All Articles about BESS

Header Picture of a futuristic battery energy storage system.

Optimizing Battery Storage: Beyond the Spot Market with Ancillary Services

The value proposition of battery storage extends far beyond mere wholesale energy arbitrage. To truly unlock the full economic potential of these assets and maximize their contribution to grid stability, it is crucial to consider their participation in ancillary services markets. We show this multi-market optimization here by way of example focusing on all spot markets (Day-Ahead, Intraday and Intraday Continuous) as well as the ancillary services.

Chart of German day-ahead electricity market showing average price levels and HL spread, illustrating the 2024 decoupling of volatility from overall prices due to renewables and the need for short-term flexibility

The Great Decoupling

Electricity (cross-product) price volatility has historically been closely linked to overall price levels. This trend seems to have ended in 2024 in Germany, as low marginal cost renewables are pushing the overall wholesale price level down, while peakers such as gas and batteries need to finance their investments in relatively few but increasingly expensive production hours

Combined installation of PV (left) and battery storage (center) in Wanneperveen, Netherlands

Trading Launch of Co-Located Battery Storage and PV Plant in Wanneperveen

FlexPower GmbH, PowerField Energy B.V., and Spectral have commenced trading operations for the co-located Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and Photovoltaic (PV) plant in Wanneperveen.

PPA Hedge mit Flexibilität aus Batterie-Struktur gegen Preisvolatilität

How to Purchase Power in the 20s and 30s, Part II: Hedging Price Volatility in Consumption with FlexHL (Battery) Shapes

In this subsequent blog, we extend our discussion from part I and look at how to use Flex HL (battery) shapes to hedge against price volatility.

A new index by FlexPower shows the current and historical value of flexible dispatch resources in energy trading

New Index Calculates Value of Flexibility in the German Electricity Market

The FlexIndex measures on a daily basis the revenues that operators of flexible assets can achieve in Germany’s short-term spot market. The index is based on a reference battery with a storage capacity of one megawatt-hour and a power of one megawatt.

Symbolic image of an old scientist working on complex calculations with a chameleon by his side, representing the science of battery storage revenue modeling in electricity markets.

The Battery Specific Science of Revenue Modelling

Over the last year we became increasingly involved with the “science” of modelling past and future revenues of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and now decided to shed some light on this practice. We believe that customers are being sold a lot of voodoo for science and that the incentives in this industry are not at all well aligned.

Battery storage units on grassland with wind turbines and city skyline in sunlight, symbolizing sustainable energy supply

Cross-Market Energy Arbitrage for Battery Storage – How does it work?

We are often asked how the financial optimization (or: arbitrage) of a battery across the different market places of the spot market works. We show this x-market optimization here by way of example focusing on the day-ahead spot market (hourly auction at 12 noon), intraday quarter-hourly auction (at 3 p.m.) and the so-called intraday continuous market (quarter-hourly products up to five minutes before delivery).