Maximize your solar and battery ROI with ePOWR and rPOWR. Turn negative energy prices into profit by balancing the grid and trading on the imbalance market.

The sun is shining, your solar panels are running at full capacity and energy prices on the exchange are plummeting below zero. Your first instinct? ‘Switch off the inverter, otherwise I’ll have to pay to feed my electricity into the grid!’

A logical thought, but in the modern energy market, this means you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. We look beyond the standard “Day-Ahead” prices reported in the media. We look at the value of flexibility.

The importance of a balanced grid

The electricity grid must remain in constant balance. Everything must stay exactly at 50 Hertz. To maintain this balance, grid operator Elia forecasts every day what will happen the following day:

• how much everyone will consume (based on historical consumption patterns),
• how much renewable energy will be produced (using the weather forecast)
• how much energy needs to be bought or sold to meet total consumption

These are forecasts or estimates that may be right or wrong. Such estimates are rarely perfect. When prices on the exchange are negative, this is usually due to a forecast of a surplus of renewable energy combined with a weekend day when businesses are shut down and households consume less. Because of the negative prices that have been forecast, we often automatically assume that we must stop producing and consume more.

This creates a paradox. If everyone stops producing renewable energy at the same time to avoid those negative prices and starts consuming, an energy shortage could suddenly arise. At that moment, your electricity changes from a ‘surplus’ into a crucial emergency measure to bring the grid back into balance. This is where technical necessity and financial gain converge.

ePOWR: Responding quickly to unexpected fluctuations

Our ePOWR service focuses on the imbalance market. Whilst standard market prices are fixed on a quarter-hourly basis, the imbalance price fluctuates in real time based on the current demand on the grid.

Imagine: the quarter-hourly price is -10 euro cents. The media says: “Stop generating electricity!”. But due to a sudden cloud cover or because everyone suddenly starts charging their cars at the same time, a shortage arises anyway. The grid operator must intervene immediately and raises the imbalance price to +40 euro cents to close the gap. You then pay 10 euro cents to feed your electricity into the grid, but you receive 40 euro cents to keep the grid in balance. So you still make a profit of 30 euro cents.

• With ePOWR, your system detects this immediately.
• You ignore the negative price and continue feeding electricity into the grid.
• You may pay a small amount on one market, but you receive the main reward via the imbalance payment because you are helping to restore balance to the grid.

FlexiO does not act on what feels right or wrong, or on emotions, but on logic and algorithms. It does whatever is most profitable.

The less visible imbalance market can be consulted via Elia. The media only report on the day-ahead market. This often causes confusion. It appears that you are injecting at day-ahead prices, but in reality you are also earning on the invisible imbalance market. ePOWR, nothing is what it seems.

rPOWR: Making your system’s flexibility available

In addition to the fast imbalance market, we have rPOWR, our gateway to the FCR market. Here, you don’t sell electricity, but availability or capacity on your battery. Elia needs to have a portfolio of reserve capacity available every day, simply to intervene when the grid becomes unbalanced. Ultimately, Elia has just one goal: “the lights must stay on”. The portfolio containing this capacity is assembled through a complex bidding market. You can compare this to a 24/7 energy exchange.

FlexiO bids as intelligently as possible in this FCR market. If we win bids, we know exactly the value per reserved kWh of battery capacity.

We weigh this value against your missed savings and any costs (such as feeding into the grid at negative prices). Is this more advantageous for you? Then we’ll use a portion of your battery for this. If the value of FCR is lower, we simply won’t participate.

With rPOWR, your installation or battery is therefore on standby to respond to frequency fluctuations within seconds.

• You receive a fee for your reserved capacity simply because you are on standby.
• If prices are negative, it can even be lucrative to feed into the grid under your ‘reservation contract’. This is because the availability fee and the activation price cover the negative electricity price.

Note: Are you part of our rPOWR service? The capacity of your battery that is reserved for rPOWR the day before can only be used for rPOWR services. So not for yourself, nor for ePOWR. As a result, it may sometimes seem as though your battery isn’t charging to 100% on a sunny day. That makes sense, as Elia has already reserved that ‘empty’ percentage. Think of a guest who books a hotel room but doesn’t turn up due to circumstances. The room remains empty, but you still receive the money for the booking.

The value of flexibility

The days when solar panels were only for your own consumption are over. By using rPOWR and ePOWR, you can turn your system into an active player that helps balance the grid when it’s needed most.

The ‘value of flexibility’ is often many times higher than the price of the electricity itself. So the next time prices dip below zero: don’t panic. Let LIFEPOWR’s algorithms do the work and turn a negative market price into a positive result.