our optimization. This gives us the optimum incentive to achieve the maximum revenue from your battery. We bill your revenues transparently and you can view our revenue estimate live at any time.