VPPs | enspired

the drivers of decarbonization and electrification

the idea of a virtual power plant (VPP) is to connect distributed assets such as batteries, solar parks and wind farms and market them together. the concept of VPPs enables small-scale assets like household batteries to participate in the European power markets by means of aggregation.

this opens new ways of bringing flexibility to the power grid. small assets have become relevant puzzle pieces in the integation of renewables and therefore play a big role in the energy transition.

"grid-scale flexibility will only solve short-term needs – that's why our decarbonized future must be built around a decentralized energy system. virtual power plants allow assets of any type and size to aggregate and scale endlessly for grid support on all levels."

Jürgen Pfalzer

chief growth officer

your competitive advantage powered by enspired

together with our partners – aggregators, suppliers and asset developers – we create a VPP ecosystem to commercially optimize small-scale assets aggregated in a VPP.

by trading aggregated flexibilities on European power spot markets, we generate new revenue streams for the owners of small assets. this supports their business case and makes it profitable. profitability is important to ensure that investments in renewable energy by private households and small market players are sustainable and will continue.

all this allows us to support and drive the energy transition into the B2C sector with our AI-based Trading-as-a-Service offer.

VPP
Q&A

is enspired an aggregator?

while we have the technical capabilities to aggregate positions towards markets, we do not directly connect or aggregate assets.

we optimize the assets of our partners for the market in a separate process. these include virtual assets as well as those aggregated and disaggregated by the customer.

can any asset be aggregated in a VPP?

while technically every asset can be part of a VPP, we mainly observe assets with similar characteristics being managed under one virtual asset.

integrating multiple assets into the same VPP does not say anything about the – expectedly positive – impact on commercial optimization. in terms of dispatchable assets, we mainly see CHPs, batteries and demand-side flexibility as part of VPPs.

what’s the minimum VPP size you are willing to trade?

while we can trade any size, we usually start above 1MW to ensure commercial viability for our customers. as the minimum contract size on power exchanges is 100kW per delivery period, a larger volume increases opportunities and stability of optimisation results.

what is the situation for behind-the-meter assets?

from a purely commercial optimization perspective, behind-the-meter assets can be optimized without additional constraints. nevertheless, the required metering setup, fees and adherence to subsidy schemes can make business cases more complex than front-of-meter assets.

behind-the-meter assets also tend to interact with other assets of the same kind such as batteries, PV generation, EV charging and heat pumps, which makes the calculation of residual flexibility more intricate.