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case study

enspired and Uniper optimize battery storage on the way to net zero

uniper battery storage

The partnership

Uniper is one of Germany’s biggest electricity producers and therefore a well-known name in the industry. As part of their mission to net zero, M5BAT, a battery they co-developed together with RWTH Aachen, became a focus project for modelling cross-market optimization in ancillary services and wholesales. enspired was selected to utilize its trailblazing in-house technology for backtesting historical revenue data to aid the enhancement of Uniper’s capabilities. Furthermore, the partners are currently evaluating the possibility to set up enspired systems in a production environment.

The customer

Düsseldorf-based Uniper is an international energy company with activities in more than 40 countries. With around 7,000 employees, they make an important contribution to security of supply in Europe. Uniper has a broad gas portfolio, with core businesses in power generation across Europe and international energy trading. The company procure gas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), and other energy sources on global markets. Gas storage facilities they own and operate have a capacity of more than 7 billion cubic meters, and Uniper plans for their 22.5 GW of installed power-generating capacity in Europe to be carbon-neutral by 2035. Uniper already ranks among Europe’s largest operators of hydroelectric plants and intends to further expand solar and wind energy productions, which are essential for a more sustainable and autonomous future.

A reliable partner for communities, municipal utilities and industrial enterprises, Uniper supports them on their decarbonization journey with the implementation of innovative lower carbon solutions. As a hydrogen pioneer, the company is active worldwide along the entire hydrogen value chain, conducting projects to make hydrogen a mainstay of the energy supply. Uniper Innovation drives the identification and development of scalable new business models for Uniper, developing and executing business strategies, business models and projects for existing and future businesses. The main focus is not only on assets, but on business models along the entire value chain including commercial activities and digital ventures. Innovation is an overarching function within the enterprise, from the interconnection of business units and external partners to the resource management for the corporation as a whole.

"Uniper and enspired have a shared passion for optimizing complex assets. Innovative storage will play a crucial role on our way to becoming carbon-neutral by 2035. The collaboration with enspired has boosted the go-to-market ambition of our ideas."

Jose Abel Cabezas Jiménez
Head of Innovation at Uniper

The use case

Uniper has a long and successful history of managing a variety of sources for electricity generation. Years ago, they entered the battery storage business with different types of energy storage. As part of Uniper’s carbon-neutral strategy, efficient utilization of storage systems and quantitative analyses of future revenue streams lie at the core of their business. enspired’s unique back testing and simulation platform allows for an accurate and reliable assessment of different system layouts and their impacts on revenue streams. 

The assignment from Uniper Innovation took place in 2022 and entailed such analyses in addition to revenue modeling and simulations of physical executions in real-life environments, one of them being cross-market optimization with parallel trading on wholesale and ancillary service markets. To satisfy the curiosity of both partners, a quantitative analysis is planned to be performed in 2023 to measure the physical impact of varying forms of storage marketing. enspired's CGO Jürgen Pfalzer comments: "If you want to be a key player in battery optimization, you need to understand the impacts different optimization models can have on the physics of a battery. Together with Uniper, we are elevating this ambition to an art form!"

commercial battery optimization

The environmental edge

Historically speaking, battery storages were dimensioned to primarily serve ancillary services, the demand for which does not correlate with the increasing share of renewables, wholesale liquidity and volatility. By integrating additional revenue streams such as wholesales, Uniper’s storage capacity actively contributes to the successful integration of more renewable sources while simultaneously saving emissions. Jose Abel Cabezas Jiménez, Head of Innovation, describes the collaboration as “a shared passion for optimizing complex assets,” detailing the competitive advantage Uniper gained as follows: “Innovative storage will play a crucial role on our way to becoming carbon-neutral by 2035. The collaboration with enspired has boosted the go-to-market ambition of our ideas.

"If you want to be a key player in battery optimization, you need to understand the impacts different optimization models can have on the physics of a battery. Together with Uniper, we are elevating this ambition to an art form!"

Jürgen Pfalzer
Chief Growth Officer at enspired