Case Study: Maximizing Profitability of BESS by Including Battery Aging into Operating Strategy

Maximizing Profitability of Battery Energy Storage Systems

How VERBUND Increased Profitability of BESS by Incorporating Battery Aging into its Operating Strategy

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Introduction

VERBUND owns and commercially operates battery energy storage systems (BESS) on its own behalf and for third parties. The Austrian utility is currently rapidly increasing its BESS deployment. VERBUND enhances its commercializing efforts and operating strategies using its algo trader, which is one of the best performing algo traders in the German speaking markets.

The market VERBUND is operating in is constantly changing. Traditional use cases such as frequency response are becoming less popular while markets such as energy arbitrage or intraday trading are becoming more profitable. Additionally, it is now possible to commercialize battery energy storage systems in multiple use cases at once. This increases the revenue potential but also the complexity for algo traders.

Traditionally, the best possible approach for choosing a strategy was based on its revenue potential. However, different operating strategies have different impacts on how the battery ages, and a battery that ages faster will result in a less profitable battery energy storage system long term. Therefore, it is now vital that battery degradation is a factor in choosing an operating strategy.

“By optimizing our operating strategy with the TWAICE Battery Analytics Platform, we expect a 2 year longer lifetime of our energy storages. This would result in € 1.6 million more revenue for every 10MWh of Energy Storage!” - Karl Potz, Head of Battery Solutions Center at VERBUND

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