(and what I’m changing in 2026)

By Dries Bols, CEO of LIFEPOWR

2025 felt like a turning point, both for LIFEPOWR and for the energy sector as a whole. It was the year in which “flexibility” became the most mentioned buzzword in the industry. New flexible capacities popped up like mushrooms on a damp forest soil. 

It was also the year in which key challenges became painfully visible: congested grids, rising price pressure in energy markets and prosumers eager to participate yet struggling to make sense of complex tariffs. On top of that, new technologies were not always working together as seamless as they should.

From the inside, leading a company like LIFEPOWR in this landscape feels a bit like trying to steer a high-speed train while the tracks are still being built beneath you. You learn fast, or you fall behind.

Here are the three lessons 2025 taught me.

1. Flexibility = the new currency 

If 2025 made one trend undeniable, it’s that flexibility was absolutely booming. With loads of new volume entering the markets, flex is becoming the new currency in energy markets. 

With all this new flexible capacity coming online, market volatility is decreasing and ‘flex prices’ are coming down. This marks a turning point after years in which fast growth of variable renewables caused extreme price swings and exceptional opportunities.

LIFEPOWR managed to scale up on this wave, with newly deployed volume that quadrupled compared to last year. But we are not alone, the competition is growing, putting pressure on valorisation. 

Lesson learned:  In today’s highly liquid market, capturing volume with competitive prices matters more than ever. That’s exactly why LIFEPOWR’s work is so important. By continuously improving FlexiO’s optimisation and value stacking, we make sure prosumers and businesses can keep saving money and supporting the grid. Not just today, but for the long term.

What changes in 2026:

While in 2024 scarce flex was royally rewarded, 2025 was the year we showed that ‘The Power of Many’ was not just a slogan, but a measurable force in the market. This is a great evolution. Nonetheless, it is making our mission more challenging: empowering every user to earn, save, and contribute through their flexibility effortlessly will require us to continuously evolve, adapt and drive energy innovation in 2026!

2. Simplicity is key 

2025 also confirmed a vision we truly believe in: complexity is the enemy of adoption.

Technology should empower, not overwhelm people. We are designing for the 99%, not the 1%. As energy flexibility is no longer niche, it’s becoming the norm.

The past months, we saw users overwhelmed by tariffs, settings, and dashboards. Even the smartest algorithms only matter if people trust them. And trust comes from clarity. We learned that the hard way.

The market is full of powerful hardware and brilliant software that never reaches its potential. Simply because it confuses the user. Complexity doesn’t showcase innovation; it quietly kills adoption.

Lesson learned: If people don’t understand it, they won’t use it. No matter how advanced it is. But also: people are hungry and willing to learn. If they don’t find the right information easily, questions or misalignments will burden support channels. 

What changes in 2026:

In 2026, we are introducing clearer and simpler value reporting, built around concepts users already understand and trust. We are improving onboarding and support journeys so users feel guided from day one, not overwhelmed. And we are replacing technical jargon with clear, human language that makes smart energy easy to grasp. For everyone. 

3. Innovation doesn’t happen overnight

In a fast-changing market, new opportunities appear all the time. Turning those opportunities into real impact at scale requires speed. But moving fast isn’t easy when you’re working with complex technology and delivering services that are critical to the electricity system and its infrastructure.

Adding a crucial new value stream to our virtual POWR plant took nearly a year and a half from idea to launch. What initially seemed like a quick and straightforward extension of our activities turned out to be a much longer journey. Building a scalable, end-to-end solution required multiple development iterations on both the product and business side, while carefully aligning with a wide range of stakeholders along the way.

Lessons learned: There’s a long path from idea to execution, especially in a fast-growing organisation. In 2025, the team grew from 22 to 38 people (+42%!). That didn’t make things easier; introducing another level of challenges in keeping everyone aligned, moving in the right direction with communication paths flowing efficiently. The natural need for more processes and standardisation clearly came at a cost of speed.

What changes in 2026:
To keep delivering real value to our partners and users, we’re working towards a better balance between solid processes and speed to market. Moving fast is essential to stay ahead of the competition, but never at the expense of quality. Our focus is on combining both: agility where it matters, and structure where it adds value.

Turning complexity into scalable flexibility

The energy transition remains a complex multidisciplinary challenge. It’s not only technical, but equally behavioural, economic and regulatory. While the direction is clear, delivering what the market truly needs will take focus, coordination and persistence.

2026 will be the year we expand and fortify the bridges between households and markets, between decentralised assets and the centralised grid. 

My personal commitment is simple: to make sure LIFEPOWR will lead not by adding complexity, but by creating clarity: making flexibility something everyone can contribute to, effortlessly and at scale.

2025 taught us what doesn’t work.

2026 is about scaling what does.

— Dries