Dutch business customers will now benefit from a new partnership between Axpo Solutions AG and Energy Pool, a leading smart energy manager, it was announced today. The service offering will optimise customers’ energy consumption by leveraging energy supply and flexibility monetisation expertise while also generating new revenue streams. Flexibility management enables electricity consumers, energy storage and renewables assets owners to increase the value of their assets, foster innovation and play a key role in the transition to sustainable energy.
Energy Pool will provide smart energy management services – including flexibility enablement expertise and flexibility valorisation services on the energy and balancing market – to Axpo in the Netherlands, and act as a balancing service provider (BSP). The optimisation offering primarily benefits large business customers and energy-intensive industries with demand response capacities or energy storage and onsite generation assets. Under the agreement signed today, Axpo and Energy Pool will address Axpo’s existing clients and aim to attract new business customers.
Michiel Rutgers, Branch Manager Netherlands for Axpo Solutions AG, said: “We are very pleased with this new partnership. Coupling energy supply and flexibility monetisation allows us to build an innovative and competitive offering while contributing to grid stability and renewables development.”
As power supplier, Axpo already offers a wide range of services to its Dutch business customers, from energy price risk management to corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs). Through flexibility monetisation, clients will be incentivised to adjust their consumption to make the most of market opportunities and to relieve tensions on the grid, responding to signals from the Netherlands national electricity transmission operator, TenneT.
As smart energy manager of complex systems, Energy Pool’s expertise covers the full value chain of flexibility, from identification to market valorisation, including energy-intensive process optimisation and project financing. Energy Pool has been present in the Dutch market since 2018 and has a significant track record in monetising demand response capacity. This includes flexibility for production processes such as electrolysis and arc furnaces, and other distributed resources, from combined heat and power (CHP) and back-up generators, to batteries and electric vehicles (EVs), especially in France and the United Kingdom.
Demand response is an effective and sustainable solution in supporting the Netherlands to achieve its climate goals, especially the ban on coal-fired power plants as of 2030. A recent analysis from TenneT reported a global demand response capacity in the range of 700 to 2,000 MW.
Emmanuel Cantegrel, Senior VP Business and International at Energy Pool, said: “The agreement with Axpo in the Netherlands is a new milestone in our European development. We look forward to working with their team and its industrial clients, convinced that our services will help them become more resilient to energy market volatility and able to seize new opportunities in this growing decentralised energy system.”
Axpo Solutions and Energy Pool have already worked together to support Aldel, a large Netherlands-based aluminium producer, in successfully realising the first phase of its green plan, stabilising the grid through flexibility valorisation. Operations started in July 2020 on reserves (manual frequency restoration reserves, directly activated - mFRRda), with daily auctions.
About Axpo:
Axpo is Switzerland’s largest producer of renewable energy and an international leader in energy trading and the marketing of solar and wind power. 5,000 employees combine experience and expertise with a passion for innovation. Axpo develops innovative energy solutions for its customers based on state-of-the-art technologies in 40 countries in Europe, North America and Asia.
About Energy Pool:
Energy Pool is the smart energy manager allowing for global optimisation of energy flexibilities and complex systems (pool of demand response capacity, energy storage and onsite generation assets). Energy Pool manages a portfolio of 6 GW of flexible load and distributed generation worldwide. Through our unique software platform, we connect, aggregate and optimise assets to deliver balancing and ancillary services. Backed by a 10-year experience, we provide Utilities and System Operators with proven expertise and technology (DERMS, Virtual Power Plant) for their own operations.
Corporate Communications