Until now, trading flexibility on the intraday market has been limited to industrial providers such as large power plants. sonnen and ESFORIN are now opening this market to private households in Germany for the first time, thereby unlocking previously untapped potential for the energy transition.
ESSEN/WILDPOLDSRIED, June 22, 2022 – Energy solutions provider sonnen, in collaboration with flexibility specialist ESFORIN, is now utilizing residential customers’ sonnen batteries for intraday electricity trading. To this end, sonnen is making the home storage systems of the sonnenCommunity in Germany—which are networked to form a virtual power plant (sonnenVPP)—available for this purpose. Participation in intraday trading requires the sonnenFlat smart electricity rate plan.
ESFORIN, in turn, uses algorithmic trading to market the available energy from its battery storage systems on the intraday market of the European electricity exchange EPEX Spot SE. This process is fully automated and relies on custom algorithms and artificial intelligence. The marketing of these networked, decentralized home storage systems not only stabilizes the power grid through market-based mechanisms but also enables the integration of additional renewable power generation. In this way, members of the sonnenCommunity make an important additional contribution to the energy transition and to reducing CO2 emissions without the need for additional investments.
In intraday trading, electricity providers can cover their short-term additional demand or sell excess supply. This tool allows for the precise balancing of electricity supply and demand. Until now, this form of trading has been used only by industrial suppliers; sonnen and ESFORIN are now making it available for the first time to members of the sonnenCommunity—that is, private households—as another fundamental innovation for the energy transition.
„We are once again sending a clear signal in support of the digitalization of the energy transition. With the sonnenBatteries networked into a virtual power plant, we can now specifically buy or sell electricity on the energy market and thus shift peaks in generation or consumption in a way that’s optimized for both timing and price,“ says Oliver Koch, CEO of sonnen, adding: „The sonnenBatterie acts as a smart purchasing manager for electricity and ensures that available storage capacity is used efficiently. This helps us continue to offer our customers affordable electricity prices through sonnenFlat.“.
Due to the expansion of renewable energy sources, as well as the growing number of electric cars and heat pumps, electricity generation and consumption are becoming increasingly volatile. As a result, storage systems and smart balancing mechanisms for electricity flexibility play a crucial role in ensuring the stability of the power grids. The market price can provide an important economic incentive for grid-friendly behavior. When there is plenty of electricity from solar or wind power, prices are lower. When these sources are scarce, the price rises and electricity becomes more valuable.
„With the help of our proven flexibility marketing approach, private households connected to the sonnenCommunity can, for the first time ever, respond in real time to current electricity availability, thereby helping to stabilize the power grid and reduce CO2 emissions,“ says Christian Hövelhaus, CEO of ESFORIN, emphasizing: „In this way, households are tapping into previously untapped potential for the energy transition—without sacrificing comfort or requiring additional investments.“
In simple terms, participation in daily electricity trading works like this: If too much wind power is being generated at a given moment, the sonnenBatteries can be charged more extensively with low-cost, low-carbon electricity. The stored electricity is used in the household and therefore does not need to be purchased when prices rise again.
Conversely, when there is too much solar power available, prices are correspondingly low. The surplus solar power generated by sonnenCommunity members is then preferably stored in sonnenBatteries rather than fed into the grid. This way, solar power generation is deferred until times when prices are higher.
Customers with the sonnenFlat electricity plan participate in intraday trading by receiving a free electricity allowance based on the size of their PV system and the capacity of their sonnenBatterie. Because they are part of the sonnenVPP, they receive a share of the profits from the virtual power plant’s revenues—the „VPP Bonus.“ Intraday trading is an additional mechanism that sonnen now uses to offer customers the most favorable terms possible. The cheaper sonnen can procure the electricity that isn’t covered by the sonnenCommunity’s own generation, the better terms sonnenFlat can offer its customers. The same applies when sonnen can generate higher revenue from the electricity that the sonnenCommunity doesn’t need.
To date, sonnen has primarily used its virtual power plant, sonnenVPP, for primary control (FCR). By expanding its virtual power plant for intraday trading, sonnen is now continuing its strategy of utilizing energy storage systems beyond mere self-consumption, thereby generating additional benefits for customers as well as for the energy transition. At the same time, for the first time, residential customers are using the sonnen virtual power plant to strategically deploy their electricity flexibility in the intraday trading market via the ESFORIN marketing platform.
About ESFORIN SE
ESFORIN (Energy Services for Industry) is the leading provider of digital flexibility trading in the energy sector. The company was founded in 2014 by experienced energy entrepreneurs, currently employs over 40 people, and operates a highly sophisticated automated trading infrastructure that serves leading industrial and energy-intensive customers, municipal utilities, renewable power generators, and battery operators. ESFORIN is headquartered in Essen and serves customers in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In 2021, the company executed 3.9 million trades on EPEX Spot and generated revenue of 275 million euros.
About Sonnen
sonnen is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of smart energy storage systems and a pioneer in technologies for a clean, decentralized, and interconnected energy system. As a rapidly growing technology company, sonnen has already received numerous international awards for its innovations. Through the sonnenCommunity, sonnen brings all its customers together into a globally unique energy community. With its virtual power plant, sonnen offers entirely new and highly innovative energy services for grid operators and private households. sonnen’s products are available in numerous countries, and the company maintains its own locations in Germany, Italy, Australia, and the U.S. sonnen is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell and is part of the Renewables and Energy Solutions business unit.
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Press Contact
Theodora Trah | theodora.trah@esforin.com
